Luck and Last Resorts by Sarah Grunder Ruiz

Author:Sarah Grunder Ruiz [Ruiz, Sarah Grunder]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

14

Eight years earlier

Two weeks before Ollie’s Immigration interview, I sat across from him on the floor of our Lake Worth apartment, a grease-stained pizza box open between us.

“We’re going truth on this one?” Ollie asked.

“Yup.” I looked down at the notes in my hands. Throughout most of the six months since we’d gotten married and filed the adjustment-of-status paperwork that would begin Ollie’s immigration process, it had been easy to push all of it to the back of my mind. After that day, we’d never spoken about what we’d done or what information was slowly making its way through Immigration. Not until we’d received the notice to appear for Ollie’s green card interview. Since then, every spare minute we’d had was devoted to practicing, making sure our stories matched and we could fake being a real couple. Our plan was to tell the truth as often as possible and keep the lies to a minimum.

“What was the question again?” Ollie said.

I glared at him. “Can you at least try to pay attention?”

“How am I supposed to pay attention when you’re hurling the crust of your pizza back into the box? Who doesn’t eat pizza crust? That’s the best part.”

“The sauce is the best part,” I said.

“You’re mad,” Ollie said, finishing off the pizza crust I’d just discarded.

I pressed a hand over my eyes. “Look, Oliver, I’m really not in the mood to argue with you about pizza again. The question was When did you and Nina meet?”

“I met you—”

“Don’t do it like that. Pretend I’m the interviewer,” I said.

Ollie rolled his eyes. “I met Nina when she walked onto the boat looking for a job. That was in January, about a month before we set sail.”

Good. “And you two hit it off right away?”

Ollie rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Nah. She was annoying. Cute, but annoying.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called cute, but it was better than scary. I couldn’t imagine the interviewer keeping a straight face with that one. “You got married only five months after meeting each other,” I said. “That seems pretty quick. When did you start to develop romantic feelings for Nina?”

“By the end of the second week on charter,” Ollie said. I glanced at my notes. We’d agreed on three weeks, but before I could correct him, he continued speaking. “I’d been watching her since we set sail. She’d made it clear she didn’t give a shit what anyone thought of her. Most people like that, they act like they don’t care about anything, but not Nina. She may not care what people think of her, but she cares about people. I liked watching her with the guests because she took their requests, even the ridiculous ones, so seriously.” Ollie looked away from me to grab another slice of pizza from the box. “I’m a perfectionist about food. Have to be as a yacht chef. It didn’t take long for me to realize Nina was like that too, but with the smallest things.

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