The Marriage Contract

by Rose Wulf

  Ophelia reached out and traced her fingers one more time over the lettering. “I miss you,” she said quietly.

  A breeze tickled by and she smiled a little. Her arm fell to her lap.

  She so rarely visited her mother’s grave. It only ever depressed her. Besides, what good was looking at—or talking to—an engraved piece of rock? For sylphs, in particular, who held the belief the departed soul transcended to truly become one with the wind, forever unified, a physical marker such as a gravestone was merely symbolic. For Ophelia, it was a symbol of heartbreak. A reminder of so many things that had gone wrong in her life, things beyond her control.

  On her deathbed, her mother had convinced her to cooperate with her father’s will and see the marriage through. So she’d been married to a stranger only days after her eighteenth birthday. A short few weeks later, her mother had passed and Ophelia had grieved alone. The loss of her mother had been what finally took her father away. She still believed that. He’d never been as passionate, as lively, as her mother, but when she’d become ill, he’d grown distant. When she’d died he turned … almost emotionless.

  Ophelia’s heart still ached at the memories of that time of her life. They were filled with more pain and confusion than anything else. She couldn’t have imagined ever feeling something similar again. She certainly never wanted to.

  A tear stole down her sore cheek. A physical reminder of the fresh and crippling emotional wound her last family member had inflicted on her.

  She only had Batson left now. Something that might be more comforting were it not for the fact that she wasn’t allowed to turn to him for comfort, to rely on him, the way a wife should be able to depend on her husband.

  “Is this … what you wanted for me?” The question fell from her lips before Ophelia could stop herself. A pointless thing to say out loud, but there it was. Hanging in the air. She swallowed another lump in her throat as if waiting for a response.

  None came.

  Sighing, Ophelia pushed to her feet. She missed her mother. She always would. But coming to the cemetery only made her feel the loss more. Wiping carefully at her face, Ophelia lifted her gaze to the sky. “I hope you’re enjoying your freedom, Mom,” she whispered before she turned and started down the path that would take her to the parking area. It was only mid-afternoon, but the day had been an emotional roller coaster and she was more than ready to put it behind her.

  ****

  “I’ve been so worried about you!” Alice exclaimed, pushing into Ophelia’s house not three hours later. She was obviously fresh from work, still wearing the emblazoned t-shirt, though she’d taken her hair out of the requisite ponytail.

  “Ah,” Ophelia started, caught off-guard by the greeting, as she habitually closed the front door and trailed after her friend. “I’m … sorry?”

  Alice dumped her purse on the island and spun back around, waving a pointer finger in her direction. “You should be! I called you and texted you on Sunday and you never responded!”

  Ophelia drew a breath. She hadn’t had any missed calls or notifications. Had her grandmother gone through her phone, too? Why on earth would she have deleted Alice’s messages?

  She didn’t have the chance to respond before Alice continued. “Then this morning, too. I even drove over to your work on my break, just to check on you since you weren’t answering your phone, and your boss said you’d called off.” Alice made a face and gestured with her hands in the air. “You never call off! I came by your house, but your car was gone. Hell, I knocked on Batson’s door, but he was gone, too. Makes sense, I know, but I was desperate.”

  Guilt gnawed on Ophelia’s stomach. How much of this could she answer honestly? Did she have to go with the lie? Probably. Gods, she didn’t want to. She just wanted to confide in her best friend. But she couldn’t, especially not now. “I’m really sorry, Alice,” she said quietly. “This is going to sound stupid, but, I lost my purse yesterday while I was out. My phone was in it.”

  Alice arched a pointed brow, the skepticism obvious. “You mean the phone I can clearly see on your coffee table? That phone?”

  “Yes,” Ophelia replied. “Someone found it and turned it in this morning. I’d called off because I was upset and I thought I had to get all new cards, and a replacement license, and my keys were in the purse so I’d had to leave my car at the deli. It was a mess. Work was the last thing I wanted to deal with. Getting it back was a miracle, honestly.”

  This time Alice paused. “Jeez,” she said. “That’s horrible. Did you walk all the way home? Why didn’t you borrow someone’s cell and call me?”

  Ophelia’s smile turned sour. “Actually, I was out with Grandma when it happened. I got a ride home.” She didn’t want to mention Keith if she could avoid it. Ever again.

  Alice sighed, the tension in her shoulders disappearing, and moved up to give Ophelia a hug. “I’m sorry all that happened. You could’ve bummed your neighbor’s phone yesterday, I’d have come over and kept you company. Driven you around today. We could’ve played hooky from work like we used to do in college.”

  At that, Ophelia laughed. When they stepped apart, she said, “I was pretty upset, to be honest. It never occurred to me.”

  Alice rolled her eyes, pretending to find offense at the response. “Lame,” she said. She hooked her arm through Ophelia’s. “So you’ve had a rough couple of days, then. How about we go out somewhere? I have to change, obviously, but we could grab dinner and do something fun. Go to a bar and watch idiots get drunk.”

  “Oh, that sounds exciting,” Ophelia returned with a grin. “Watching other people get drunk.”

  “Well, if you’d drink more than once in a blue moon, we could be the idiots getting drunk,” Alice said with a matching grin. It was an old joke.

  “Somehow,” Ophelia replied, moving to snatch her phone up from the coffee table, “that just doesn’t sound thrilling. But I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” She held Alice’s purse out to her. “You’re driving.”

  Chapter Ten

  She had no idea how this had happened. It had been a dumb, impulsive idea from the start. Alice’s fault, without a doubt. They could have gone and done just about anything, it wasn’t that late by the time they were done with dinner, but Ophelia hadn’t wanted to be cooped up. So Alice had flippantly suggested mini golf. Ophelia didn’t even like mini golf, but it was outdoors and a good way to pass a little time with her friend. So she’d agreed. They were literally on their first hole when their duo became an unexpected trio.

  Kipp had apparently come out with a couple of relatives, and they’d just finished, but he’d seen a pair of familiar faces and couldn’t stop himself from saying hi. Saying hi, of course, turned in to joining them—because games like this were more fun with more people. Ophelia supposed that was true enough, as long as the people were decent individually. She had nothing against Kipp, only that he made her nervous on principle. But it only took about two minutes to understand why Batson constantly said the man was girl crazy. Though at least he was being friendly in his flirtation. More importantly, in Ophelia’s opinion, his focus wasn’t on her.

  “It’s okay to admit you’ve over-exerted yourself for one night,” Alice teased when Kipp failed, for a second time on the same hole, to sink his ball.

  Kipp laughed good-naturedly and stepped out of the way. “Not by a longshot, I assure you,” he said.

  Ophelia moved up for her turn, leaving the two bantering singles on the sidelines with a subtle shake of her head. The problem here was that Alice was a natural-born flirt. She wasn’t sure which of the two was leading the other at this point.

  “You’d better not be losing on purpose,” Alice returned.

  “No,” Kipp said as Ophelia took her swing. “I’m not too proud to admit mini golf isn’t my game.”

  Ophelia turned around, her own ball rolling just shy of the goal, and grinned. “Wow. A man who admits to not being King of All Games. I didn’t know such a creature existed
.”

  Both Kipp and Alice laughed as Alice switched places with her.

  “I am a rare breed,” Kipp declared boastfully.

  Alice and Ophelia exchanged exaggerated eye rolls.

  “All right, Mr. Rare Breed,” Alice began, “let me show you how it’s done.” She tapped her ball and it fell easily into the hole.

  “You had, like, two inches to go!” Kipp exclaimed. “That hardly counts.”

  Moving out of the way once more, Alice quipped, “Isn’t that always the man’s excuse?”

  Kipp choked.

  Their banter only got worse as they made their way through the course. By the time they were done and turning in their rented equipment, Ophelia was officially concerned. She watched Kipp and Alice exchange phone numbers and wondered if she should warn Batson. No, that would be ridiculous. This was life. It wouldn’t be a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

  “All right,” Alice declared as they reached her car. “I guess the responsible thing to do would be to call it a night. Some of us work tomorrow.” She paused and looked over to Ophelia. “You’re going in to work in the morning, aren’t you?”

  Ophelia smiled. “Of course. I got my car and my wallet back.” And she had no pressing need to talk to family.

  “Wait,” Kipp interrupted, sounding concerned. “Your car and wallet were stolen? What happened?”

  “Ah,” Ophelia started, feeling a little awkward telling him. There was no real reason for it, though, so she gave him an abridged version of the story she’d given Alice. An outline of the truth she didn’t have to feel terribly guilty about.

  He cringed. “Damn. Well, it’s good you got your stuff back.” He tucked his hands into his pockets and added, “It was nice to see you ladies. I had fun. You have a good rest of your night.”

  Ophelia and Alice bade him goodnight and Kipp made a graceful exit toward his own vehicle, halfway across the parking lot.

  Once they were securely locked in the cab of the car and buckled in, Alice said, “That was unexpected. He was fun, though.”

  Ophelia fought to keep her grin small. “He was definitely into you.”

  Alice let her see the eye roll before she turned the key in the ignition and started the car. “I’m not looking for a matchmaker, thank you, Miss Hypocrite.”

  “Oh, I’m not matchmaking,” Ophelia said, holding up a hand as if to defend herself from the accusation. “I thought it was obvious.” She couldn’t help herself, though. Alice did it to her all the time. “Kind of like how you were pretty into him, too.”

  “Ophelia!”

  She laughed a little. “I’m just calling it like I see it. Do with the observation as you will.”

  “Well,” Alice started, pausing awkwardly as though she didn’t know what to actually say, “so what if I was sort of interested? I’m single now. I’m allowed to flirt.”

  “You absolutely are,” Ophelia agreed. “I don’t judge.” She watched the headlights of passing cars as Alice drove.

  Alice was quiet for a minute before she said, “At least I already know he’s employed.”

  The statement caught Ophelia so off-guard she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “Yes,” she said once she’d gathered herself. “Employed is good.”

  Alice laughed with her before clicking on the radio.

  ****

  “What if we just have a house party?” Kipp asked during lunch the following day. “I mean, it’s last minute, but your place is small anyway, so that’d work out. We could get a few of the guys, a few girls—”

  “When have I ever had a fucking house party?” Batson interrupted around the bite he’d just taken of his sandwich. He paused to chew and swallow before continuing. “If you’re still angling for your stripper dream, you can fuckin’ forget it.”

  Kipp laughed and bumped his elbow into Batson’s arm as if they were trading jokes. “No, man, I heard you. No strippers.” He gulped down some of his water. “But seriously, it’s tomorrow. What’re you doing?”

  “Nothing,” Batson replied. “Same as usual. What’s the big damn deal?”

  “You need to learn to celebrate life,” Kipp said. “Have a little fun from time to time. Just something harmless, you know?” He gestured to a group of their coworkers who were clustered together and laughing. “We could invite them, have a couple drinks and order pizza. Shoot the breeze. Talk about girls, whatever.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Or invite some girls.”

  “Kipp—”

  Kipp’s eyes lit up. “You never went to any mixers in college, did you? We should organize something like that! Even just a small one! You, me, maybe one more guy. A few ladies. Food, drinks—a recipe for a good night!”

  Batson reached over and smacked his fellow salamander upside the head. “That shit never appealed to me, idiot.” Picking up his sandwich again, he added, “You wanna go, have fun. Without me.”

  “I dunno, man,” Kipp said. “Last night I ended up playing a round of mini golf with Alice and your pretty neighbor. I might be able to get them to go…”

  Batson tightened his hand on his food to keep from reacting. What the hell? Kipp had been out with Lia and her friend? There was no way that’d been on purpose. “How’d you manage that?” he asked, feigning casual interest. What would he normally focus on if the story hadn’t involved Lia? Since when did Kipp even care about any kind of golf?

  Chuckling as if he were proud of himself, Kipp leaned back against the wall and said, “My cousin and his twins came to town for a couple of days. He’s obsessed with it, so he wanted to take the kids to mini golf before they go home. Guess they don’t have a good course or something back home.” He shrugged. “Anyway, we were getting ready to check out when I saw the girls stepping out on the green. I couldn’t help myself.”

  Batson chomped on his food. “Don’t tell me you stalked ’em the entire night.”

  “It’s only stalking if you do it in secret,” Kipp replied with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. “I voluntarily endured a second tour around the kiddie course in the interest of spending time with two beautiful women.” He nudged Batson’s arm again. “You should take notes.”

  “Fuck off,” Batson grunted.

  Kipp laughed around his mouthful of food. Maybe once, in all the years they’d known each other, had Kipp ever taken Batson seriously. That was probably why they were still friends.

  “Okay, okay,” Kipp started after another minute or two, “we have to figure this out. No strippers, no house party, no mixer. So what do you want to do?” He shoved a finger in Batson’s face. “You’re not allowed to say ‘nothing’ again, and please don’t suggest the gym.”

  Batson arched a brow. “What’s wrong with the gym?”

  “Nothing,” Kipp replied. “On any normal Wednesday.” The way he emphasized the entire sentence implied that the gym was no place for a birthday.

  Whatever. It wasn’t as if Batson really wanted to spend it there, anyway. He sighed and shoved Kipp out of his personal space. “Look, dammit, I don’t know, all right? I’m not in the mood.”

  Kipp sighed, as if greatly burdened. “Okay, fine,” he said. “I’ll just have to surprise you.”

  Batson growled. “Like hell you will.”

  Final bite of his lunch in his mouth, Kipp returned, “I gave you a chance.”

  ****

  “Why me?” Ophelia asked carefully as she regarded the full-blooded salamander across from her. This was about the last conversation she’d expected to be having when Kipp Kirby had begged her to meet him at the coffee shop that evening.

  Kipp offered her a pleading smile. “You’re neighbors,” he started.

  “Yes,” she cut in. “Neighbors.”

  His smile widened. “He’s a good guy, though. And you’ve technically known him since, what, high school? At least?”

  Both true… “What’s your point?” Ophelia asked. Because, while she wasn’t actually bothered at all—and would, in fact, be more than happy to
agree to Kipp’s request—she needed a solid excuse. Something outwardly defendable. And she absolutely could not show interest.

  Kipp had bought her a coffee, as thanks for meeting after work hours, and wasted no time in asking her to help him get Batson to the impromptu semi-surprise birthday party he’d apparently arranged. Last minute. The request caught Ophelia entirely off-guard. While the fact that she and Batson were neighbors was by no means a secret, she didn’t quite see how that connected to his best friend not only inviting her, but letting her in on the planning stage. Being a part of a planned birthday event for Batson was something Ophelia had long wanted to do, so she was inclined to say yes, but Kipp needed to give her something first.

  “So, what I’m thinking,” Kipp said, “is that since you’re neighbors and you know each other a little, he probably won’t be automatically suspicious of you. Plus, he’s less likely to be a complete jackass to you, even if he’s feeling grumpy.”

  There was a certain amount of logic to that part.

  Ophelia spun her coffee in place on the table and said, “And you want me to come so you can invite Alice, right?”

  His eyes widened for a second before a sheepish grin lifted the edges of his lips. “There might also be some truth in that.”

  Well, he was honest. That was a point in his favor. Ophelia sipped at her coffee before slowly saying, “What if we did it a bit differently?”

  Kipp’s head shifted slightly to the side as one of his brows lifted. “Differently how?”

  She was walking a very fine line now and she knew it. The entire acceptability for this hinged on Kipp’s admitted desire to see Alice again and their mutual awareness that Ophelia’s attendance was his best chance. But they both technically knew she didn’t have to play a role to be invited. She drew a breath. “How about I leave earlier, and call him with an emergency. My car broke down or something.” She paused, grinned faintly, and added, “It’s like you said, he’s less likely to be a jackass to me, right?” She felt a little guilty even saying it, since she knew he’d absolutely come if she made such a call. Kipp, however, did not know that.