by G. Benson
They were being so civil. While teasing Hayden. Great.
Sam shook her head. “I had a day off.”
“Lucky you.”
No one had anything more to say, and thankfully the waitress appeared before it could get too awkward. Sam ordered a green tea and as the waitress walked away, caught Hayden’s fake gag.
“What?”
“Hayden has an aversion to herbal teas.” Luce looked at Sam with a benign smile. “As her wife, you’d think you’d know that?”
The hand on Hayden’s knee squeezed.
Sam tilted her head. Hayden looked between the two of them. “I do know that. I thought something else was wrong.”
Luce cracked a grin, super friendly again. Suspiciously so. “Sure. So tell me, you two—” Luce looked from one of them to the other “—how did this delightful thing happen? Who asked who? Where were you?”
Hayden felt the blood drain out of her face. How had they not thought of a story for this? How had it not occurred to them that someone would ask this?
“Uh—”
Sam’s hand squeezed her knee again. “I asked her.”
“Oh?” Luce quirked one eyebrow. Seriously, Hayden needed to learn to do that. It conveyed so much. Like amusement and disbelief. And maybe some scorn. “That’s nice. Why?”
“Excuse me?”
That hand was squeezing even harder. But Sam looked calm as anything.
Luce was grinning benignly still, as if they were really interested and not testing them. This was exactly what Hayden had meant when she’d told them to behave. “I’m just curious what made you want to ask that so quickly. You don’t strike me as the spontaneous type.”
“It seemed right.” Sam’s grip hadn’t faltered. “But I don’t really feel the need to justify anything.” Her tone was still light, relaxed.
“Oh, I’m not asking for justification. I’m just a real romantic at heart. I’d love to know this story.”
Hayden sighed. Luce was not going to give this up. Romantic at heart. As if.
“Well.” The hesitation in Sam’s voice wasn’t going to sell it. “We were walking from the hospital, through a park.” Hayden watched as Luce fixed their eyes on Sam, intent. “It was cold, but not like today. One of those nights without clouds, the sky really clear, for the city. For some reason, the stars were easier to see.” Hayden wasn’t watching Luce anymore. She watched Sam’s eyes soften, her voice gaining some strength. “And Hayden looked up at the sky, and everything was so still and dark, and the light was silver in her hair. She looked stunning. And I asked.”
Hayden’s chest felt weird. Sam was selling it. They had walked together through the park one night, cutting through it to reach a bar. It had been strange, to see the stars so well in the city. Sam had said so. Hayden remembered, because it had seemed unusually poetic to come from her.
It was much easier to weave a lie from a real experience. That must have been why Sam chose that night.
“So you can be spontaneous?” Luce asked.
Sam gave an awkward, one-shouldered shrug. “I have my moments.”
“So why so fast? Couldn’t wait?”
Luce was being an ass. They had a look of pure mischief in their eye.
Hayden realized she needed to join in. “You know I don’t like marriage and weddings. Well, we wanted to do it, but without any of the fuss and madness. So why wait when we didn’t have anything to plan?”
Sam gave a nod.
Luce’s face gave the impression that they could think of a lot of reasons to wait. Hayden leveled a look at her friend and hoped they’d finally back off.
“So, are you having a honeymoon?”
Nope. No such luck.
That hand on her knee almost hurt now.
“We haven’t thought about it. Nothing has been traditional thus far. Why change that?”
Luce held Sam’s eye. What a time to get their challenging hat on. They grinned slowly. “You don’t think your lovely new bride deserves a holiday?”
Hayden was going to kill them. Maybe Sam would help her hide the body. Judging by the iron grip on her knee, probably.
“Bride? Calm down, Luce.”
Luce winked at Hayden. “Fine, wife.”
Hayden sighed. “Okay. Anyway. Let’s move on.”
“Okay.” Luce’s eyes lit up. “So, Sam, has Hayden met your family?”
Hayden almost dropped her head on the table.
~ ~ ~
Entering the apartment together after the world’s most awkward coffee meet-up made everything even more awkward. It was weirdly intimate. The apartment was dark when Sam pushed the door open and she flicked on a few light switches next to the door, washing the living space and kitchen in light. She’d put on the dimmer ones, which meant Hayden wasn’t left blinded. There were a lot of switches next to the door, and Hayden still had to flick through all of them before getting the right ones.
They stood at the entrance, and Hayden almost wanted to shuffle her feet. Sam cleared her throat and turned on her heel, walking to the kitchen. She started putting the kettle on, opening cupboards and getting a cup and a teabag.
She paused, the packet in her hand after she’d unwrapped the tea bag. She looked at Hayden, still standing by the front door. “Would you like a tea? It’s herbal.”
Hayden made a face. “No. Thank you.”
Sam went back to pottering.
It was weirdly domestic.
Finally, Hayden hung up her coat and put her bag on the countertop. Sam poured hot water into her cup, the steam rising. Hayden slipped onto a barstool opposite her. When Sam focused on something, that thing seemed to get all her attention. Hayden rested her chin in her hand and watched Sam wrap her hand around the warm ceramic. Only then did her eyes make contact with Hayden’s again.
“Just, uh, so you know,” Hayden said. “Like Luce pointed out, I really hate herbal tea. One of those things a wife would know.”
“Oh, of course they did say that.” Sam wrapped her other hand around the cup, too. “That is helpful. What else do you hate?” Sam was watching her as if she expected a written list she could memorize.
“Uh, not much. People chewing with their mouths open. The subway, it’s a germ fest. Spaghetti from a tin—it’s not natural.”
“That’s an easy list to remember.”
“What about you?”
Taking a sip, Sam seemed to ponder the question. “Pineapple on pizza.” Well at least that would mean they’d never have to share pizza. “Incompetency. Bad table manners.”
“See? We’re a wife match. I hate people who chew with their mouths open, and you hate bad table manners.”
“Yes, I’m sure that will be one to tell the grandchildren.”
Hands held up, Hayden grinned. “Whoa, whoa. Were they in the fine print?”
“Yes. Right next to the part in which you signed over your spleen.”
“Who needs one of those, anyway?”
Hayden was chuckling, and Sam gave a small laugh. A bubble of sound, like she didn’t make it often.
“We really didn’t plan this well, did we?” Sam asked.
“Nope.”
“I thought I’d considered most things.” She clicked her tongue, as if disappointed in herself. She blew along the surface of the herbal abomination in her cup, lips rounded. The motion made Hayden think of a kiss, and she blinked at the weird thought. “I was wrong.”
Hayden shrugged. “I don’t think this was something we could ever really have prepared for. Not everything, anyway.”
“Still. More so than we did.”
“Mm.” Something occurred to Hayden, a way to maybe find out more information. “One month was a very short time frame to make it convincing.”
Distracted, Sam hummed. “Yes, well, I wanted to get it done, and I’d been trying to find someone appropriate for a while.”
“Why the rush?” Would she get more information?
“No, Hayden.”
“Can’t blame a
girl for trying.” Hayden’s head felt heavy in her hand.
“Your friend is…”
“An ass.”
Sam actually smirked. A real one. It changed her face, making her look younger, more playful for a split second. “Not the word I would have chosen, but yes. An ass.”
“I’m sorry. They’re… It’s more about being protective. They really don’t understand this.”
“Had you really always hated marriage?”
Hayden nodded, an uncomfortable thing to do, considering her head was in her hand. “Still do.”
“May I ask why?”
“Long story.”
“Okay.”
No pushing. Just like that. No “come on” or anything else many other people would have given her.
“Thanks.”
Sam’s brow furrowed over the rim of her cup as she took a sip. “Thanks? Why?”
“For not pushing.”
“You’re giving me the same courtesy. Mostly.”
Hayden’s cheeks warmed. Oh. “Well, not really. Sorry. I will now.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Steam was still rising from the cup in Sam’s hands. Wisps of it floated up. It was a little hypnotizing.
“I have to tell you something.”
Sam’s eyes immediately narrowed. “What did you do?”
Hayden sat up. “Hey! How do you know I did anything?”
“Your tone. Those words.”
Fair enough. “I told my family.”
Sam put the cup down, though she kept her fingers wrapped around it. “Thank you.”
“And, uh, there’s something else.”
The narrowed eyes were back. “What?”
“They were obviously surprised. They also knew that I hated marriage. My abuela was pretty upset she wasn’t included.” She still kind of felt gleeful that she’d dragged Sam down with her. “So I told them you wanted to come with me when I go and visit, so you could get to know them.”
“You what?”
“Said we’d visit.”
Sam went very still. “When?”
“I didn’t say a date.”
But it would have to be soon. They’d need to get it over with and convince her family that she was okay and that—oh. Hayden felt the blood drain from her face. They’d have to convince her family.
And they’d be staying in her family’s house.
“Did you finally catch up?” Sam asked.
Hayden’s mouth was hanging open. “Maybe I didn’t really think this through.”
“You think?”
“Well, we were never going to get away with you not meeting them.” Hayden felt like dropping her head down. “If we have to have people convinced, like you keep saying, you would have to meet them at least once.”
“I thought I’d maybe have lunch with them. Not skip off to stay in their house, where we’d be under constant scrutiny.”
Ugh. Hayden really hadn’t thought this through.
“Sam, my family would never have let it go if we didn’t visit. And you said you needed them on board.”
“Why couldn’t they visit here? We could have put them up in a hotel?”
Hayden stared at her. “Who puts family in a hotel?”
Sam stared right back. “Who doesn’t?”
Well. That was weird. Her family may have been a lot to handle, for many reasons, and she might ignore them every now and again to try and get some breathing room. But make them stay in a hotel? “Uh, me?”
Sam went, if possible, paler. “Does that mean staying in a hotel there is completely out of the question?”
“Of course.”
They stared at each other again.
A loud meow made them turn to look near the corridor. Frank sat, glaring from one to the other. When neither of them moved, he yowled again.
“Is he dying?” Sam asked.
Hayden snorted. “He thinks he is. Most likely his food bowl is only half-full, which means he has to panic. Ignore him.”
Sam took a sip of her tea. “Well, then. Which state is your family in?”
“Florida.”
The cup hit the counter.
“Yeah, I know.”
“I have to go to Florida?”
Hayden grimaced.
“Florida?”
“Yes.”
“Hayden.”
“I know.”
Sam squared her shoulders. “Okay. Fine. Florida. We visit your family.” She swallowed. “I can’t wait.”
“There’s that dry wit again.”
“It’s all I can manage. Did you do this to get back at me?”
Hayden waggled her hand in the air. “A little, yeah. But you have to admit, it makes sense. You wanted them convinced.”
Sam sighed. “Yes. True.” Her gaze swept Hayden’s face. “You look ready to fall asleep right here.”
“I kind of am.” Hayden slipped off the stool. “I’m off to bed. Want to plan this in the next few days?”
“Yes. Fine.”
Hayden started toward the corridor and scooped up Frank. He put a paw on her face and glared her straight in the eye. She knew that look: food or death.
“Hayden?”
She turned around. Sam’s hip was against the counter, cup back in her hand.
“Yeah?”
“We should start letting each other know our work schedules. The other day, a nurse asked me when you were on next, and I pretended to receive a call to get away because I had no idea.”
Hayden smothered her grin in Frank’s neck. “You faked a call?”
“Mhm.”
“That’s hilarious.”
“Yes, it was all very funny. I’ll put my rotation on the fridge. Can you do the same?”
“Sure,” she said, yawning into Frank’s fur. He twisted his head around to look at her, affronted. “Okay.”
“Good night.”
“Night, Sam.”
CHAPTER 12
“So, when you coming?”
Hayden got off the bus a stop early. She’d be on this call for a while, and she knew how much it sucked listening to someone else’s phone conversation on public transportation. The wind swirled around her neck, and she hunched her shoulders, kicking herself for forgetting her scarf in her locker. She held the phone to her ear and sidestepped someone whose gaze was glued to the ground.
“Abuela, soon. I promise.”
“Yes, but when? We talked weeks ago.”
Hayden was grinning in spite of herself. “Sam and I were talking yesterday. We think we can both get a weekend off in a couple of weeks.”
“Sorry, you said one weekend? ¿Un fin de semana? Solito.”
“Yes.”
“We don’t see you in months and months, and you come for one weekend? Three nights is nada?”
Hayden winced. “Probably two.”
Silence on the phone. Hayden took a left at the next block and glanced around. Was she walking the right way to Sam’s house? Her house? Their house? Whatever. Her gaze fell on a tiny magazine stand that was run by a happy guy with the biggest beard she’d ever seen. Yes, right way. She was still getting used to this. This fancy-ass area was still a bit of a mystery, even after a month.
“Abuela.”
“Two nights?”
“It’s really hard to get time off at work at the moment.”
Which was true.
“You get married to someone we no know and then only come visit with us two nights?”
“Abuela. I’m sorry. I’ll try come for longer next time.”
Without Sam. More than two nights in a house they had to pretend to be very married in? No, thank you. A weekend was stupid enough. The shine of her getting back at Sam and dragging her down with her had faded quickly, and it had left Hayden with gnawing anxiety.
Abuela huffed. “I will believe that when I see it.”
“How’s Mamà?”
A pause. “She is the same. No better, no worse.” Abuela’s voice
had changed; it was softer. It always was when she spoke about her daughter. Hayden’s heart tripped over in her chest. “She will love to see you when you come, I’m sure.”
“Good.” Hayden’s throat seemed to have closed over; a prickling crawling up the inside of it. “Okay.”
“You are okay?”
“Yes, yes.” Hayden swallowed hard and kept her voice as normal as she could. “I’m fine.”
“Tell me more about this Sam.”
Hayden laughed, dodging a guy on a bike who shouldn’t even be on the sidewalk. “I told you everything.”
“If that is all that you know and have to say about your wife, I am worried.”
“Fine, fine. What do you want to know?” Her fingers were getting cold holding her phone, but she was enjoying her abuela’s voice. Even if the topic wasn’t fun.
“Everything.”
“That’s a lot of things.”
Abuela clucked her tongue. “Always too smart, you are. Tell me how you met.”
“At work.”
“That is it? All I get? ‘At work’?”
Hayden paused at a red light, looking up past the buildings at the gray sky. It would be winter soon. Rain and storms were going to start any day. The wind had already picked up. Snow would start not long after. She hated snow. Slushy and cold and horrible. Everything got icy and slippery.
“Well, that’s where we met.” The little person turned green, and Hayden crossed with the crowd she’d been waiting with.
Abuela sighed as if she was the hardest done-by person on the planet. “Fine. I will just question this Sam when she arrive to here.”
“Arrives here,” Hayden corrected, recognizing the park she was walking past. Almost home. It was going to be warm there.
“Yes. That. Arrives here. I will write a list of everything I want to know.”
Hayden groaned. “Awesome.”
“It will be. You wait. And your sister too. And Javi. He does not believe us that you married without telling us.”
Hayden could have groaned aloud. One more person to add lies to. A four-year-old who believed everything she said. Great. “It’s because it wasn’t a wedding, Abuela. It was something for us at City Hall.”
Abuela sniffed. “Whatever. Now go, I have to make empanadas. Your mamá asked me for them.”
“¿Con pollo?”
“Sí. Con pollo.”
Hayden almost pouted. She missed Abuela’s cooking. And her mother’s. “¿Y qué más?”