Page 34 of From Best Friend to Bride
I stared at her, pulling my glasses off the top of my head and putting them on the coffee table. “Like I said—demands, rules… Whatever they are, they aren’t requests, because you aren’t asking me, you’re telling me.”
“Ahem.” She coughed into her hand. “If we’re getting married, we have to compromise.”
“Me doing as you wish isn’t compromising, Delilah. It’s you getting your own way.”
“Well, they do say, ‘happy wife, happy life.’ It’s for your own good, really.”
“No. I’m not giving in.”
“Fred.”
“No.”
“Freeed.”
“I said no, Deli.”
“Freddieeeee.” She smiled sweetly, slightly raising her shoulders to her ears and giving me her cutest eyelash flutter.
Shit.
I rubbed my hand over my mouth, looking away, and sighed. “What do you want?”
She laughed lightly, dropping her innocent charade. “I want my own room. I want to keep my job.”
“Is that it?”
“No, I’m just trying to be understanding and let you process each of my requests.”
She was really sticking to the request thing, huh?
I propped my elbow on the back of the sofa, rested my head on my fist, and waved my hand for her to continue.
“Even if this isn’t a real marriage, it goes without saying that neither of us can see other people.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What do you take me for?”
“I was just saying,” she said hurriedly. “I’m not saying anything. Just… You know, it’s going to be awkward enough as it is pretending that we’re in love without us risking being caught with anyone else.”
“Mhmm.”
“That said, if either of us meet someone we truly love, we should end our little ruse.”
I blinked at her. “Bold of you to assume my wife would fall in love with anyone other than me.”
“Bold of you to assume I’d ever fall in love with you,” she retorted. “If I was going to do such a thing, I’d like to think that would have happened by now.”
“Never say never. I am terribly charming,” I said, grinning. “I agree to yourrequests, as long as you understand there may be times separate rooms aren’t possible. Since we’ll be married, you’ll need to be my plus one for any events I have to attend, and if we have to travel, we’ll have to share a room.”
She sighed, but that didn’t stop her nodding. “It’s not like I’ve never been your plus one or shared a bed with you before.”
While both of those things were true, this was going to be very different. “Attending as husband and wife is different than attending these things as friends. If it’s a dinner party, we won’t be seated together, and you’ll be treated more harshly as my wife than you would be as my friend.” I paused. “And there’s only so much my—our—friends would be able to do to help you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know how stuffy and stuck up your circles are.” Deli blew out a long breath. “I know all my upper-class manners from when your mum taught me and Amelia together, so I’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m a stranger to your world, is it?”
I tilted my head to the side. She was technically correct. When we were kids, my sister had kicked up a huge fuss when Mum had tried to put her through etiquette lessons, and she’d only consented to them when Deli and Lucy had joined, too.
Deli also shared my friend circle given how close the two of us were, and if I had no partner, she’d attended many events and functions as my plus-one, so she also knew how they went.
