Page 33 of Accidentally Marrying the Prisoner
Yay! Drew will be so excited!
Is Mirabeth coming with you?
Yes
Even if I have to get all bossy so she’ll finally leave the apartment and get some much-needed fresh air. With any luck, she might even argue with me a little, show me that spark and spunk of hers that I miss so much, and stop looking through me as if I’m not there. Because we can’t keep going like this. Something has to give.
Alisa
Oh ok
I don’t think she likes me much
I tried apologizing but my texts won’t go through
I think she blocked me
I don’t blame her
That makes two of us, I want to text back, but then Alisa might stop sending me pics and videos of Drew. I don’t bother to respond, ignoring the rest of her texts that keep popping up throughout my work day. I’m still fuming, no matter how many times Alisa has apologized to me. She might not have taken my marriage seriously at first when she decided to show up at my apartment, but I certainly did and still do, even if things aren’t going well between Mirabeth and me right now.
When I finally get home, managing, somehow, not to injure myself, Mirabeth doesn’t greet me with,“Honey, you’re home.”
I miss that as much as everything else, and so I tell her, “Honey, I’m home,” holding my breath to see how she’ll respond.
She only does so by lifting her palm up to the side, sitting at the drafting table. “Keys,” is all she says to me while scrolling through a pink calendar on her laptop with little symbols I don’t understand, counting and recounting the days under her breath.
Ouch. I’d feel less alone if I were actually alone. At least Merlin looks up from his perch on Mirabeth’s lap, though he doesn’t leap into my arms like he used to. I drop the keys in Mirabeth’s hand and dodge Merlin when he hisses and swipes his claws at me.
It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and I cave, unable to bear Mirabeth’s stonewalling any longer. I bend and tip her chin up, forcing her to look at me. “Are you ready to talk about it yet?”Please, please, talk to me.
“About what?” she asks quietly, narrowing her curiously swollen eyes, pulling her chin from my grasp.
Finally!She might still be pissed, but at least she’s no longer avoiding the conversation. This is progress. Things are looking up!
I lean against the drafting table and cross my arms. “About what happened in the car.”
“Is that all you want to talk about?”
“Yes?” My stomach drops when she cuts her eyes to the side. “What else is there?”
“Then, no.” She swivels her chair around and darts up, kissing Merlin’s head before dropping him on the bed, then slings her purse over her shoulder.
“Hey, where are you going?” She’s halfway out the door when I finally catch up to her, my boots pounding the stairs as I follow her down.
“Errands,” she says curtly, picking up the pace, all but running from me.
“What errands?” I crowd her against the Beetle before she can climb inside. “Give me a sec to change, and I’ll come with you.”
“Fine,” she says, hugging herself, looking off to the side when one of the red and white Berenson Trucking eighteen-wheelers comes to a stop on the street.
The driver rolls down his window, poking his burly head out the window, the bottom half of his face obscured by a full, wild brown beard. “Hey, Mirabeth. Haven’t seen you at Granny’s in a while.”
“Hey, Wyatt,” Mirabeth says with a wave and a tiny flash of a smile, friendlier with him in their three-second interaction than she’s been with me for the past three weeks.So not cool. “Been busy, but I’ll be by soon to see Aunt Faye.”
I.She saidI, notwe.
“I’m not invited?” I ask, slipping an arm around her back to bring her into my chest. My heart leaps for joy to hold her, shattering one beat later when Mirabeth pushes me away.
