First Comes Marriage by Bryony Rosehurst

Author:Bryony Rosehurst [Bryony Rosehurst]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2024-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“That shower lasted longer than my dad’s last marriage,” were the words Tamara was greeted by as she emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam. Charlie lounged on the bed with her legs crossed, her hand rustling around a share bag of Doritos as she flicked through the TV guide. It all felt very… domestic. Normal.

Tamara cleared her throat and searched for her hairbrush, finding it on the dresser. “It was needed after all that drama,” she replied, sitting in front of the vanity mirror and carefully combing through her thick, damp hair. She felt bare without her usual makeup, clad in a pink satin romper that didn’t cover much of her cleavage or thighs. It had been a long time since she’d gotten ready for bed with somebody else. She’d cherished that solitude after the divorce until it had soured to loneliness, but she’d forgotten just how vulnerable sharing a routine with somebody could make her feel.

Charlie’s reflection shifted in the mirror. She turned on her side to face Tamara, her head propped on her fist. “Bet you’re regretting all this now, aren’t you?”

Pausing, Tamara locked eyes with Charlie in the mirror. “I didn’t think it would be easy. I just didn’t think—”

“That you’d marry an impulsive idiot with anger issues and a shit tonne of baggage?”

She sighed, squeezing a dollop of lavender-scented hand cream into her palm and massaging it into her skin. She’d need all the help she could get with sleeping tonight. “We all have baggage. But no, I didn’t exactly think I’d be married to Charlie Dean.”

“I didn’t think I’d be married to Tamara Hewitt,” Charlie replied, a smile curling slowly across her face. It made Tamara want to smile back, brush her fingers along the dimples of her cheeks just to know what they felt like. What she felt like. She flushed at the thought, distracting herself by sorting through her skincare products. But she paused again when Charlie added, “I’m lucky. Being married to any of the others… no, thanks.”

“Don’t get too romantic,” Tamara murmured, though the backhanded compliment felt like a compliment all the same. And she supposed Charlie was right. She couldn’t imagine going through this with any of the other contestants. If nothing else, she and Charlie shared an understanding, and it was making things much easier than they had been at the altar. They were in this together.

Her fingers hovered over her favourite tissue face masks, eucalyptus and honey-scented. “You know what we need?” she asked, brandishing the shiny foil packets.

Charlie groaned. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes.” Grinning, Tamara threw one of the face masks to Charlie and kept another for herself. “Do we have cucumbers?”

“I know you’re a model and all that, but this is too much even for me. I’m not into girly shit.”

“Right,” she teased. “Super metal rock star Charlie Dean is way too cool for skin care. But you’ll regret it when you look like a prune at forty. You won’t be young and pretty forever, you know.

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