Page 61 of Just My Fake Husband

“River, I got you something.” He starts to speed up as pastures appear on either side of the road.

“What is it?”

He points to a small giftbag on the floorboard, peeking out from under my seat. I grab it and give him a quizzical stare. The bag feels empty.

“What is it?” I repeat.

He laughs. “I’m not telling you. You have to open it.”

I pull the fluffs of tissue paper out of the top. “It’s a…” I’m trying to sort it out. I pull out a thick shape made from paper. Origami?

He groans and pulls over on the shoulder of the road. Reaches over and flips it around. “It got turned upside down in the bag. There. Now can you see it?”

I take the manipulated, four-inch tall, off-white paper shape in my hands again. “Whatever it is, it’s cool.”

“It’s Lunch Lady Liz! See?” He points to one of the ends. “She has a lunch bag hanging out of her mouth.”

“Oh! Right. I see it now.” I stare at it, turning it to its front and back. There is a rudimentary shape of a dog. I can see the long floppy ears. Maybe. Or are those the paws? “Thank you!” I giggle. “It’s very clever. I want to show this to Skye.”

He flourishes with his arms. “Happy Anniversary!”

“Have I been in a coma or something? It’s only been a week, right?”

“Yes.” He nods. “Since we’ll only be married a year, I wanted to commemorate our arrangement every week. And the traditional first anniversary gift is—”

“Paper,” I whisper. “That’s the traditional gift. How long did this take you?” I slide my finger along the softened edges.

“You don’t want to know. I might have had to go buy a whole other pad of paper the other day.” He dips his head and stares out the window.

I don’t want to notice the thrill that goes through me as I realize the effort this took and his boyish excitement. It looksnothing like a dog or horse or anything in the animal kingdom. But he gets an A for effort.

“I’m . . . I’m pretty amazed actually.”

“You like it?” And he’s vulnerable. Sweet.

“I do. I really do. Thank you, Gabriel.” I suddenly feel shy. “I didn’t get you anything.”

He laughs. “I didn’t expect you to. This is just something I wanted to do.”

“I’ll take care of next week’s, okay? Not that I know what the traditional second anniversary gift is.” I could protest. I could say, don’t be ridiculous, why would you be giving me a gift for a fake marriage?

But I don’t. Because my mind starts firing with ideas for next week.

And by the end of the evening, after we cook breakfast for dinner, I’m online, looking up second anniversary gift ideas. Cotton?

Gabriel’s across from me in the chair and when his phone rings, he picks it up. “It’s Milo,” he says to me, before stepping outside.

With it being warm in the house, I’d opened the windows in the living room earlier and now I can hear his voice through the screen.

I’m not trying to eavesdrop, but he’s right there and I have my computer in my lap and, well, when my name comes up in a conversation I can only hear half of, I can’t help it. Call it a freeze response.

“It’s not a big deal,” Gabriel says and then waits as Milo responds.

“River’s fine. She knows it’s not like that.” Gabriel’s voice is frustrated.

After a moment, he says: “I’m sure.” Then, “You were the one who said you’d support me. Are you growing a conscience all of the sudden?”

I hear his footfalls along the patio. “Wait,” he says to Milo. “Did you say something to Sebastian?” A quick sigh. “Good. I need to really play it up on Saturday night, that’s all. I don’t care about Dad. I mean, I care, just . . . it’s hard to explain. Right. Okay. It’s all being handled. Everything’s fine. You’re mistaken. She’s a good actor, too. That’s all there is to it, Lolo. Acting.”

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