Page 47 of This Love
I followed her to the kitchen. She had prepared a stack. “I know we have to pay all these things. I’m not sure how. I’ve been putting my money in here.” She opened the junk drawer. It was stuffed with cash, probably from her tips.
“We pay for most things online, using a computer. We send a check in for a few of them, like rent.”
“I assume we split these bills before? It doesn’t seem fair if you aren’t living here.”
I don’t want to tell her that there’s no way she can afford this place on her own, just working at Harry’s. It took both of us, and some good photography gigs for her, to get by.
“We’ll figure it out.” I can ask Marcus for help if I have to, not that I want to. Not at all. We’d be okay for a while.
She studied my face. “You look worried about this. So, maybe no fancy restaurant.” She twisted her hair in her fingers, and for a moment, everything seemed normal. She and I were standing in our kitchen, trying to figure out how to pay a bill, and nothing else was the least bit hard. I held on to the moment for as long as possible, an oasis in the desert of the distance between us.
“Let’s do the movie,” she said. “But let me put on a different shirt or something. We look like Eve and Jared.”
“Eve and Jared?”
“Oh, this couple who comes into the diner every day for lunch. Eve always wears these old jeans and a faded shirt. And Jared wears a suit.”
The image made me smile. “That’s fun. I’m guessing they are older?”
“I can’t tell people’s ages easily yet. But they aren’t gray or anything. They do seem older than me, though. Maybe like Harry?”
I got her meaning. “Okay, so choose something else to wear so we aren’t Eve and Jared.”
She took off to the bedroom.
I sorted through the envelopes, making a stack to take with me. We were stretched a little more than usual because of the wedding. Marcus had paid for the bulk of it, but we still had our own expenses. Her gifts to her sisters. Our rings. New suitcases for the trip.
I’d taken a week off from work. And Ava wasn’t doing the job that had enabled us to move into a house.
It would be all right. I had to have faith.
When Ava came out in a yellow sundress, her brown hair brushing against her shoulders, my breath caught.
I did have faith. It was my job.
I would do anything for her. Literally anything.
Hopefully, this would be the first really good day since our failed wedding.
Chapter 18
Ava
My world had been pretty small since waking up in the limo. I’d been to the hospital, the blue house, the neighborhood, and taken the walk to Big Harry’s Diner.
But that was it. That was all I knew.
Riding in the car with Tucker was a surprise a minute.
The road could go up into the air! It was like we were flying!
I clutched the door as we passed over the city. Entire buildings were below us, and other roads with cars crossed underneath.
“Isn’t this terrifying?” I asked Tucker.
He laughed. “You get used to it.”
I was relieved when we finally went down again with grass on either side of the street.
