Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
“Jesus Christ, West! Just please come in here!”
“Okay, okay. I’m on my way.” Slinging her purse over my shoulder and collecting our carry-ons, I make my way to the ladies’ room, where Anna peeks out into the hallway. As soon as she sees me, she reaches forward, grabbing the front of my shirt and jerking me inside.
Apologizing over her shoulder to a woman washing her hands at the sink—“I swear we aren’t going to have sex in here!”—Anna pulls me into a stall and flips the lock.
I break eye contact to look around us. Nothing seems to be broken. She doesn’t appear to be injured. I am just as confused as I was a minute ago. “I cannot imagine what you need me for.”
With a grimace, she moves her hand, revealing to me that her shorts are completely unfastened. The white lace of her underwear is visible, as is a soft stretch of her navel, and a fever climbs up my neck.
“Tell me what’s happening here,” I say, averting my eyes. “I’m not risking a guess again.”
Her shoulders slump. “I can’t button my pants.”
At this, my gaze jerks back to hers, and she holds up her hands, wiggling her pink-tipped fingers. As if to demonstrate, she reaches for the zipper but with her long nails can’t grasp the pull with her fingertips. A laugh rips out of me.
“It’s not funny,” she growls.
“Are you sure?”
“What am I going to do the entire time? Have you button up my pants for me?”
“How did you get dressed this morning?” I ask.
“I had to use a paperclip and a hanger.”
“It didn’t occur to you that you wouldn’t be able to use your hands the way you’re used to?”
“Vivi uses her nails as tools. Honestly, I thought I’d be able to put Ikea furniture together with these things.” She pauses. “Not that anyone in your family would ever require help with Ikea furniture.”
“You didn’t have to change your entire personality to do this.”
She looks up at me, eyes narrowing. “Say that again. I wasn’t watching and I want to see if you can do it with a straight face.”
“I need you there,” I clarify. “And I need you to look like you’re comfortable with me, comfortable being married to me. But I don’t need you to pretend to not be Anna Green, Muppet-human hybrid.”
Her smile breaks across her face like a sunrise. “Okay. That was pretty good. But you’re paying me a lot of money. I want to look the part.”
That’s fair enough. It sounds sleazy, though, and I don’t love this situation for about a million reasons, but there are a hundred million more reasons why I’ll shut up and deal with it. With a short, fortifying breath, I reach for the front of her shorts, surprised by how steady my hands are as I pull the zipper up. My pulse turns to machine gun fire when the knuckle of my index finger accidentally brushes against her stomach. I fasten the button and then step away, clearing my head.
She runs her hands over the front of her shorts, exhaling a relieved sigh. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
We stare at each other in silence. She smells like sugared oranges and my mouth waters. I need to get my shit together. “You should know,” I tell her, “that my family thinks you’re meeting me in Singapore.”
Anna frowns. “Why’s that?”
“Because I told them you’re flying in from Cambodia.”
She waits for me to say more and when I don’t, she laughs. “Why’s that?”
“I needed a reason why we couldn’t fly with my parents on the family plane.”
Her eyes go round. “The fam—” Anna shakes her head. “You know what? Never mind. Of course you have a plane.” Straightening, she asks, “So, why was I in Cambodia? Photography? Fabric design?”
I roll my lips between my teeth, inhaling a deep breath. This probably won’t go over well. “You were there as part of a medical school course.”
Her mouth shapes out a few sounds before she manages to speak. “This is why you were freaking out about me changing my major! Oh my God, West, they think I’m in medical school?”
“In my defense, it wasn’t a lie when we knew each other. I just embellished a little.”
“A little? You have me studying in Cambodia.”
I hesitate but know I should just get it over with. “They think you’ve just finished your third year.”
“West, there’s a reason I switched to fine arts. I was a solid C-minus student in every premed class. I barely know what temperature is considered a fever.”
I can only hope she’s being dramatic, but either way, this is going to be a shit show, and I can only blame myself. I reach for the handle on the bathroom stall, telling her quietly, “Fortunately, you have thirty hours to learn.”
Seven
LIAM
Once, when we were roommates, Anna flew to Seattle with a friend. It had been her first time on an airplane, and she struggled so much navigating the travel website that she brought me her laptop at midnight and asked for help. I finished the transaction for her, prebooked the car to the airport, and then quietly tracked the ride the day she left to make sure she got there okay. When she got home, she made a point of thanking me for the help. Apparently, the trip itself was fine, but the highlight for her had been flying on an airplane.