Page 36 of The One Night Match
Who wants to be married to a perfect stranger?
We all signed up for the service for different reasons, but I’d hazard a guess that at least 80 percent do so because of pressure within their families.
My plan was to wait out the ninety days, get our families off our backs, and then go our separate ways.
But it seems like my husband actually wants to be married to me, a situation I hadn’t planned for.
Honestly, it never even occurred to me that whomever I married would like me. I know that sounds sad as hell, and it probably is, but I’ve never been anyone’s first choice. So what would have made me think this is how things would play out?
My phone buzzes on the bedside table, and I frown at it like it personally offended me. There’s no one I can think of that I want to hear from right now, especially not my family, but if I ignore them, they’re going to keep calling, and then I’ll have to listen to my mother give me a lecture about what’s the point in having a phone if you’re not going to answer it.
I reach for it and frown when I see Lexi’s name flashing on the screen. Briefly, I wonder how her name and number got in my phone, but then I remember my husband snuck into my bed in the middle of the night.
“Hey,” I say into the phone.
“Girl! I was getting worried that my brother was still doing unspeakable things to you even after all these hours.”
I snort out a laugh and cover my face, immediately horrified that my new friend heard me make such a sound…again, but it only seems to make her laugh. “Not unless you count him making me breakfast and explaining that he actually wants to be married to me.”
“Really?” The doubt in her voice makes my stomach churn uncomfortably.
“Yeah. It’s weird, because I kinda thought he’d be on the same page as me, that this thing is a sham and more for appearances than anything else.”
She’s quiet for a handful of seconds, and I pull my phone away from my ear to make sure she hasn’t hung up on me. “He must like you for real.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I spoke to Cruz last week, and he told me that he regretted signing up for the matchmaking service. He said hedidn’t think he was going to be comfortable with a stranger in his house and that he didn’t think it was going to be worth the hassle. He even said he had every intention of invoking the ninety-day clause when the time came.”
I open my mouth to reply, but snap it shut when nothing comes out.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Yes…no. I’m not really sure,” I reply.
She half laughs. “Look, I don’t want to tell you what to do or how to feel or anything like that, but what I will tell you is that last night, he couldn’t take his eyes off you. He wasn’t giving any kind of indication that he was planning on ending things ever, let alone in three months.”
“He snuck into my bed last night,” I whisper. “Just to sleep,” I rush to confirm. “But when I woke up with him and Mr. Whiskers, he acted like it was the most normal thing in the world.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“He installed locks on his bedroom door so his new wife wouldn’t get the idea to do the same thing.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
A laugh falls from my lips. God, this is such a fucked-up situation. “He said he has no intention of ending our marriage at the end of the three months.”
She scoffs. “Oh, how the tables turn.”
“Yeah,” I murmur. As funny as the situation feels right now, it’s also a big problem for me. I don’t want any part in the Mafia anymore. Everything I’ve done since I left home has been to avoid exactly this, and I had everything riding on the fact that whoever I married would want the out as well.
“As his sister, I probably shouldn’t say this, but you could always make him not want to keep you around.”
“What do you mean?”
