Page 17 of The Bride
I looked up at her. “Are you for real?”
“No, I mean seriously. He’s your husband. And he’s like super hot. You should totally take him to the prom.”
“I’m not taking Jake to my prom.”
Chrissy seemed to mull that over. “Do you think Riley will still ask you now that you’re married?”
Ugh. That word. I was officially puttingmarriedin the same category asorphan.
“Who’s Riley?” Great. Figured Jake would take that minute to enter the kitchen.
“Uh, I hate to break it to you, Jake, but your wife has a crush on him.”
I slapped Chrissy’s arm. “I do not.”
“Who’s Riley?” Jake asked again. Only this time he was asking me.
“He’s a senior. He’s nice. We talk every once and a while between classes. It’s no big deal.”
“If he’s taking you to the prom, I want to meet him.”
I had no idea why, but this rush of anger rolled over me. “Fuck that.”
“Watch your mouth,” Jake said, completely startled.
“You’re not my dad, Jake. Please do no start acting like one.”
“Uh… I’m going to head out now,” Chrissy announced. “Sounds like you guys are about to have your first married fight.”
Now my anger turned toward her. “Chrissy, we’re not done yet with the experiment.”
“Dude, it’s okay. We have study period before class. We’ll figure it out then.”
Before I could say another word she’d gathered up her stuff and left. Which had me focusing my anger once again on the person responsible.
“That was so not cool.”
He opened the door of the refrigerator and pulled out an apple.
“You’re right. You weren’t being cool at all. But you’re still grieving, so these little outbursts and temper tantrums will continue to happen.”
I hated when he did that. When he tried to explain everything I was feeling. “You can’t do that. You can’t make everything about me being sad. My point is if I want to go out with a guy, I do not need your approval.”
“Like hell you don’t. I am your family. I watch out for you. You want to go out with some guy, fine. But I get to meet him.”
“That’s so unfair. You get to have rules but I don’t.”
“I have rules because I’m the adult here.”
“Yeah well, the law says I’m an adult now too because we’re married. And marriage is supposed to be a fifty-fifty thing, not a dictatorship.”
He seemed to consider that. “Okay. Fine. You can have rules. What do you want?”
Of course I drew a complete blank. Then I thought of something. I don’t know why I said it, but it just came out.
“I don’t want Janet sleeping in Dad’s room. I get that you have sex and stuff. I just don’t want to walk out of my room in the morning and bump into her. It would be super weird.”
She hadn’t stayed over since the wedding. Not before it either. They were still doing their Sunday lunches, and I knew he had plans to go out with her tonight. Maybe that’s why I thought about it. This would be their first real date since the funeral. Their first opportunity to do it.
