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I check in my rearview mirror and see that she’s right. Lucy and Emily are both waving enthusiastically at us.
Great.
Two more turns and we’ll reach the street City Hall is on, so I have to make a decision one way or another. The speed limit here is only 25. This does not exactly lend itself to precision driving.
“You’d better wave back,” Nora hisses. “They’ll think something is up if you don’t.”
“They’ll also think something is up if I wave and then zoom away.”
“So what should we do?” she asks.
“I’m not sure. Maybe we can talk our way out of this. After all, we were going to have to spin a story to everyone later anyway. Might as well get that story straight.”
“Yeah. Okay.” She nods. “We reconnected last night. Decided to get married. You lost your phone. Those are the bullet points, right?” She frowns, continuing before I can answer. “Are you sure your friends will believe that? It seems a little uncharacteristic of you to rush into something like this.”
Seeing as they rag on me every other week for still carrying a torch for her, my friends will have no trouble believing I’d rush into a marriage with Nora. But I can’t very well admit that to her. So instead I go on the defensive.
“Seeing as we haven’t been together for three years, I’m not sure you’re really able to speak to what is or is not characteristic of me,” I bite out.
My words are met with silence.
“You’re right,” she finally says. “I’m sorry.”
I only grunt in response, not trusting my words.
“Right–” I start to add more, but as I make the next turn, Emily and Lucy continue straight, waving back to us as we go.
“They went straight,” Nora says unnecessarily. “They weren’t following us.”
I let out a long breath. “I guess not. Still, we’d better hurry. They’ll be calling their husbands in no time to tell them they saw me with a woman.”
“Oh?” Nora lifts a hand to fiddle with her hair. “Is that unusual, seeing you with a woman?”
There she goes again, showing far more interest in my recent dating life than I would’ve expected her to. I hate the hope I feel inside from this. I can’t let myself read into it too much. I have to guard my heart. She made it clear to me three years ago that she didn’t want to marry me. Maybe she has some unresolved or residual feelings that she carries for me, but nothing strong enough to bring her back to me for anything other than a full-on life emergency.
“I don’t have much time for dating,” I say vaguely, “so, I haven’t made it a priority.” It’s true enough. Sure it’s been hard watching my friends pair off these last couple of years while I remain single (and continue to pine after Nora), but, as I told Nora earlier, things with my sister have really intensified in recent months. Because of that, I haven’t even thought about trying to go out with anyone.
Well that and the pining thing.
It’s hard to get your head back into the dating scene when your heart isn’t interested.
“Oh.” Nora’s new favorite word for the morning. “Well, same here,” she says casually. “Not much time for dating. Too busy at work.”
Since I purposefully did not ask about her dating life, I’m not sure why she’s telling me about it; but now that she has told me I have to fight to keep my expression neutral. Any man would be happy to find out his soon-to-be wife isn’t dating anyone, though, so it’s understandable that I’m struggling not to smile.
I pull into an open spot in the City Hall parking lot, happy to see it’s pretty empty. Hopefully that means we’ll get in and out of here quickly.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask Nora. She takes a deep breath as she eyes the building in front of us.
“I think I should be the one asking you that,” she replies, “seeing as you’re the one sacrificing your romantic life on my account.”
“Eh,” I say lightly, “like I said, didn’t have much of one anyway.” A soft smile plays across her lips and I have to yank my gaze off of her before I get caught staring.
“Thank you, Jack,” she whispers, drawing my gaze right back to her.
My mouth forms a straight line as I nod once. Twice. Three times. Then I get out of the car without giving her a verbal response. Why? Because I am a total jerk who is completely in love with his almost marriage-of-convenience wife and I cannot let her find out.
Hurrying around to her side of the car I pull the door open, then snap it shut behind her. “Let’s get this over with,” I mutter, stuffing my hands into my pockets before they can get any ideas about grabbing ahold of one of hers.
