Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Before either of us can say anything, someone pulls out a chair beside me, and when I look over, I see Nash sitting down. My eyes widen in shock as he smiles at me. He’s wearing a T-shirt and jeans, exactly what he was wearing when I left him in his office. “Sorry I’m late, baby,” he says, kissing me on the lips before turning his head toward Josh, who is staring at him with his own shocked expression. “You must be Josh.” I'm assuming he holds out his hand with his wedding ring, just to spite him. “I’m Nash, her husband.” Score one for Nash. Well, if you count the wedding ring in his face, that would be two.
Josh looks at Nash’s extended hand and then looks at me. “This is a joke. You brought him with you?” He laughs nervously.
“She didn’t bring me anywhere,” Nash quickly informs him, and it’s a good thing because I’m actually still in shock that he’s here sitting next to me. He puts an arm around my chair. “So what are we going to talk about?” His hand that was extended is now on his leg.
“We,” Josh says through clenched teeth, “were going to talk about what a mistake this is.”
“What is?” Nash is the one having the conversation with him. My hand goes to Nash’s knee now, to make sure I’m not dreaming he’s here. His hand moves from around my chair to on top of my hand, linking his fingers with mine. Josh’s eyes follow Nash’s every move.
Josh puts his head back and laughs, but not a real laugh, a laugh that you know is fake and irritating. “Your wedding-slash-fake marriage, obviously.” He shakes his head. “You have to know she did it because she wanted to make me jealous.” Nash is the one who now throws his head back and laughs, but his is a full-on belly laugh, and it’s so loud people around us look over. If you were looking at us, it would look like three people having a great time, but it is anything but that. “You can’t think it’s for real.” Josh’s head advances toward us. His tone is almost hissing, and I don’t know why I find this funny.
“As real as it can be,” Nash confirms to him and then looks over at me. “A man and a woman who will spend their lives together, in holy matrimony.” He makes a joke, and that just pisses Josh off even more. But I can’t help the smile that fills my face.
“She did it just to spite me,” he spits, pissing me off, and again, before I’m able to talk, Nash is the one opening his mouth.
“You keep saying she did all this for you, but you have not once mentioned anything about her.” My stomach soars when I hear that. Of course Nash would think about what I want instead of what he wants, because that’s Nash. That is who he is, maybe who he always was and I was too blind and dumb to see it. “Maybe she did it to make herself happy, like she deserves to be.” He leans back in his chair before turning his head to me. “From what I heard, you didn’t really make her happy nor did you even ever try to make her happy.” Okay, that part is a lie, more or less, because we’ve never even spoken about Josh, to be honest. Since we got married, we’ve never even brought up Josh unless he called or texted me.
The jab must sting Josh because he quickly defends himself. “I made her happy.” He looks from Nash to me. “We were happy.”
“Um,” I say, unsure of what I’m supposed to say, and again, Nash doesn’t even give me a chance.
“What was your plan?” he asks Josh. “How were you going to fix it all?” I can see the frustration grow on Josh’s face because he probably doesn’t even have the answers to these questions. “How were you going to build the trust with her? Do you know she hates fucking steak? And you booked a steakhouse to take her to.” Nash shakes his head. “You had your chances, buddy. Why did you decide to step up now?” He waits for a beat, but literally just one. “Is it because someone else wants her? Because someone else would do anything to see her smile?” I squeeze his knee as I listen to his words. “Because I would happily drink matcha if it meant she was in that kitchen with me. You couldn’t make me walk away from her.” He then turns to me. “Do you want to stay for dinner, or would you like to go home?”
I look at Josh, who is seething and, to be honest, hasn’t even tried once to say what he was here for. He made this whole trip to plan this grand gesture, and what does he do? Books me a restaurant that I hate so he could tell me he missed me and wanted me back. It’s literally been almost a month since we’ve gotten married, and he waited this long to come to me. I left Nash five minutes, if that, before he rushed out to chase me. The answer was written on the wall even before I walked in. “I’d like to go home.”