Page 3 of Terms + Conditions
He downed the whiskey in his glass, letting the words process before finally saying, “Josh, what the actual fuck?”
Nick stared at me across the desk of his home office like I had four heads. The same guilt I had felt over the years raged through me. I hated it—lying to him, to my sister, to everyone…Nick and I had been best friends our whole lives, even before my family moved back to Dad’s hometown of Bridgeport, South Carolina. We were born just shy of two months apart, and despite the distance from Bridgeport to Gainesville, he always felt more like a sibling than a cousin. When we moved, it was the best belated birthday gift a four year old could ask for. We went from a seven-hour drive to ten minutes down the road. “You guys, you seemed so…perfect. So put together. So…in love.”
“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” I swirled the whiskey in my glass.
On the outside, Nick and his wife appear to have a picture-perfect marriage, but don’t be fooled; they’ve had their problems. What started as a simple favor to get Nina’s mother off her back ended up being a can of worms no one ever expected to open. Despite everything that had happened between them (a fake relationship, blackmail, keeping secrets from each other, the death of her father—oh, and don’t forget her mom fucking her ex-boyfriend), they are happy. Genuinely happy and in love. Watching them make it work despite everything…I guess I thought Elizabeth and I could do the same.
It felt good to tell the truth. This was a secret I’d been hiding for a long time, and as time passed, it got harder and harderto keep. Every time I thought we were getting somewhere…something would come along and tear us apart.
“What is it with this group of people and keeping secrets?” Nick scoffed.
“It’s what the Villas are good at.”
“Well, apparently, the Davises aren’t far off.” Nick shook his head and poured more whiskey into his glass and mine, even though I still had half of what he poured before. He mumbled something to himself before draining the glass again.
That was almost two months ago.
Since then, I’ve spent most of my time working. A recent promotion at work has kept me so busy that I wasn’t even going to come today, but my sister threatened to kidnap me if I didn’t show up. Considering who she’s engaged to…I have no doubt Finn would make it happen. I get the distinct feeling they made the same threat to Elizabeth because she looked as annoyed as I felt when she walked in the door behind Nina.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see my family, but this is the last place I want to be. Spending time with my soon-to-be ex-wife on Halloween isn’t exactly the highlight of my day. Not to mention, her birthday is tomorrow, and I’m sure she’s overjoyed to be here with me…
“Can you help Nick move those?” Nina asks, pointing to the oversized letters that spell out BOO and the balloon arch sitting off to the side of the dining room.
The whole place has been decorated top to bottom for the Halloween party my sister is throwing—the first of many in the new condo she and Finn have purchased together. I thought the décor was a little over the top when I walked in, but Michaela wants everything to be perfect. So, when Ophelia asked for a balloon arch and light bulb letters, she got them.
Ophelia is Nina’s four year old niece and her father’s pride and joy. She’s had Nina’s brother, Kai, wrapped around her littlefinger from the day she was born, and it didn’t take long for her to do the same thing to my sister. They had become close even before Nick and Nina got married, which made them officiallymyfamily.
Our families have blended seamlessly, especially after Nick married Nina. I feel bad for Nina; she’s trying to remain neutral in the battle between me and Liz, but I know it’s hard on her. We didn’t think about what would happen if or when we ever decided to end the arrangement. Or at least I didn’t. Our lives had become too intertwined.
“Aye, aye, Captain.” I salute Nina with a small smile. She’s wearing a green neon shirt made to look like Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.
In her arms is a tiny Boo in that cute purple monster costume with the googly eyes on top—you know the one. Inside is Elena Joanna Davis, Nick and Nina’s two-month-old daughter. Just before their second “official” wedding last year, Nina was told there didn’t seem to be much hope of her getting pregnant after none of the medical interventions had worked. Then, she woke up in mid-January sick as a dog and, thinking she had caught the flu, went to the doctor a week later only to find out she was five weeks pregnant. Elena came a few weeks early but is healthy as a horse and the sweetest baby ever. And that kid looks more and more like her mother every day (she has Nick’s eyes, though). Just like Ophelia looks more like Nina’s older brother, Kai, every time I see her. Those Villa genes are strong.
“Where are we moving these?” I ask Nick, who shrugs.
“She said anywhere but here,” he says, throwing back the hood of his Sulley costume. “She told Michaela it was going to be in the way, but Mic said just wait and see. Now here we are…”
“Foyer?” I motion behind us through the doorway that leads out of the living room and into the grand foyer.
“Works for me,” he says, lifting his side of the balloon wall.
The penthouse Finn and Michaela purchased earlier this year is extravagant. The place has two floors, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, four terraces, a library, and an office. It’s just shy of six thousand square feet. How do I know that? Because Michaela told me it’s exactly forty-four square feet less, and it might be the only thing she has that’s bigger than Nina’s. Truthfully, I could see Nina buying a place like this more than my sister, or even Finn, but Nick and Nina settled for a simpler condo on the eighteenth floor of the Plaza.
The foyer overlooks the northwest side of the city with unobstructed views of the Woolworth Building and the One World Trade Center. There isn’t room for the balloon arch near the stairs, but it will fit in the hallway that leads to the front door. There would be plenty of room for the letters by the piano in the sitting area to the right of the staircase. Everything would probably look better underneath the stairs, but I’d rather not try and find a new home for the thirteen-foot-tall Jack Skellington.
“How ya holding up?” Nick asks after we set the backdrop down.
I shrug. “How would you be?”
Being within feet of the person I’ve spent the last six years married to but trying not to make eye contact with or speak to has been much harder than I thought. I hoped we could at least be civil, but I guess not speaking is being civil in its own way.
“Well, my situation would be a bit different,” Nick smirks. “I’m not in anarrangedmarriage.”
There’s a cheer from the terrace down the hall that leads through the kitchen and into the family room. My sister had Finn set up a beer pong table for the child-free adults. It’s classy, I know, but it keeps them entertained.
Michaela pulls the orange wig from her head as she walks out of the kitchen. Then she pulls at the green scarf tied around her neck, loosening it, before straightening out her purple dress—she and Finn dressed as Fred Jones and Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo. “What are we whispering about?” my sister asks. God, she’s the nosiest person alive.
She was the third person I told the truth about my marriage; it was only a matter of time before she found out, considering both Finn and Nick knew. It was better she heard it from me than from one of them.
