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“Oh, and Ava!”
She turned just to find him hold his thumbs up with a wide grin. She laughed and rolled her eyes.Maybe those six months will go by faster than I thought.
Roger lived in a big house in a swanky neighborhood, “Paid for by my own money,” he liked to remind everyone. It was a sealed-off residential area, the kind that required a gate code to get into. After what had happened the night of his grandfather’s fundraiser, Benjamin almost did not call him back. But when Roger called again, followed by a big “I am so terribly sorry for the other night” text, Benjamin did pick up and agreed to meet after work for a drink. Not at a bar. Even if Benjamin couldn’t stand his wife right now, he still was a married man. He had always despised those married men and women who would take off their wedding bands to pretend that they were available or said that they “had marital issues” to get a pass on cheating.
Benjamin jumped up the porch steps and rang the doorbell several times then faced the street, his hands stuck in his pocket as he cursed both the heavy rain and Roger for not opening the door faster.
“Open up,” he muttered and pressed the doorbell again.
“I’m coming! I’m coming already,” Roger yelled from inside the house. The door swung open and Roger’s face lit up when he saw Benjamin.
“You know, call me crazy but I think I could tell it was you at my door from the crazy way you show entitlement, even with a doorbell.”
“Then what took you so long?” Benjamin joked back in an arrogant voice. A distant rumble in the sky made the two aware of the angry skies and heavy rain.
“Am I just going to keep standing out here or are you going to let me in?”
“You’re tracking wet footprints on my carpet,” Roger shut the door. He scoffed and went to Benjamin’s side, holding both shoulders and teased, “but that doesn't matter; pretty sure you’re able to replace a thousand-dollar carpet?”
Benjamin shrugged the hands from his shoulders, glancing at the carpet for just a short moment. “If my wife is having her way, I will end up sleeping on this carpet penniless.”
Roger shrugged and walked over into his kitchen, his robe flapping like a loose cape as he walked. Benjamin followed him with mild amusement. Roger was something else, that was for sure. But he welcomed the light-hearted distraction far away from the nosy crowds of the beautiful and rich filling the fancy Manhattan bars he preferred.
“I’ll have to admit, I’m glad I was stoned when I heard the news. So this shit is for real? Your grandpa made you marry a woman for dough?” Roger said in in usual vulgar tone that Benjamin had grown accustomed to. This was Roger; take it or leave it.
Benjamin’s mind shifted back to Ava and his new marriage, even as he took off his wet coat and sat down at the kitchen island. Roger’s home was simple, yet comfortable. Roger came with drinks—a bottle of rum—twisting the cork and pouring into one of the glasses. He also sighed and sat down beside his friend, leaning back and taking a sip from the glass in his hand, while the empty one just sat on the island in front of him.
“You don’t expect me to pour you a drink now, do you?” Roger smirked.
“You, my friend, are a terrible host.”
Roger shrugged and accepted it, sitting with his legs spread.Thank God he has something underneath that robe.
“For how long you’ve been married now?”
“Twelve long days. Six more months to go.”
“Wow. That’s crazy man. How is it going? Is she cool? Good in bed?” His accent had a slight drawl to it, almost sounded an exaggerated drawl, like a Texan accent. Ben frowned at all of his questions. Strangely enough, the one last one bothered him the most. As much as he disliked Ava, it still didn’t feel right to talk about his wife like she was some chick he had a fling with. But Roger didn’t know any better, so he ignored it... this time.
“It’s pretty strange. We barely talk to one another; yet we have to have horrendous weekly dinners together where neither of us says anything. I’m pretty sure she can’t stand me and I… well, I can’t stand her either.”
“Damn. But after six more months of this you can divorce her?”
Ben took a little sip from his glass.
“Pretty much. If we both stick to the contract. But if one of us breaks it, the other gets everything.”
“Phew…” Roger huffed and pounded the content of his glass. He was quick to pour himself another. “Is she after it all do you think?”
Benjamin let out a sigh. “Hard to say. It’s a lotof money. Who wouldn’t be?”
Roger scratched his chin. “How about setting her up with some other guy? I know a few. There could be cameras and stuff,” he stretched his hands out in the air like some visionary film director. “You could blackmail her with that. It’s foolproof. I should know.”
Benjamin’s smile was back. Roger was ridiculous. “I don’t even want to know why you ‘know’ that. But it won’t work.”
Roger through his hand in surprise. “Won’t work? Dude, that worked with a monk before.”
“Maybe,” Benjamin muttered, “but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her with a guy before. She works at a homeless shelter. Holds herself to standards no-one else can ever reach. Despises injustice.”
