Page 68 of From Best Friend to Bride
As for us, we had about fifteen minutes to breathe before we started taking pictures.
I didn’t even want the pictures. It seemed ridiculous to commemorate a day borne of a lie, but I had no say in the matter.
Nana wanted pictures, so pictures there would be.
“Fred!” The second he closed his office door behind us, I smacked his upper arm. “You kissed me!”
He peered down at me. “I had no choice. I know we agreed not to do it directly, but everyone was staring at us, and I panicked.”
“Panicked my arse!” I pulled off my stupid heels and kicked them to the side. “God, I can’t even sit down, or I’ll crease the dress!”
“It’s not satin. It’ll be fine,” he said, adjusting a cushion in the armchair. “Just sit down for a minute.”
Fine.
I’d sit down.
Anyone who saw the back of this dress would just have to deal if it was all smushed up.
Still, I tried to carefully lay the full skirt out beneath me as I sat down and leant back into the armchair. I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down.
“I can’t believe you kissed me.”
He said nothing.
I peeled my eyelids open and stared at him across the room. “Aren’t you going to apologise?”
“Not really. I did what I had to do to keep this little charade going. We already removed all references to love that we could from the vows—if anyone noticed, we needed to show this isn’t fake one way or another.”
I harrumphed. He was technically right, and it wasn’t as if I hadn’t had the same thoughts right as the officiant had pronounced us husband and wife.
People didn’t give off-the-mouth kisses at their wedding.
They shared real ones.
“Well, don’t do it again,” I warned him, shooting him my best dark look. “That’s the only display of affection we’ll share, public or private.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He waved his hand. “Before you go declaring such things, you should be aware that Max and Will have a bet on us being bubbled within three months.”
“Those shitgoblins.” I sat up straight. “How much are they betting?”
“Two hundred. Four hundred that we’ll fall in love within six months.”
I wrinkled up my face. “I know they have too much money, but that’s just wasteful.”
“Yeah, but I’ve got a grand resting on us getting the divorce as planned.”
Of course, he had.
“What about me? Where’s my share?”
Fred’s lips tugged up. “When we win and get divorced, I’ll give you the grand they’ll owe me.”
“Is that a grand from each of them, or…?”
“Total,” he replied. “So, just deal with it, would you?”
Hmm.
