The Marriage Pact: A Baby Romance

by Tia Siren

  I was over his bullshit and this fucked up conversation. I didn’t roll myself out of bed two hours before I had to be at work just to sit through some dead-end conversation when I could just block his number and get on with my life.

  “We have such a natural chemistry, Mason. The way we talk and the way we interact, it feels like home. You mean to tell me that has no bearing on the world you’re supposedly from?”

  “That shit matters to me, Ash,” he said. “I swear it does.”

  “You sure as hell aren’t acting like it does. You’re ready to declare this relationship over before anything even gets off the ground!”

  “Our chemistry is wonderful,” I continued. “In and out of the bedroom. Our bodies gravitate toward each other’s, and you’ll never convince me you weren’t sitting on the edge of your seat while I peed this morning, when you asked me if I wanted to go get brunch with you.”

  I could see the shock roll over his face before he gained his composure, and I knew I’d hit a soft spot.

  “I do that with your messages, too,” I said. “Because I enjoy talking to you. We enjoy talking with one another, and not a lot of couples like doing that. They have great sex, they eat some food, and then they go their separate ways to work, and that’s how they define relationships.”

  “Ash…” he sighed.

  “What is it now?” I asked.

  “We do have all those things, and it’s nothing I’ve ever experienced with another woman. But you can’t deny that there’s a massive gap in our lifestyles.”

  “You act like we’re crossing the fucking trenches of Vietnam. So you have money? Big whoop!”

  “The mere fact that you think of it that way tells me you don’t know the first thing about the way I was raised,” he said.

  “Oh, but you’ve got my lifestyle all figured out?” I threw back.

  “Ash, I didn’t come here to argue.”

  “But you came here to warn me about our imminent break up, right?”

  His silence boiled my blood, and I felt myself grow stiff in the chair. I picked up another piece of fruit and popped it between my lips, and the silence on my end provided an opening for Mason to start spewing things I never thought would ever come from him.

  “I just don’t think our chemistry is enough to bridge our lifestyles. That’s all I’m saying. Look, you work, and I don’t. That doesn’t seem like such a big thing until I want to take you out to do things like this, and you can’t because you have to work. I travel, and you can’t afford it. That’s all good until I want to bring you on a trip you can’t afford. My friends and familial connections are, literally, the richest families in the world, and your best friend is still mooching off the little you bring in from your job while she puts off looking for her own apartment. And that’s all fine until we wanted to do things like that night where you invited me in.”

  I clenched my jaw, and I felt a fire burst behind my eyes. Who the fuck did he think he was, judging me because of my lack of money? Money’s not that big of a fucking deal. I lived my entire life without it.

  “You wanna know how I know your excuses are all bullshit, Mason?” I glowered.

  “How?” he asked.

  “Because my entire life has been lived without money. I’ve worked for as long as I can remember, and everything I have, I’ve bought with my own money. And no, my best friend isn’t perfect, and no, I don’t buy all these lavish pieces of clothing and attend stuck up, snobbish ‘charity dinners’ where rich bitches throw their bodies at me, but do you know what I haven’t ever done to someone?”

  I saw his jaw clench, and I knew I had him by the balls, and I was about to twist them off and throw them into the road.

  “I’ve never once screwed someone worse off than myself and thought I was doing them a favor,” I hissed.

  “Hey, you’re the one who put up the ad about never having had an orgasm from a guy,” Mason said.

  “And you’re the one who came off your high horse just to see how ‘our kind’ lived ‘down here.’ Mason, you don’t need a reason to break up with me. You want out? Just say so.”

  “Ash, come on. I didn’t come here to fight.”

  “You just came here to warn me of our impending doom before asking me to bone in your car.”

  “Damn it, Ash, come on!” he exclaimed. “Can’t you see I’m just a little bit right?”

  The thing that made me so fucking angry was that he was more than just a little bit right. If we really wanted to do this, we had a hell of a road to traverse, especially with how judgmental people would be of how I looked and where I came from. They’d automatically accuse me of using him for his money, and people would look at him and wonder why the hell he was with someone like me when he could obviously have someone like Eva.

  Someone who was just like him.

  “I want to spend time with you Ash,” he breathed.

  I felt my chest collapsing in, and tears began to well in my eyes. I was half an hour late for work, and I knew my phone was vibrating because Luna was calling, and I felt my entire world collapsing around me. Yet again, I’d gotten involved with a guy who I thought really enjoyed being around me, and yet again, I was about to be left alone by some bullshit excuse he had for why we’d never work.

  Only this time, I had been under the impression that he was different. With the others, I was pleasantly ignorant to the fact that they were all the same, but Mason had taken just enough time to convince me that he was different.

  Different from all of them, before he pulled the rug out from underneath me.

  “I hear you loud and clear, Mason,” I said.

  “Ash. Please. Sit back down, please?”

  I didn’t even realize I was standing until he mentioned it, and when I looked down, my tears dropped onto the fluffy pancakes sitting in front of me.

  “Thanks for brunch and the orgasms. Hope you have a nice life.”

  “Ash. Wait! No!”

  I hurried away from the table and weaved my wide hips in and out of the tables. Even though I could hear Mason yelling after me, I couldn’t hear much else above the noise of my thoughts. They all collided together and crashed into the walls of my min.

  By the time I took in my surroundings, I was walking into the craft shop. Luna looked up at me from over her glasses rims, and the anger of my being late dissipated completely when she saw my makeup running down my face.

  “Come on back here, sweetheart,” she cooed lightly. “Got some inventory that needs taking care of.”

  I nodded and turned my phone off before I shoved my purse underneath the counter. I followed Luna into the back. My chest was heaving with sobs while I opened box after box of new craft supplies. I entered them into the system we had while my mind continued to scream at me. Images of our bodies writhing together wafted into my memory, and the feeling of his arms wrapped around my body while we danced warmed me to my core.

  And that’s when I realized what was actually going on. My greatest downfall as a human being was rising to the surface, and finally I could do something about it. I had hinged my self-worth and happiness on some idiotic rich boy who licked a pussy well, and I couldn’t live my life like that any longer. I couldn’t live under the assumption that other people would eventually make me happy.

  I had to start living my life under the assumption that I could make myself happy.

  “You doing all right in here?” Luna asked.

  I nodded and sniffled hard before I took out some tissues and cleaned myself up. When I turned to face my boss, she smiled lightly at me and nodded.

  “Don’t be late again, all right?” she asked.

  “Can I still convince you to let me do a mockup of a website for you, so you can sell some of this stuff online?” I asked.

  “Nope,” she said.

  “You know it would really boost business in this little shop of yours,” I said smiling.

  “Ours,” she corrected.

  “Huh?”

 
; “This little shop of ours. Girl, you’re the only person I’ve hired that’s stayed on more than a few months. This shop is just as much mine as it is yours.”

  “Well, if it’s just as much mine, then I make the executive decision to have a website to sell some of this stuff on. We could ship it to people and everything.”

  “Then what’s the point of having the store?” she asked.

  “We won’t put the whole inventory online, just some of it. Some things they can get there, some things they gotta come in for.”

  “Sounds complicated,” she grumbled.

  “Welcome to the future, Luna!” I smiled.

  I didn’t need some stuck-up, rich-kid billionaire to make me happy, even if he did do things to my body that no one else had. If he could do it, I’m sure I could just post another ad and find someone else who could do it just as good.

  Or maybe even better.

  Fuck him, and fuck not being in control of my own happiness. After work, I was going to treat myself to a nice cocktail and a decent dinner, and then I was going to go home and get started on a few more pieces of jewelry that had popped into my head not too long ago.

  And who knows? Maybe I’d even try to sell them to see if anyone would be interested.

  Chapter 19

  Mason

  “Fuck!”

  My damn golf ball landed in the water feature again and my club went bouncing against the green. I was up fifteen more points than I usually was, and Winston was already giving me weird looks. I couldn’t keep my head in the fucking game long enough to sink anything that didn’t take me four strokes to get it there, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing on the golf green today anyway.

  “What’s eating your asshole, Mase?” Winston asked.

  “Nothing,” I murmured.

  “Well, something’s stuck up there, and it’s ruining your game. We’re supposed to go catch drinks after this. You gonna be all right for that?”

  “I’m always all right for drinks,” I said. “You know that.”

  “Seriously, Mase. Talk to me. Let’s just get into the cart and go up to the clubhouse or something.”

  “I just got into an argument with Ash, is all.”

  “Must’ve been a little more than an argument,” Winston said.

  We walked to go get my club so I could re-tee my ball, and when I swung and chipped nothing but grass, I yelled my frustrations out loud.

  “Damn it!”

  “All right. Enough golf. Come on.” Winston took my club and threw everything into the cart, and we started for the clubhouse just as the clouds began to gather over the golf course.

  “So, spill it,” he said. “What happened with the girl?”

  “We just got into an argument over brunch,” I murmured.

  “I’m surprised she could do brunch while having a job during the week,” Winston said.

  “See, why didn’t you inform me of any of these differences? You and your research should’ve told me this before I started!”

  “Whoa, slow down. Start at the beginning.”

  I ended up telling Winston everything over two bourbons and no lunch. I told him how I compared Frank and him, and how I talked about how our monetary circumstances would eventually force a rift between us. I told him about what Eva said at the dance and how she was right, and I even told him about how fervently Ash fought for us while I sat there and railed at her about how different our lives were.

  “Dude. You’re an idiot.” Winston chuckled.

  “But, Eva’s right. My life’s already planned for me, and things are doomed to fail with Ash anyway. Why drag her through something like that? She’s been through enough.”

  “Are you seriously gonna roll over and listen to that bloated bitch? Mase, look. Eva’s great and all if you want to marry Satan’s daughter, but the only reason you think you’re doomed with Ash is because you’ve convinced yourself of that.”

  “Cut the shit, Winston,” I sighed.

  “Dude. Fucking buck up and listen. If you had any balls, you’d go beg for that wonderful woman back. I saw the two of you cuddled up all night when we went to go get drinks. I saw the light in your eyes whenever she slid her hand over onto your thigh. I saw you rubbernecking the back half of the play just so you could catch a glimpse of her while you were messaging. And Ash, she’s fucking incredible. She might not know anything about traveling like you shoved in her face, but she sure as hell knows a lot about life and struggle, which you don’t.”

  “I lost my father, Winston. I sure as hell know what struggle is about.”

  “Not emotional struggle,” he said. “Life struggles. Paychecks and bills and cars you can’t afford and eating ramen every single day for every single meal before your next paycheck. That shit turns you into someone who appreciates worth. Someone who appreciates life. You live life, and you have worth, but she has built her life up with her own two hands. And she appreciates worth when it stands in front of her. There’s a fucking difference.”

  I’d never thought of it like that, and he had a solid point.

  “And all it sounds like you did was shit on her about how she doesn’t have what you have,” Winston said. “Then you told her it wouldn’t work, then tried to keep her around long enough to screw her anyway.”

  “Fuck you, Winston,” I said.

  “Suck up the truth and go get her. Or live the life your mother’s planned. Right now, all you’re doing is rolling over to a life that’s been laid out for you by your mother after you’ve gotten a taste of something you’d rather have.”

  “And what exactly is it that I want?” I asked.

  “Ash.”

  I shook my head and guzzled down the last of my bourbon.

  “To hell with what others think,” Winston said. “You’ll live a meaningless life and find yourself in a loveless marriage if you roll over and play dead for the likes of Eva and your mother. And I don’t even have to preach at you about regret, because it’s obvious how you’re feeling by how fast you’re drinking that alcohol down.”

  I looked down at my empty drink. The waitress came by and asked if I wanted another. I nodded, and she shuffled off. Then Winston said something that drove every single point he’d ever made home.

  He pointed at my empty glass. “Welcome to what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life. Chugging down drinks to cope with your regret, before you go home and fake orgasms with Eva.”

  The waitress brought me my next drink, but I didn’t touch it. I promptly got up from my chair and went to throw some money down onto the table. Winston held me off and told me he’d get it.

  “Go do something you want with your life for once, Mase. Give yourself permission to be happy with something else.”

  I’d made a gigantic mistake with Ash. She plagued my thoughts, and I felt empty when she got up and walked out of that restaurant, but I had no idea how the hell I was going to make it up to her. I had thrown her lifestyle in her face while I played up mine, and then I expected her to simply understand and try this with me anyway. I never once defended her to Eva, and I allowed that ice-cold woman to get into my head. Then I insulted her best friend who she was helping out during a rough time.

  Shit. How the fuck was I gonna dig myself out of this disaster?

  I went back home and tried sending Ash some messages, but I got no response. It had been a few days since the debacle at brunch, and part of me couldn’t blame her for not getting back to me.

  But then, an idea struck me hard. Not just an idea to get Ash back, but an idea that would strike down Eva and any chance she thought she had at taking our family’s money and running with it. And I’d shut my mother up in the process.

  “Mom!”

  “Yes, son?” she called back.

  “Are you using the limo for anything tomorrow?”

  “No. Do you have something special planned for Eva?”

  “Not a chance!”

  I opened my phone while my mother continued to yel
l up the stairs, and I started placing a few calls. I set plans in motion and gave several places my card number. Then I double-checked reservations before I began to look up all the craft shops in the area. I had no idea which one she worked at, but I knew where she lived, and when I found the two that were closest to her apartment, I called and tried to figure out if she worked there.

  An older woman named Luna picked up after the first ring and informed me that she did have an Ash working for her. I thanked her for her time before I hung up the phone.

  I knew what I was gonna do to get Ash back, and I hoped to god she would give me one last shot.

  Chapter 20

  Ash

  Frank shook the curtains from the other side of the house with her snoring while I crossed to the front door. I tripped getting into my clothes, I slipped taking a shower, and I couldn’t stop dreaming of Mason all night.

  The fucking nerve he had to accuse me of not being good enough for his fucking lifestyle. So what if he had money and I didn’t? That shit wasn’t that big of a deal. He just made it a big deal because he’d never fucking stepped out of his protected little bubble long enough to experience anything other than Eva’s long legs wrapped around his waist.

  Well, that didn’t sound so bad. But still. Bitch.

  I didn’t know if I’d ever find someone who would ever appreciate me for who I was. I mean, I didn’t have many redeeming qualities, and I didn’t have a shit ton of money. My fucking friend was crashing on my couch because she had nowhere else to go, but I’d spend every last penny I had to make sure she was all right. I wanted people around me to be happy and healthy and laughing, and that held some kind of worth.

  Right?

  I didn’t deserve pieces of shit like Jason who took advantage of me, and I didn’t deserve mooching friends who came in and dipped out when I didn’t have money to support them anymore. At least Frank helped out when she could while she was taking up my couch.

  I just wanted someone who loved me for me. Someone who loved my sense of humor, loved my jewelry, and loved what I could bring to their world instead of detesting everything that was different about me when compared to their world.