Page 22 of Real Fake Husband

“Yeah. But I need to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“You sure?”

I’m not planning to give anybody a second chance to fuck me over, but there’s nothing worse than having regrets over a dumb, hasty decision that you can’t take back. It’ll haunt you, and I have enough ghosts as it is. My gut tells me to let him go, but I know from personal experience that such decisions have a nasty habit of taking revenge.

“I’m giving him one more shot to make it right, and if he can’t, he’s gone. I bet he thought he could do whatever because we weren’t around, but he’s got another thing coming.”

I have several motorcycle dealerships throughout Cali, and my current project includes expanding into NYC. Theo and I love the East Coast, and it feels good to be back. There’s one thing I know for certain though: I don’t want to manage the new place. Theo’s the right man for the job. He was with me in California, and didn’t object to the change of scenery.

“Hell, yeah, when are we leaving?” were his exact words, if I remember correctly.

There’s no one else I’d trust to run things.

The motorcycle dealership is five times the size of my first dealership. It’s my crowning glory, the dealership I’ve been dreaming of building since opening the first.

I won’t let anything screw my plans up.

The exterior of the dealership is already almost finished. Everything is top tier. Most of the construction is now focused on the inside.

Theo and I do a walk-through, and he shows me around the spaces that are close to being complete. We talk about staffing, and he lets me know that the word is out that we’re hiring and that applications are pouring in already.

“Things are looking pretty great,” Theo says once we’ve taken a seat in the parking lot to watch the progress from afar. “I meant to ask, you never told me what your grandmother left you. Not that I’m being curious or anything, but I know you had to rush back for the reading.”

“Oh. That.” I never mentioned the details of the will to Theo, and I’m not surprised he’s wondering about the specifics.

“Sorry, bro,” he adds. “I know that’s a sore subject.”

“No, it’s not that—” I try to find the right words. “My grandmother had some interesting stipulations to her will.”

“Well, she was eccentric. She always had the weirdest rules. I remember once when we were eating dinner, she was adamant that we keep the salt and pepper together.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, or whenever I was on the phone, she would tell me I was supposed to smile because the person on the other line could tell.”

“Never got that.”

“Me neither. But, yeah, her testament takes the cake.” I grin, shaking my head.

“What do you mean?”

“To get my inheritance, my grandmother wanted me to get and stay married for a month.”

Theo slowly turns his head to look at me with wide eyes. “You’re shitting me!”

“I wish I was.”

“Wait, hang on. Is that even legal? Can she do that?”

“It is, and she did. She lawyered up, and it’s all above board.”

Theo nods with understanding. “Who’s the lucky girl? Wait, I’m assuming she had someone in mind. I doubt she didn’t mean you had to marry some random woman for the month.”

“Of course not. She had someone specific in mind, all right.”

“Who?”

“Josephine Graham.”

Theo immediately knows who I’m talking about. His jaw drops. “The Josie we went to school with? The one your grandmother’s been trying to set you up with for years?”

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