Page 58 of The No Try Zone
“Sam?Shit. Samantha!”
Warm hands wrap around my arms as I tilt sideways, trying and failing to find purchase on the desk. But I’m in his arms instead of on the floor, and he’s so solid, and he’s murmuring my name in a way that feels true, and it makes me swoon, and it breaks my heart.
No. I gather my willpower and push at him, and he lets go. It takes even more of an effort to keep from shaking as I point at the document. “What is that?”
He closes his eyes. “You know what it is.”
I hum as my own eyes close. This isn’t real. It’s real. It’s not real. “No. Because it’s been four months. What. Is. That?”
He scrubs his face, the scratch of his dry hands over his beard sounding in the silence. “It just got forwarded in a bunch of mail from Vermont.”
“No. I went to that place the morning after and –”
“They told you that they didn’t have any paperwork because they hadn’t entered it yet,” he finishes.
I roll my neck. This isn’t happening. This can’t actually be happening. “You had one job, Colin.”
“Believe me, I know,” he answers, his voice strained.
“No,” I seethe, anger finally taking over. I embrace it, so happy to feel something other than numbness or, worse, despair. “No.No! You said they didn’t have it.”
“I never said that.” He’s pale, his voice cracking again as the words come out.
“You have to fix this. This can’t – we can’t…” My words trail off. The anger fizzles, and I can’t find the strength to care. Instead, I walk to the couch and sink onto it, pulling the blanket around me and staring up at him.
He holds my gaze.
We stay like that for what feels like an eternity. Because why use words? We’ve said them all. I’ve yelled. I’ve threatened. I’ve held knives against his chest, for fuck’s sake. None of it helped. None of it can erase the cold fact of that marriage certificate on the desk. Which, fun fact, is legal even though I’m Australian. I checked.
But somehow, I thought it all might never have happened. That perhaps getting hitched in a tent by a guy in an Elvis costume wouldn’t count.
Finally, I bring myself to standing and let the blanket pile behind me. He hasn’t stopped staring at me, a thousand emotions warring in his eyes. I can read all of them, and I think that’s the part that pisses me off the most. Iknowhim. I know that this is absolutely killing him. I know that he’s spiraling. That he’s scared but won’t admit it. That he’s desperate to keep this quiet because he’s certain it’s the way he keeps this job. And maybe it is. But that’s not my problem. The marriage certificate, on the other hand, is very much my problem.
“Promise me,” I say, standing so close I can feel the heat of his body on mine. I could be in his embrace so easily. I could behome. But he destroyed that already. “Promise me you’ll fix this.”
His jaw ticks as he closes his eyes.
“Promise. Me.” I repeat, forcing myself to stay put. Not moving. Barely breathing.
He opens those endless eyes and trains them on me. They’re filled with regret. Longing and sorrow, too. “I promise.”
Oath extracted, I step around him.
It takes everything I have not to look back.
Chapter22
Colin
I’M NO CLOSER to keeping my promise to Sam a week later. Everything else is going so well, but this? In the toilet.
I give myself five minutes to wallow, lying my head on the edge of the desk and staring at the floor.
Annulments in Las Vegas are impossible. That whole “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” saying is utter bullshit. At least when it comes to marriage. Or, at least, nothing I find is telling me that I can get us one. Not unless we do an actual divorce. In person. Together. In front of a judge.
Awesome.
I grab my phone, still staring at the floor, and video call my sister.
