“Why wait for eight months to come home?” Zach asks.
“While we were avoiding you, we were actually working as well. We’ve had business these last two months, so we couldn’t get away. I talked to Stephanie a few times, and she told me that you all decided to make a go of it. I’m really happy for you.” Ramona has a smile on her face.
“Wait again. You mean that my mom has known where you were all this time too?”
Steve nods. “We asked both her and your father not to tell you. We wanted to tell you ourselves.”
“You could’ve called us,” my husband chastises them.
“We wanted to speak to you in person. We needed to explain the whole situation, and if we’d called, you would have demanded answers over the phone. It was just easier to wait until we could speak with you face to face.” Steve wipes his face with his napkin.
I roll my eyes. We aren’t getting anywhere with this.
“Why didn’t you just tell us what was going on the morning after the wedding?” Zach asks. “And why was Mom nowhere in sight after the wedding? Why did she keep calling me that night?”
“We didn’t want to give you a chance to rethink your marriage the next morning, and your mom was sick that night, so as soon as you were married, she had to go back to the hotel room. She kept calling because she wanted to experience the night with you. I told you to stop answering her calls because she was calling every five minutes,” Steve says.
“Anyway,” Ramona continues like the rest of our conversation hasn’t happened, “you’ve stayed married for the required length of time, so you get the money. And the land. And the houses. Basically, you get the whole estate. I just need you to sign some papers and everything will be put in your name. We have an appointment with the lawyer tomorrow.”
They talk about the times when Zach is available tomorrow, and they continue to talk about his inheritance and what it means for him. I send a quick text to my mom telling her that I know everything and she owes me an explanation. Then I order the biggest, richest chocolate dessert they have on the menu and proceed to eat all of it.
At the end of the night, we go home and fall into bed, stunned.
I confront my parents a couple of days later. They apologize profusely and congratulate Zach on his inheritance.
***Zach
I sign all the papers the lawyer gives me, and he hands me a stack of letters after congratulating me.
Each envelope has the name “Appropriate family member” scrawled on it. I smile at that. It seems he either had a sense of humor or was a very dour man. I decide to set some time aside and read all the letters. I hope they will tell me a lot about his life.
We’re in the last week of the project, and I’m excited to complete this one. I needed two more people on my team so we didn’t have to work so much overtime to complete the project. I’ll let Don know when he asks for my observations.
“What are you and the wife doing this weekend?” Enrique asks while we’re waiting for everyone to come into the meeting.
“She’s going out of town on a girls’ weekend. I’m spending this weekend sleeping and recuperating from working this project,” I tell him.
“Where is she going?” one of the girls on the team asks.
“She said something about a spa weekend. She asked me to go, but I didn’t want to intrude,” I tell her.
Everyone finally arrives and gets settled, and we have our final meeting. When it’s over, I thank everyone for their hard work and we make plans to go out Friday evening after work.
Friday comes quickly, and halfway through the day, Rigs texts me and says that since her house sold, she’s not going out of town. I’m happy to have my wife with me tonight. I invite her to go out with us, but she declines, telling me that she will be at home waiting for me and she loves me. It warms my heart.
Dinner is fun. Everyone is talking over everyone else. The food and drink is flowing, and everyone is laughing, having a great time. As it gets later in the evening, everyone starts to leave one by one. Eventually, everyone is gone and I pay the bill. I also send a text to Rigs letting her know that I’m on my way home.
I head out to my car, and I hear, “Fuck!” from a couple of cars down. I look, and it’s Catherine, kicking her car.
“Are you okay?”
She looks up, startled. “Oh, um, I locked myself out of my car.”
“I can call you a cab, and you can have someone unlock it for you tomorrow,” I offer.
“My house keys are in there also, and I live alone.” She kicks the tire. “Fuck!”
“You can stay at my house until tomorrow, and I’ll get someone out to unlock your car for you. It’s no problem.” I’m too tired to deal with this tonight.
She throws her arms around me. “Thank you so much! I don’t know how, but I’ll repay you!”
I peel her arms off me. “No problem. Let’s get going.” The drive home is made with her saying over and over again how she’s going to repay me. I really just want her to shut up. I’m tired and I can’t wait to see my wife.
We pull in through the gates and approach the main house.
“Oh my goodness! This is gorgeous! Is this where you live?”
I don’t answer.
I roll my eyes as I pull into the garage of our house and walk toward my garage door with her behind me, jabbering. I step into the house, onto a pair of Rigby’s shoes.
“Fuck! Why can’t she put her shoes away like normal people?” I mumble to myself. I kick them to the side and let Catherine in before closing and locking the door behind her.
I turn on the lights in the kitchen and go to the refrigerator to get myself a bottle of water. “Do you want one?”
“No thanks. Thank you for letting me stay the night here,” Catherine gushes once more.
“No problem. Let me show you where you’ll be sleeping.” She follows me to the room at the end of the hall. “I’ll see you in the morning.” I leave her where she’s standing and she says goodnight.
I walk into my bedroom and straight over to my wife. Pulling the covers off her face, I kiss her.
“Hi, sweetie.”
“Hi. Go take a shower. You smell like beer and smoke.” She starts to turn over, but I stop her.
“I just wanted to let you know that Catherine is here. She locked herself out of her car and house.”
“You know this is just a ploy to be here with you alone. She’s going to take the first opportunity to make a move on you. Then I’ll beat her ass,” she mumbles. “Take a shower and come back to me quickly.”
I kiss her forehead and smile. “As fast as I can.”
I hurry through my shower. I dry myself off and put on my underwear and pajamas.
“What the fuck?!”
I run out of the bathroom and see Rigs on top of a very naked Catherine, in our bed, with her fist pulled back about to punch her. I run and jump onto the bed, lifting her off Catherine.
“What the hell is going on here?” I pull her off the other side of the bed. She’s struggling the whole time to get back to Catherine.
“Your little slut here got into bed with me, naked, talking about how she can take care of you better than I can. She grabbed my tit!” Rigby tries to pull away from me again.
Catherine is shrinking in our bed, with our covers over her body. “I’m s-sorry. I thought it was him. I thought you were out of town.”
“And that gives you permission to go after my husband? Who the hell do you think you are? I will fuck you up, bitch!” Rigby is still fighting hard to get out of my grip.
I pull her flush to me. “Sweetie, I got this. Please relax so I can let you go.”
She relaxes in my grasp, her chest heaving.
“If I let you go, are you going to go after her?”
She shakes her head. I slowly let her go and step back from her.
“Catherine, we’re going to leave the room so you can get dressed. I’m going to call a cab for you, and you will get
the hell out of my house. If you come near me or my wife again, I will let her loose on you. Do you understand?” She nods her head quickly, sinking further into our bed. I grab Rigs’ hand. “Let’s go downstairs and let her get dressed.”
We reach the kitchen, and I call a cab for Catherine. Rigs gets us each a bottle of water and leans against the counter. I stand behind her with my arms on either side of her. She leans back against me, her body stiff.
“I told you so.”
“You did.”
“You are taking me to buy a new bedroom set tomorrow.”
“Whatever you want, sweetie. I love you.”
“I’m sure you do.”
Catherine slinks downstairs into the kitchen, where we’re waiting. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re only sorry that it was me in that bed and not my husband. You are very lucky he pulled me off you. Get out of my house.” I hold Rigs close to the counter so she doesn’t go after her again.
“The cab is waiting for you outside.” I nod my head toward the door.
“Where will I go?” she asks.
“If you really locked your keys in the car, then you are more stupid than I thought you were. Get out of my house,” my wife says through clenched teeth.
She walks out of the front door without another word, and we hear the cab drive away. Rigs finishes her bottle of water and pulls away from me.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m getting my purse. I’m staying with your parents tonight. Every room that she was in needs to be redone. I’m not stepping a foot back into this house until it happens.”
We spend a month at my parents’ house. They laugh at me the whole time.
Epilogue
Rigby
Five Years Later
“Crap!” I try to twist my body into a more comfortable position.
“Sweetie, you’re eight months pregnant. You can’t wear those. Please stop trying.” A pair of comfortable-looking flats appear in front of my eyes.
“I want my heels. I’ve always worn my heels.” I lean back and cross my arms.
Zach kneels at my feet, slipping the shoes onto them. “You haven’t been able to wear heels for two months. Why do you think you’d be able to now? There, they even go with your dress.”
I lift my feet so I can look at the flats on them. I have to admit, they do look cute, and they did come from some obscure country that Zach’s parents visited last month.
“It’s our anniversary and I want it to be special.” I bounce my feet up and down, looking up at my husband.
“We’re both here. That’s what makes it special. I’m glad the doctor cleared you to travel, or we would have had to make different plans.” He sits beside me on the bed and kisses my cheek, one hand going to my belly, rubbing it. Our little one starts moving at his touch.
Every year, we come back to Atlantic City to celebrate our anniversary. We start at the buffet and sit in the same booth. The same waitress serves us.
Our next trek is to the bar for a drink, and Rob serves me grape juice the whole time we’re there. He tells us people still come to the bar and ask about us. He has to come around the bar and feel my little one dancing around. After catching up with him, we head out again.
We skip the wedding chapel, because we decided after our second anniversary that we’ll renew our vows after we’ve been married ten years. We go straight to the courtyard and have them play our wedding song, and we dance to it.
Sam’s voice always takes me back to our second first dance as my husband whispered to me, “Of course our wedding song would be your favorite song.” I smile and lay my head on his chest as we sway to the music. When the song is finished, Sam introduces us to everyone and congratulates us on five years of marriage.
I’m wearing down by this time, and my husband knows it. He leads me back up to our room and takes off my shoes and clothes, helping me into bed. He lies behind me and rubs my back until I fall asleep.
I always knew that I loved Zach, that he was my best friend. But I didn’t realize how perfect a fit we were until we were accidentally married and decided to make it work. It’s been five blissful years, and I love him more today than when we were first married.
***Zach
I watch my wife as she slowly comes awake. I could never have imagined my life without her even before we were married, and now I know that she’s an ingrained part of me.
I step in front of her, holding my hand out to her. She reaches out and puts her hand in mine. Her belly is so big, and the rest of her body isn’t. She doesn’t have much balance these days, so I try to make it as easy as possible for her.
I help her up and lead her to the bathroom, kissing her nose. “Call me if you need me.” I rub her stomach quickly before she closes the door on me. I sit down on the couch and watch television until she needs my help again.
After the fiasco with Catherine, I went into the office the next day and requested another intern. Don asked for an explanation, and I really didn’t want to get her in trouble, but I didn’t want to lie to him either. I told him the truth. He laughed so hard that he almost fell out of his chair. He explained to me that something like that had happened to him when he got his first intern. He assured me that she wouldn’t be fired, yet, but she would receive a strong reprimand for her actions. I was given a new, male intern the next day. Don must also have switched Catherine to one of our other locations, because I never saw her again.
A couple of years ago, Rigby told me that she saw Mark. He tried to avoid her, but she cornered him and asked for an explanation. He told her that he knew he couldn’t marry her because of how she felt for me. She called bullshit, and then he finally told her the truth. He let his mother talk him out of marrying her. She kept telling him that Rigs wouldn’t fit into their family.
Then he dropped a bomb on her.
He and Ryan were a couple anyway, and he was just using Rigs as a cover-up. I laughed at that. I’m sure his stick-up-the-ass mother took that one well. Rigs wished him well and sent him on his way. I’m glad that she got the closure she needed with him.
His loss is my gain.
My wife comes out of the bathroom, looking refreshed, and I hurry over to help her. I pull her dress over her head, and she pushes her arms through as it flows down around her. I help her to sit down, and slide her shoes onto her feet. “Are you ready?”
She nods, and I help her up and out of the door. We walk slowly to the buffet and walk inside. Our parents, some of our friends, and quite a few people who were at our original wedding are there waiting for us. My father hurries over and helps me to get her seated with everyone greeting us along the way. Instead of our usual table, we have a corner of the dining room.
After everyone has filled their plates, the speeches start. I sit back with my arm around my wife and a hand on her stomach as our child moves around. Rigs is eating and enjoying the speakers.
My mother stands up and addresses the group. “I’m speaking for both sets of parents.” She turns to us. “Zach, when you started kindergarten, you never talked about it. I would ask you about your day, and you would say, “It was fine.” Then one day, you came home and told me about a new friend you’d made. You always told me everything that you and Rigby had done that day. I didn’t even have to ask.”
She looks around the room and her gaze settles back on us. “Then you started asking if she could come over and spend the day, then the weekend. The first time I saw you two together, I knew that you would be married one day.” She addresses Rigs. “Your mom and I talked about it constantly. We were impatient for you to grow up and get married.”
Rigs smiles and leans back against me.
My mother turns back to the crowd. “We all know what happened then. They grew up, and although they were still each other’s number one, they kept looking for a number two, even though everyone but them knew that would never work out. But thanks to an inconsiderate bride groom walking away, my son got to have his nu
mber one. Rigby also got to have her number one.”
She wipes away the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Zach and Rigby. As long as you remember that you are each other’s number one, then there will never be a problem that you can’t overcome as a family. You have always loved each other and always will. Happy anniversary.”
She sits down, and I kiss Rigs before standing up. “My turn.” There’s a titter amongst everyone. “Rigs, the five years that we’ve been married have been the best five years of my life. When Mark left, I was ecstatic, because I knew I would still have my best friend. We woke up married, and something righted in me. It was like my body was telling me that this was the road we were supposed to take.”
I look around the room before my eyes land on my wife once more. “There was no way I was letting you go. I walked into the courthouse with the intention of doing everything I could to keep us married. It didn’t take much, and as we found out, we had a little help in that area.” Rigs looks at our parents, who all have toothy grins on their faces.
“The day you admitted you wanted to stay married to me was the third happiest day of my life. The first being the day I met you. The second, the day I married you,” I say, answering the question in her eyes. They soften, and I continue.
“We’ve been through a few things, we’ve adjusted to living as man and wife, and we love each other through and through. I’ll always remember that you are my number one. I love you, Rigby Hyde. You are my forever.” I lean down and give her another kiss.
She has been my best friend all my life. She’s now also the love of my life. She is my number one.
The End
About the Author
Married. Wait! What? Page 47