Page 43 of Pretend Girlfriend

“That’s when it hit me! Marriage is for life. That’s a long time. I’m only twenty-six and he’s already making plans for what we’ll do in our fifties! I can’t even meal plan, but he’s planning decades in the future! Is there something wrong with me?”

“Of course not,” Danicka said. “You two complement each other. That’s why you’re a good couple.”

Marisa barely heard her. “I thought we would be able to enjoy being newlyweds for a while. Just the two of us. Now Bradyn is angry because he thought we both wanted kids immediately, and he’s accusing me of changing my mind. But my mind was never made up! He just assumed that was what I wanted! He never even asked me!”

As she wept, I groaned internally. Marisa was an innocent little fawn like Bambi, and I felt like the hunter who had shot her mom. I wasn’t the only one who thought so: Danicka gave me an accusatory glare.

Fuck. I needed to fix this.

“It’s okay to disagree on stuff!” I said reassuringly. “These are major life decisions. It’s totally normal to butt heads about it.”

That didn’t seem to help. She was still bawling.

Think, Joanna.

“On our first date, Landon and I realized we had different opinions about kids,” I said. It was Theo I was thinking about in this example, but they didn’t need to know that. “He’s confident that he wants to start a family someday, and I’m still on the fence about it. We were afraid this would be a long-term problem. But we agreed to compromise. We’ll wait a year, see how we both feel, and then reevaluate our desires again.”

I took Marisa’s hand and squeezed it. “Marriage is all about compromise. Maybe you can live in Portland for a little while, just the two of you. Then you can have kids in a few years, and move back to Chicago then.”

Marisa blew her nose. “How am I supposed to convince him to compromise?”

“Sex!” Caroline exclaimed. Every head turned toward the new Maid of Honor. “Remind him that sex is off the table while you have a newborn. But if you wait to have kids, then you can have lots of sex.”

Seeing an opportunity to lighten the mood, I got out of my chair and covered Danicka’s ears with my hands. “You can remind him of that fact by wearing your best lingerie and doing all the stuff in bed you normally save for a special occasion.”

Danicka pulled my hands away and said, “I wiped that boy’s ass, I can handle a little bedroom talk!” But she said it with a laugh, and her mood seemed much improved.

“See? We just solved your first marriage problem!” I said.

“Marriage sounds easy,” Wanda agreed.

Marisa was laughing now, and we all gave her a group hug. Once she wiped her eyes, she said, “Thanks for helping talk it out. Sorry I’m such a mess.”

“And I’m sorry for opening up those wounds,” I replied.

“I’m glad you did!” she insisted. “I needed to get that out of my system before saying I do tonight. I’m so glad you’re here, Joanna. You already feel like part of the family.”

“Who knows?” Danicka said. “Maybe one day, she’ll make it official.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said with a nervous laugh. “I like Landon, but we’ve only been dating two months.”

“Clark and I had only been dating a month when I knew he was the one,” Danicka said with a smug smile. “Sometimes you just know. And right now I’m getting that same feeling about you.”

“I think we all need another round of mimosas,” Carol announced, and began refilling everyone’s glasses from a pitcher.

Chloe launched into a story about how her boyfriend doesn’t know how to fold laundry. The mood was definitely improved now.

I glanced over at Wanda. She’d been watching me, but quickly looked away while Carol refilled her drink.

I hoped that was enough to make Austin happy.

18

Landon

“Honestly, I feel fine,” Bradyn said while we relaxed in the country club library. “Not even a little nervous.”

“Atta boy,” Teddy said. Everyone else was calling him Theo, but I still thought of him as the same wild Teddy who used to take care of my hungover brother in college. “Have you tried the Whistle Pig yet? It’ll knock your socks off.”

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