Page 69 of The One I Need
I laugh. “You forget, my wife, you’re stuck with me for sixty days. So, you do get to be married to me.”
She sits back up, tears still coming down her face despite her laughing. “Okay, so this week, we call a lawyer and file for divorce. In the meantime, we’re the same Izzy and Oliver. Two friends who talk every day and laugh about the time they had sex.”
“You mean times. It’s now in the multiples.”
This gets me another laugh. “I thought the wife was always supposed to be right?”
“So now you want to play the wife card?”
“If it means I get my way, then of course I’ll play it.”
“Anything you say. Happy wife, happy life, right?”
She takes one of my pillows and playfully smacks me with it. “You really are ridiculous, you know that?”
“So I’ve been told.”
Chapter24
Oliver
Oliver: Everyone come to my place for dinner tonight. Six. BYOB.
Wes: What’s the occasion?
Oliver: Do I need to have an occasion to invite my best friends in the world over?
Amelia: You don’t, but when you’re inviting me and not just the guys that means something is up.
Simon: Once again, Amelia proves why she is the smartest in the group.
Oliver: Whatever, just everyone come, okay?
Simon: Is it thirty-four? It’s thirty-four, isn’t it? OLIVER PROPOSED AGAIN!
Oliver: It’s not thirty-four.
Shane: I want garlic bread too.
Simon: Shane, focus.
Shane: I am, on food.
Oliver: Of course there will be garlic bread. Any other requests?
Simon: Yes. You owe me $20 because I was convinced you’d come back from Vegas with thirty-four under your belt. I’m kind of disappointed in you.
I don’t even bother respondingto the last text as I start making my signature dish of macaroni and cheese with blackened chicken. It’s the thing I make for every dinner function, and it was the one thing I knew would get my friends over here.
Because I need to tell them. About everything.
Part of me is scared as to how they’re going to react to the news that I came back from Vegas married. The other part of me can’t wait to see their faces, especially Simon’s, when I tell them that thirty-four happened weeks ago, and I never got to thirty-five.
If I had to predict how tonight’s going to go, I’d say they’re going to start as shocked. Then they’re going to think that I’m fucking with them. Then people are going to start screaming—likely Shane and possibly Wes. Then Amelia’s going to calm them down while Simon says something borderline inappropriate. When everyone’s got that out of their system, they’re going to ask me if I’ve lost my mind, especially when I tell them that actually I’m in love with my wife.
Speaking of...it appears she is sending me a text, and I have a feeling I know what it’s about.
Izzy: You’re really telling your friends tonight?
