Page 87 of Keep Me
Present
Matty and I were standing on opposite sides of the hallway, staring at each other. No words have been exchanged since he called me his wife in front of our friends.
You’re married?
How long has this been going on?
Didn’t I ask you if you had a secret husband?
Why the hell didn’t you tell me?
Were you trying to get me involved in a threesome?
Why wasn’t I invited to the wedding?
Erik and Sienna’s questions raced through my mind as I leaned against the wall and rested my head against it. What had we done? Every single question they had was valid, I just wasn’t able to answer any of them until I figured out the answer myself. That meant having a conversation with Matty, one I’d been expertly avoiding over the last three months in the hopes it would go away entirely.
I rolled my head to the side, checking the hotel hallway was clear. There was no one around, everyone was down in the ballroom, yet I was doing everything in my power to delay this conversation.
When I looked over at Matty, he ran a nervous hand through his hair, smiling. Clearly, he wanted me to talk first. What the heck did he want me to say? This entire thing felt ridiculous and not how I ever thought my life would go. Unwilling to talk to my own husband.
My husband.
Matty was apparently my life partner, and we hadn’t even had sex yet. Hell, just twenty minutes ago, Sienna was trying to convince me I should be trying to get over him, and I was almost on board with it.
“So, you’re my husband?”
What else could I say to break the ice between us? The entire idea made my head spin. A husband was supposed to be devoted to you, and although he kept trying to convince me he was, he was having a kid with someone else. Someone Ithoughthe was engaged to.
“And you’re my wife.”
I swallowed down the disappointment. It felt so cheap being called his wife right now. When I thought about what my wedding would be like as a teenager, I always imagined marrying my best friend, and although that was Matty, it was never on a drunken night out.
“So we did actually get married in Vegas?”
Matty looked up with furrowed brows.
“Did you forget? Because it’s all I’ve been thinking about since the moment we said, ‘I do.’”
I shook my head, unwilling to tell him the truth. He couldn’t know that I’d been thinking about it too. That I was too afraid to have an actual conversation with him in case it wasn’t. Or worse,it was and he needed to divorce me so he could marry the true love of his life, Olana. Pain prickled in the back of my eyes as I tried so hard to hold back the tears.
That night was still the best night of my life, even if it ended so terribly. I’d felt like I was flying high, and nothing could bring me down. I admitted I was in love with my best friend and married him that night. How foolish I was to believe that would be our happily ever after?
I raised my hand limply. “I hadn’t forgotten. It’s just that we hadn’t talked about it.”
“Well, we can talk about it right now. We got married in Vegas, and I never got you that ring.” He laughed in a bitter and almost sarcastic kind of way. “You left the morning after before I could even talk to you, and then you proceeded to avoid me at every single opportunity. Even at the Crushers game when I saw you, I thought we could talk about it, but you told me you were dating Erik. I’m still not convinced it’s real.” He mulled it over for a second. “Although, he did have a pretty visceral reaction to the news that you were married, so there must have been something there.”
Was he trying to poke the bear with that statement? I shook my head, not even wanting to mention Olana. We’d just get into a fight, and I needed to understand what was going on with this marriage before I dealt with anything else.
“Are you sure it’s legit?”
“What? Our marriage?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I thought those places were kind of a joke.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Glad you think that the idea of marrying me is hilarious.”
I held my breath, not wanting to tell him how I truly felt. Nothing about Matty was a joke.
