The Marriage Code: A Novel

by Brooke Burroughs

  “Have you ever seen one?” Emma’s voice woke him from his tiresome train of thought.

  “Seen a what?” Rishi asked.

  “A tiger. I just can’t believe I might see one outside of a zoo.”

  They were halfway to the town of Thekkady, which Emma had suggested should be first on their agenda since the tiger preserve was there. Rishi didn’t want to spoil her fun, but it was called a tiger preserve, and that might mean there was just one tiger they were preserving.

  “I’ve never gone to a tiger preserve, so I’m not sure how many are actually there,” Rishi said. “The British killed most of them during colonial times. If you don’t see one, you’ll know who to blame.”

  Rolling down the window, he let the breeze rush over his face. There were so many trees. The green canopy of the forest arched over them, the air slightly misty in the higher elevations, cool enough you could wear a jacket.

  The driver slowed the car. “Boss,” he said in the local language, Malayalam. “Elephants ahead.”

  “Emma,” Rishi whispered, and his hand met hers with clandestine creeping on the seat. The immediate comfort from just touching her took him aback. He looked at her, dread coming over him, but the look on Emma’s face at seeing the three elephants marching, tails swishing side to side, taking up both lanes of the road, dismissed any worries and just let him enjoy her pleasure.

  Emma gripped Rishi’s hand, frozen. “It’s like National Geographic.”

  “Good thing they are going the other way,” Rishi said as they watched the herd exit off the road into a cluster of trees. “Angry elephants are a lot less cute.”

  “Well, that was amazing. I can die happy now.” Emma sighed, her head falling against the seat.

  “Because of a few elephants?”

  “Well, that and other things,” Emma said, gliding the edge of her hand along his thigh.

  That was it. Rishi was just going to have to forget about his family for a few days. Forget about his worry and just focus on the moment. All the moments they’d have together.

  They pulled into the driveway to a Dutch-styled brick-and-stone hotel. As they checked in and got their keys, the man at reception shifted his eyes back and forth between the two of them.

  He was attempting to diagnose their situation: Lovers? Illicit affair?

  Emma wasn’t wearing a mangalsutra around her neck to signify she was married to him. He waited for the guy to slip into Malayalam and ask Rishi. If they were a real couple, those suspicious looks would happen all the time.

  They dropped their bags off in the room and decided to explore Thekkady. The town itself was mostly filled with tourist shops, shelves lined with oils and spices, small tiger statues and T-shirts. Emma spotted a sign for a midnight trek through the tiger preserve.

  Rishi sighed as he looked at the sign, a thousand rupees, which was a ridiculous price for a trek where they wouldn’t see any animals. Plus it was pitch black at night in the forest. If there were actual tigers lurking around the preserve, they wouldn’t allow people to walk around during the tigers’ prime hunting time. But that spark of Emma’s eyes, like a little kid going Please! Please! got him. They decided to go after dinner.

  At ten, they walked toward a small shack next to a rusty gate marking the entrance to the preserve. The gate was covered in barbed wire, top and bottom. Six other tourists stood waiting for the midnight trek to start. Without a word, the two guides, dressed in jeans and button-up shirts, handed out stirruped canvas tubes.

  “What are these?” Emma asked.

  “Leech guards.”

  Rishi squinted at the canvas leggings in his hand, wondering what kind of superleeches were in the jungle that could creep up to your knees.

  After they’d started, Emma, who seemed a little shaky, grabbed Rishi’s arm and dragged him to walk right behind the man with the gun. Thirty minutes into the two-hour trek, and with no wildlife in sight, Rishi had given up any small expectations he’d had.

  The guard stopped, holding out his arms to bar anyone from moving. Emma clutched Rishi’s hand. The guide shone his flashlight into the brush and illuminated two wild pigs. Emma laughed beside him, and her grip loosened on his hand.

  Ninety minutes later, the guides had shown the group a shadow that was supposed to be a bear across a river, and a tree limb that was apparently a snake. The gate they’d entered shone ahead, reflecting the guide’s flashlight.

  Emma leaned over to Rishi, disappointment making her voice a whine. “No tigers!”

  Rishi laughed. “There is no way a tiger is going to come near eight people walking with flashlights and being way too loud. They’re secretive creatures.”

  “So you knew?” She stopped walking, her mouth open as she waited for an answer.

  “You seemed like you wanted another National Geographic moment, so I was willing.” He shrugged, smiling at her as they exited the sanctuary.

  One of the girls screamed and stomped her feet. “Get them off me! Get them off!”

  Emma grabbed on to Rishi and gasped, looking at the howling woman. The leeches were everywhere on her leech guards, squirming around like tiny black worms trying to find a gateway through the canvas.

  Rishi and Emma examined their own leech guards, which also had a few wormy leeches curling themselves on the tan canvas. Emma looked a little paler than usual, her fists tightened into balls, her body stiff. He gingerly removed the leechy leg warmers from Emma’s legs and threw them in a pile with the others.

  “There’s your National Geographic moment.” He laughed. “All better?”

  Emma nodded, but Rishi wasn’t convinced. It was two o’clock in the morning, and they hadn’t slept much the night before. She must have been tired. And disappointed. Maybe he should have protested going on this jungle trek.

  Emma was silent as they walked to their hotel. After Rishi opened the door to the room, she sprinted into the bathroom.

  After a few minutes of hearing nothing in the bathroom, Rishi stood outside the door, worried. Was it something he’d done? Something he’d said? “Emma?” The door pushed open as he knocked, and he could see Emma’s reflection in the mirror, twisting her body around, writhing in front of the sink, her hands searching her skin. Then they sank into her hair, trying to separate the thick chunks of curls as she looked at her scalp.

  She was completely naked.

  His voice got caught in his throat, and he had to clear it. “What are you doing?” he whispered in a shallow, husky voice.

  Emma pushed her hands on the edge of the sink, blushing. “I . . . was looking for blood-sucking parasites that are out in the jungle. Like leeches. And ticks.”

  Rishi normally would have laughed, except when a naked woman stood in front of him, he made it a rule to be very, very serious.

  “Let me continue searching for you then,” Rishi said, spinning her around, his hands on her hips. Emma kept her hands folded in front of her, clasped together at the V of her thighs.

  “I didn’t want to ask you.”

  “Nonsense. It’s part of my job as your tour guide.” Rishi bent down to the floor, stroking her calf and foot. “Looks like we’re all clear here,” he said softly, moving his hands up to her knees. One finger caressed the back of her knee, and Emma’s body sank a little.

  “You’re very thorough for a guide.” Her voice was soft, but a hint of mirth ran through it. At least she wasn’t freaking out anymore.

  “Looks like you are spotless here too,” Rishi said, bending his head behind her other knee, teasing it with the tip of his tongue.

  Her body shuddered against him. This was definitely one way to get her mind off leeches.

  Rishi’s hands slid up her thighs. “These look very, very good. Flawless, in fact,” he whispered, sliding his hands up and down the fronts and backs of her thighs. “But I feel I could better conduct my investigation in the adjoining room.” He turned her around and backed her into the bedroom.

  “You are going to destroy me,
” she sighed, hands tangled in his hair. “Or give me a concussion. I almost fell over.”

  Rishi started to laugh, and then Emma pushed him on the bed. “You know, I always believe in paybacks,” she said as she slid down the length of his body, unbuttoning his jeans.

  “What kind of payback are we talking about here?”

  She pulled out a condom and ripped it with her teeth. “The best kind.”

  CHAPTER 27

  It was the first weekend Emma hadn’t thought about work since she could remember. The thought came to her as she and Rishi sat at the helm of a thatch-roofed houseboat, floating along the narrow backwaters of Kerala. Leaning into the wooden chair embedded into the floor, she watched a flock of green parrots squawk through the leaves of the palms. The words Easter egg! sparked in her mind. Like a little unexpected prize on this journey she was on.

  Although maybe Rishi was really the unexpected prize.

  She looked over at him, sitting next to her as he stuffed a piece of pineapple in his mouth. Rishi ate it as he steered the boat behind a spindly steering wheel. They’d been on the boat for a few hours, with nothing to do except lie in the full sun, gaze at the forest of coconut trees that lined the backwaters, and sneak off to the onboard bedroom. He’d even convinced the captain of the boat that he could steer it himself through the wide expanse of the clear teal water. So they could be alone.

  Emma shoved a piece of pineapple in her mouth as well. The bright acidity made the sides of her tongue jump alive. Was it her imagination, or was it the sweetest, best-tasting pineapple she’d ever had? The past few days had been some of the most fantastic in her life. She looked at the man sitting next to her, the one she had resisted for weeks, the one she’d confided in, and the one who now architected pleasure in her body with exacting precision.

  She was sure she looked like a fool with little love hearts in her eyes.

  She should remember they were working together for a reason. They spent so much time together for a reason.

  Because she had given him something in return. A textbook algorithm to find his perfect wife.

  She’d somehow managed to ignore this fact for two days. And now they had to go back tomorrow. Back to reality and work and wifely searches. This was all going to be over, like a dream. A dream she’d remember every time she and Rishi met to discuss the app. Maybe when she watched him get married. Surely the whole team would be invited.

  Panic lurched up inside her, sticking inside her esophagus, burning at her breastbone. She had been a fool. And what was worse was that she didn’t even want to bring it up with him. Like the longer she could ignore this unspoken truth of their lives, the longer she could push it down, suppress the realness of it. Why should she spoil the moment by polluting this utopian scene with a barrage of questions about why he had to get married, if he had to get married, and what would happen to them after tomorrow?

  Or maybe she’d resisted because she didn’t want to know.

  Rishi’s hand tangled with hers. He raised their joined hands and kissed the back of hers.

  Her worry fluttered away as she glanced over to him, his eyes aglow in the sunlight reflecting off the water. Was it too soon to go back into the bedroom? Every time they’d scampered in the room, she couldn’t help but wonder if the captain and the cook could hear the two of them.

  Whatever could or couldn’t happen between them, she didn’t want to give up at least the pleasure she’d unearthed this weekend.

  It was too much to look into those eyes. To ask what they were thinking. To not know what they thought about the future or what was happening in Rishi’s brain.

  She pulled him tight against her and kissed him in the middle of this river, with the palms and sky as their only witnesses. The sun shone down on them, filling her up. This feeling, this fullness, had been missing from her life. And now she needed it more than anything she had needed before.

  It was easy to swallow the pinhole of doubt in her mind.

  But she didn’t want this to happen. How could she? She was catapulting herself into a place where hearts were broken and promises shed, and she was willingly going there because of this. And what was this? Pleasure? Infatuation? Lust? Insanity? Whatever it was, it was all Rishi.

  Maybe he was avoiding thinking about tomorrow too. Tomorrow, they would have to go back to Bangalore. Back to reality. Back to the project. Not losing themselves in each other. Not sailing around in clear waters beside a palm-dotted coast.

  She could barely put it into words, but something had changed. Something had bloomed between them, and Emma felt like a garden bursting forth with life.

  She could only hope that she hadn’t killed it with one touch of her finger.

  One keystroke.

  One painfully perfect textbook algorithm.

  CHAPTER 28

  The bubbly ring of Skype was somehow in direct contrast with how Emma was feeling, and also a mirror of it. She’d been waiting four days to talk to Jordana after her trip with Rishi, unable to find a time outside of work when Jordana was available. She’d told Rishi he couldn’t stay the night due to the basic fact that if she couldn’t talk to her best friend today, she might just melt into a puddle of confusion.

  And then she finally appeared on the screen. “Emma!”

  Jordana looked the exact opposite of her right now. She was standing in her door, a polished, fantastic blouse on, with that somehow dewy glow she kept even after work, when Emma usually felt her own makeup had sort of melted off as she’d stared into the radiation of the computer monitor.

  “Finally! It is so good to see you!” Emma sighed. “You just have no idea.”

  “How are you?” Jordana cocked her head a little. “You must have just woken up. Isn’t it like seven in the morning there?”

  “Oh yeah.” Emma held up her coffee cup and examined her face in the tiny square at the bottom of her laptop. Her hair was wiry and electrified and in need of taming. “And I swear no one is at work until ten, so that is how desperately I wanted to talk to you.”

  Jordana sat down on her couch. A couch that she and Emma had slouched on too many nights watching movies and eating takeout. “What’s going on?”

  “Remember that guy Rishi from Seattle, the one who—”

  Jordana leaned forward and rolled her eyes. “Oh no. What did he do this time?”

  Emma laughed. Clearly she’d regaled Jordana with too many woeful tales of Rishi right after she’d moved. “Well, it’s more like what didn’t he do . . .”

  “Oh my God. You two hooked up!” Her mouth hung open, but the glee was apparent. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You bitched about him way too much for it to be just an annoying coworker. So is he like a rebound from Jeremy?”

  Emma hadn’t considered the idea that Rishi might just be a rebound. “Aren’t rebounds supposed to be, like, you walk into a bar, and there’s some hot guy you normally wouldn’t go out with, like a hockey player or a tattoo artist . . .”

  “I’ve dated a tattoo artist—remember Jack? And Charlie used to play hockey.”

  “The point is, we work together, and we have a lot in common and . . .” Emma stared off at the corner of the room because she couldn’t bring herself to say all the things that mattered. That created this internal push-pull she was feeling, like her emotions were walking a tightrope, and with one misstep it could mean disaster.

  “I thought you basically hated each other.” Jordana pulled the phone closer to her face and whispered, “Is it, like, hate sex?”

  “What? No. Wait, what’s hate sex? Have you had hate sex?” Emma laughed.

  Jordana shook her head. “Never mind. This call isn’t about me! How do you feel about him?”

  Emma put her head in her hands. “I don’t know.”

  “Oh, we’re going to figure this out.” Jordana paused, and Emma looked back at the laptop. “Like if he were a food, what would he be?”

  The first thought that popped into her head made her realize how dire th
is situation was. She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked over them at her laptop. “Truffle mac and cheese.”

  Jordana’s eyes got wide, and she sat back. “Whoa, girl, you’ve got it bad.”

  Emma nodded. Her worst fear. Of course Jordana would be able to pull it out of her in a way that only the two of them would understand. “We went to this conference and had such a good time. But before that, really the past month, we’ve spent a lot of time together, and now that we’re back, he’s been staying the night every night—I mean, I had to basically kick him out last night so I could call you. And honestly, I was sad about it.” She sighed. “I know I’m rambling, but I just don’t know what to do.”

  “What’s the big deal? Because you’re like his team lead or whatever? People hide their relationships from people at work all the time. I’m glad you found someone. It sounds like he makes you happy.”

  Emma moaned. “I know.” The past week had been possibly the happiest she’d ever been. It made the sinking feeling in her chest sink that much lower. Like it was a sinkhole that was waiting to swallow her heart up. Every day, they’d gone to work together, Rishi dropping her off at the corner so their coworkers wouldn’t suspect anything. They’d timed their coffee breaks together while sneaking gropy little touches under the table. At lunch, she usually sat with Preeti and her friends, but she and Rishi would give little knowing glances to each other a few tables over. Then, after work, they’d drop their stuff off at Emma’s, hop in bed, and then go grab dinner. Back at home, they’d sometimes cuddle on her couch and watch a movie.

  Then wake up and do it all over again.

  It was romantic and sexy and sweet and perfect.

  And possibly doomed.

  Jordana squinted at the screen. “Emmie, what is it?” she sang softly, like she was trying to coax a kitten out of a tree. But then her eyes got big, and she made a clicking sound in her mouth. “Wait, oh shit. I remember now. Weren’t you helping him find a wife with all those silly requirements?”