The Marriage Contract by Natasha L. Black

Author:Natasha L. Black [Black, Natasha L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-20T23:00:00+00:00

23

Matt

I wasn’t sure what was going on with Chloe, but whatever it was, it was starting to bug me. She had been weird since the ceremony. No matter what I said or did to try to bring us back to how we had been beforehand, she was distant and standoffish. It was unlike how she had been the entire time I knew her, and I was worried I had done or said something wrong. But when I asked her, she said no, that everything was fine.

I knew better than to believe that “fine” actually meant “fine.”

I wished I had known that she was going to regret our situation if that’s what it was. I wouldn’t blame her for it, really. Getting married was a big deal, and I was sure she had a lot better ideas about how her wedding would be than getting hitched in a courthouse to a guy she wasn’t actually in love with. But still, I wished I had known. The last thing I wanted to do was make her feel like this was something she had to do. Bullying her into it was completely opposite of the plan. This was supposed to be something that benefited both of us.

We had our first shift together since the wedding that night. Most of the day was spent with her on her laptop in the living room. I knew she was a bit of a news junkie, so I didn’t push it, but I kind of wished we could have hung out and watched something together. I was missing the time before our wedding. Inexplicably, it seemed like we were closer then.

But, then again, I had to back off that, too. We weren’t supposed to be close. Just friendly. We had to be able to feign a relationship, not actually have one. Maybe she just needed her distance so she could be comfortable. I had to respect that.

When we got to the bar, she got out of the car silently before I did and waited for me. When I got to her, it was like she was a completely different person. The game face was on, and she was smiling wide. She took my hand and curled up on my arm as we walked. I couldn’t help but feel simultaneous delight and sadness. I loved that she held me that way right in the moment, but I was suddenly upset that it was only because she was putting on an act.

Once inside, she played up the newlywed act well. Jordan didn’t say a lot to me, but the girls all gathered around her, and she played the blushing bride. I caught her insinuating that we’d never left the bedroom in the couple of days off Jordan gave us after the wedding, and I laughed. If only, I thought.

Still, even if it was fake, it was nice to see her pretend to be happy about being married to me. And it kept Jordan off my case. He mostly just

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