Page 34 of Bride on the Dotted Line

He laughs, too, shoulders relaxing a smidge. “You sure you don’t want any food?”

I play with the diamond on my left hand. I have the urge to stay, to eat and talk with him. There are so many questions I want to ask. That picture in the hall; what restaurant was he working at? Did he love it as much as it looks like he did? And his mom; what was she like? Does he miss her as much as I’d miss mine?

Butunnecessary emotional intimacy.

I close my eyes, forcing myself to remember the twenty unanswered emails on my laptop, the texts from Lena, Mason, and my mom on my phone, and the fact that tomorrow is still a workday. I’m at work right now. I need to be drawing up a plan for the charity gala in two weeks.

“Thanks,” I say, trying to build everything I felt today into one word. “I should go to bed. You were great at the wedding.”

He nods. “You, too. You were …” He hesitates for a moment, hands clenching and unclenching on the edge of the counter, before forging forward. “Amazing.”

My face is burning again. I thank him and turn to go find my room.

Marcella, 9:29PM

Hi, sweetie. Your dad’s friends have booked a trip to visit us in a couple weeks. I know you don’t like them, but he seems happy about it. I hope today went well and that you’re doing good at work. We’ll look for the pictures from the “wedding” online. Xoxo, Mom

Sienna

Hey, the wedding went well. I’ll make our first payment to Dad’s lawyer in the morning.

Good to hear. That Nick seems like a nice young man. We’ll ask him to dinner when everything is over. Sleep well dear. Xoxo, Mom

Chapter 13

Nick

For the first few days, nothing really changes.

When I’m at the gym late, Sienna works later. The fridge gets a little fuller, the living room smells faintly of her vanilla shampoo. We orbit each other, two planets existing in the same square footage but never quite colliding.

I’m starting to worry this isn’t how it’s supposed to feel.

It’s not that I wasn’t prepared for our arrangement. I knew she’d be here, in my space, and that she’d occupy my mind in one way or another. Butthat kissat the wedding. I never expected her to do something like that.Even if it was just for the cameras, it set off a supernova in my head.

Suddenly, thinking about her is exhilarating. Forbidden.

And I’m doing it all the time.

Sienna is my business partner. I’m not supposed to know the taste of her lips, the warmth of her mouth. I’m not supposed to study her when her back is turned, each curve and hill of her body like a rare artwork.

It's worse during the day, when I’m sitting at the office learning how to run Harwood Restaurant Group. The closer I get to CEO, the more the hope that I’d start my own restaurant one day shrinks. The onslaught of politics, margins, expansions, and acquisitions ices that dream, freezes it in stasis.

Maybe it’s natural that I spend every moment thinking about Sienna, imagining seeing her when I get home, cooking for her, talking to her. Warming myself again.

I could have sworn I was a whole man when I asked her to marry me. Now, I’m split down the middle: half the Harwood CEO that nods politely at her when she comes home from work, and half the man who glues himself to his phone, texting her back too fast. The man who is swiftly realizing that every moment spent at home with her feels more real than anything at the office.

I should know better.

But I don’t act like it.

Nick, 9:32 AM

Our wedding photos are trending already.

Sienna

That was fast. Lena only had them leaked last night.

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