by Ellie Hall
“Are there any good restaurants in Portland?” I asked.
“It’s a fairly large city. I’m sure we can find something decent.”
“You don’t have a favorite?” I asked.
“Not particularly.” He looked at me before looking back at the road.
Why did he look so unsure?
“I work a lot, so food is just something I have to do to keep me alive.”
For some reason I wanted him to relax. “I guess we can explore good restaurants together then.”
“Are you a good cook?” he asked.
I held in a smile. “It doesn’t really matter since you only use food for fuel.”
A small smile tipped his lips before he nodded.
I was a pretty decent cook, but I’d let him discover that on his own.
We didn’t drive very far before he pulled into a small parking lot. The building looked old and dingy and not at all appetizing. But this was his territory. It was probably one of those hole-in-the-wall restaurants that only locals knew about with amazing food once you made it past the front door.
“Let’s try this place. Are you allergic to seafood?” he asked.
“No, but it doesn’t look like this place serves seafood.”
“I guess we’ll see,” he said, opening the door for me.
As the waiter sat us at a table, Zach opened the menu, scanning it. “You’re right. It doesn’t look like they serve seafood. I hope you like Chinese.”
I nodded. “I’m not terribly picky.”
“It looks like they have some seafood,” I said, looking at a small section at the bottom.
“Good,” he answered.
“I take it you haven’t eaten here?” I asked, realizing he probably wasn’t exaggerating about only eating food for fuel.
“No,” he said distractedly.
After the server took our orders, he focused back on me. “So, what do you want to talk about?”
“Let’s get some of the more obvious things out of the way. I don’t have a job anymore, but I have enough to pay my way until I find a new one.”
“What do you mean, pay your way?” he asked.
“I sold my car before I came out here. I’m not sure what kind of public transportation you have, but I might need to purchase another one if I can. I might need to borrow yours until I can figure that out.”
“That’s not a problem,” he said.
“And I don’t think we should combine our finances just yet.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“We should keep our bank accounts separate until we get to know each other better. While I agreed to marry a stranger, I don’t know enough about you to know if you went into this for honest reasons.”
“So, you want to make sure I’m not going to just scam you out of your money?” he asked.
I could feel my cheeks heating up already. Nothing like accusing your new husband of being a scammer to put him in the mood.
“I might be crazy marrying someone I don’t know, but I’m not naive,” was all I could answer.
“That actually makes me feel better. I agree,” he said.
I relaxed. “Thank you.”
“Anything else?” he asked.
“You already agreed to separate bedrooms until we get to know each other.”
He nodded. “What about a family?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you want children?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate.
“Are you okay with living on the water?” he asked, switching gears.
I nodded. “I lived on the water in Florida so actually, I’d prefer it.”
“Another thing we have in common. What did you like about Florida the most?”
“I moved there for the weather and I wanted to be on the water. Luckily, I found a job easily and the rest was history.”
“What part of Florida was your favorite?”
“You mean city?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Well, I lived in Aripeka, and absolutely loved it so I might be a little biased but that’s my answer.”
“Wait, you lived in Aripeka?” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Yes, don’t you remember? It was on the application.”
“Oh, right. It must have slipped my mind.”
“Are you surprised? Most people haven’t even heard of the town.”
“I have family that lives in Spring Hill.”
“Really? You never said anything when we were emailing. I work in Spring Hill. I wonder if I’ve ever met your family.”
“I didn’t tell you my brother lives in Spring Hill?” He sounded a little put out.
I chuckled. “I will admit this whole situation was a whirlwind. I don’t blame you for forgetting some things.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” he said.
“Well, it sounds like you won’t have any problems visiting Florida and I’ll be able to get my fix when you go visit your family.”
“It sounds like you weren’t one hundred percent sold on moving to Oregon,” he said.
“I’m going to miss my friends and my job.”
“But you were willing to drop everything to move to Oregon, just to marry a stranger?” he asked.
“Yes. Like I said before, I had a good feeling about it.”
He shook his head. “I just don’t understand why anyone would sign up to marry someone through email.”
“Well, since you’re the one who filled out the application—did somebody twist your arm or something?”
He cleared his throat. “No. Maybe I was just thinking I was a little crazy.”
“Do you regret it?” I asked again.
“No, not at all,” he said, in a very convincing tone, though I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
It wasn’t like I could interrogate him, so I moved on. “Do you have anything major planned for us this week?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “I guess I didn’t plan that far out. I’m just treating these next two weeks as a honeymoon.”
“It’ll be the most unconventional honeymoon in history.”
“Yes, but something tells me it’s not going to be that bad.” He smiled, looking as if he was ready to start this marriage with no going back.
My insides danced and I had to admit he was probably right.
The food came, getting us away from these get-to-know-you questions.
This day had been exhausting, and I was surprised I needed a break to get a hold of my thoughts.
Zach
I chewed slowly on the greasy food, instantly regretting my choice of restaurant. I tried to hide the grimace as I swallowed. I shouldn’t have given her the line of food for fuel. Now I had to pretend that I was okay eating this garbage.
I smiled, looking at her reaction. She looked like she was enjoying the food about as much as I was. I gave her a teasing gaze before taking another bite with my chopsticks.
We finished the meal in silence.
I decided to let her have a rest on the get-to-know-you questions. And I needed to figure out a way to tell her that I wasn’t Brandon. I convinced myself to keep the lie going on the pretense that I still had two weeks before I needed to leave. I wanted her to get to know me and like me before I dropped that bomb on her.
As she pushed her plate aside, with half her food still there, I had to admit defeat.
“Next time we’ll look at the reviews before deciding on a place,” I said, giving her a side grin.
Her lips curled into a smile as well. “At least I know you’re not going to have a problem with my cooking.”
“I’m sure I’ll like anything you make,” I reassured her.
As the waitress brought some fortune cookies with the bill, I grabbed one, opening it with a crack and sliding out the piece of paper.
Reading it out loud I said, “New challenges and adventures await.” I smirked, knowing it was a pretty accurate fortune for wh
at I was facing right now.
I placed the piece of paper back on the table and looked at her. “I really don’t like fortune cookies. They always tell me I’m going to have a hard life.”
She laughed, picking up her fortune cookie and cracking it open. “I love these, they always tell me I’m going to be rich.”
I tilted my head back and laughed then watched as a wide grin split her features.
“You will be successful through innovation and determination. See,” she said, “I’m going to be rich.”
“You know you could interpret that differently,” I said, trying to tease her.
“I could, but I’m not. And the same could go for you,” she told me.
“I thought you didn’t care about money.”
She chuckled, placing the piece of paper back down. “Maybe I lied.”
I cleared my throat, knowing I was doing just that. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yep.” She grabbed her purse and stood while I went to the register to pay for the meal.
“Do you mind if we just go home?” I asked as she stepped next to me.
“That would be perfect. It’s been a long day already.”
“Maybe this evening I will give you a tour of the beach,” I said, guiding her back to the car.
Emma tilted her head to the cloudy sky above us. “That would be nice but I’m not sure how prepared I am for this weather. Maybe tomorrow I could run to a department store.”
“That’s not a problem,” I said, thinking it would be a great opportunity to get to know this new Emma.
I was ready to start my life with her.
4
Emma
As we stepped up to the door, two packages sat in front of it.
“What are these?” Zach asked.
“Oh, they came just in time,” I said, bending down to pick up one of the boxes.
Zach opened the door then picked up the other one, walking into his apartment. I followed him and moved the box into my bedroom. I turned around at the sound of Zach following behind me. He placed his box on the bed.
“What did we just bring in?” he asked.
I opened one of them. “My life reduced to two boxes.” I pulled out the yearbook that was sitting on top then looked at the other random junk. I’d need to go through it later.
“That’s not very encouraging,” Zach said, looking at my box full of stuff.
I turned to him. “At least my life wasn’t reduced to one box.”
He chuckled. “You’re a very optimistic person.”
“I try.”
He moved closer to me, invading my space. The air in the room suddenly grew thick. Before I had time to react, he pulled me into his arms and gave me a tight hug.
“What’s this for?” I asked, tipping my head up to meet his eyes.
He smiled, placing a light kiss on my forehead. “It’s our wedding night.”
I cleared my throat, looking around the bedroom. This just got very awkward. Again.
Thankfully my arms were still wrapped around my yearbook forming a barrier between us.
He chuckled then released me, grabbing a hold of my hand and weaving his fingers through mine, tugging me out of the bedroom.
I held onto the yearbook with my free hand and let him guide me into a safer room in the house. My heartbeat slowed down as we entered the living room.
“What do you want to do?” I asked.
He looked down at the book I was holding then pointed to it.
I rolled my eyes, but he just laughed and sat down on the couch.
“What are you doing?” I asked stubbornly.
Why had I brought my yearbook with me?
“Getting to know you.” He pulled the yearbook from my hand and cracked it open, amazingly going right to my picture.
At least I had chosen my senior yearbook. It was the best out of all of them. I looked the most mature. It looked like me.
I reluctantly sat next to him. “You’re trying to figure out who your wife is?”
His smile grew as his light chuckle went straight to my heart. Ugg. I was in trouble.
“This is kind of unfair. Where’s your yearbook?” I looked around the room, knowing it probably wasn’t in sight.
He cleared his throat and focused on the page in front of him. “You haven’t changed.” He looked back at me.
I touched the nonexistent wrinkle lines near my eyes. I was only twenty-five, but I suddenly felt self-conscious. “You don’t think I’m getting any wrinkles?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I must be a grandpa to you if you think you’re old enough to have wrinkles.”
I smiled. He was only five years older than me, but the connection was still funny. Neither of us should have been worrying about getting married, yet it had been one of our top concerns.
I took the yearbook from him and opened it up to the student council page, showing him that I wasn’t a total failure in high school. I pointed to my picture as I sported the knit jacket that bore the high school letters on the pocket.
“I’m impressed. Student Council.”
“Yeah, well, I just wanted to get out of class, if I’m being honest.”
“You sure put a lot of effort into getting out of class. You still had to maintain good grades to be in that spot. I doubt it wasn’t as easy as you make it out to be.”
“No,” I said, remembering my high school years. At the time I felt like I was king of the hill. It didn’t take me very long to realize life was completely different out of high school. I went from being practically one of the most popular girls in school to a big fat nobody in college. I took a big hit to my self-esteem and made me realize I had been too shallow in high school. Something I didn’t necessarily want to bring up with Zach.
I closed the yearbook. “What about you?”
“What do you mean?”
I clarified for him, more interested in who he was in high school than reliving my past. He had to have been more worthy than me. “Did you do anything particular in high school?”
He twisted his lips. “Not really. I just blended into the background.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said, looking at my now husband.
“You wouldn’t have noticed me in high school,” he said.
I couldn’t believe him. “I doubt that. Apparently we’re pretty compatible,” I teased.
“Things are always different in high school.”
I had to admit he was right. Would we have been compatible in high school if given the chance?
“Okay change in topic,” I said, if only to get us off the subject of my past.
He gave me his full attention and I melted just a little. How did he do that? I cleared my throat, focusing on his deep green eyes. “What do you do for a living?”
He scrunched his eyebrows together.
Wow, he was beautiful. I realized I was being shallow again so I tried to focus on what he was saying.
“Didn’t it say that on the application?” he asked.
“Technically, but it didn’t give me any details. You’re an engineer, which I find hard to believe.”
He smiled. “Why? Don’t I look very engineer like?”
“It’s not so much your looks as your personality. I just don’t peg you as an engineer from the little I know about you so far.” I tried to sound like I knew what I was talking about. When in reality, I didn’t. I had a picture of all engineers being these aloof people who you couldn’t understand.
He gave me a mischievous smile. “Not knowing for certain but having a high regard for the truth, I hesitate to speculate on that degree of accuracy which characterizes my moral observation.”
I laughed out loud. “Now you sound like an engineer. I didn’t understand a word you said.”
His smile stretched. “It’s a fancy way of saying, I don’t know. I’m probably not the type of engineer you are picturing though.”
“What is it you do then?” I asked.
“I w
ork with computers.”
“So you’re a computer engineer?”
“Sort of. I build websites and write code, very boring stuff to most people. Engineer is an honorary title.”
“Oh, so you cheated on your resume. I see how it is,” I teased.
“As long as my boss is happy, I’ll take any title they give me.”
“You are an engineer. My eyes are glazing over as we speak,” I said, trying to make light of his profession. Although I knew he probably went to school for a long time learning all it took to excel in his field.
“And what about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“What is it you do?”
“I work for a small company in sales. Pretty boring, but I like it,” I said.
“What do you sell?” he asked.
“We cater to scientists, mostly marine equipment.”
“That sounds interesting.”
“It keeps my heart on the ocean.”
“So you love the ocean, huh?”
“I do.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I live by the ocean.”
We both looked out the window at the same time. “I will admit you have a pretty good view. Although I’m not quite used to this ocean.”
“It does take a little getting used to, doesn’t it?” he said absentmindedly.
“It looks like there’s some good surfing here though.” I noticed the few people out there were trying to catch some waves.
“It is a popular spot for surfing, I think.” He looked at me. “But you definitely have to wear a wetsuit out here. It’s not Florida, I imagine,” he said, a little belatedly.
“Yeah I guess.” My mind went to the hot beaches of my hometown.
“What would you say if I told you I was thinking about moving to Florida?” he asked.
I snapped my head back to him. “I would say why didn’t you think about that sooner instead of making me quit my job to move to Oregon?” I tried not to sound put out, but if he was having doubts about living in Oregon he should have brought them up sooner.
Was this his way of trying to back out of our marriage? I tried not to panic too much. We hadn’t done anything yet, but we seemed to get along well.
“It was just a thought,” he said. “You seem to miss Florida a little.”