Page 89 of Forever Fighting
“Ha. You’re very funny.”
“Don’t listen to her, Brae. I think it’s awesome,” my dad calls out from the background. “You and Roman are like your mother and I were. It’s all going to be fine. Are you okay, though?”
I blink and stare down at the white blanket resting on my lap, swarming with unease. “I have no idea what I am. You said this was all over the internet?”
“Yes, it’s?—”
She gets cut off when a call comes in. I pull the phone away to see that it’s Skylar.
“Mom, Sky is calling.”
“Fine. Go rally the Fritzes, but this conversation isn’t over. You were engaged to Adam and now you’re married to Roman. This is a very big deal and the Boston media as well as the world are now interested in it.”
“Fabulous. I’ll call you back.”
I rub a weary hand over my forehead as I flip over to Sky. “Oh my god!” she screams into the phone before I can so much as say hi. “What on earth is going on?”
“I don’t know what’s going on yet,” I admit, my voice tremulous. “I woke up to a zillion phone calls and my mother screaming in my ear. Sort of like how you are.” I climb out of bed because Roman is still talking to whoever the hell he’s talking to, locate my robe, and go to the living room where there’s a coffee maker I can use because I need serious caffeine stat.
“Are you married to Roman? Is this true or some messed-up AI thing?”
I sigh as I fill the coffee maker with water and set in the large pod. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She’s hurt, and I hate that. Skylar trusted me with her biggest secret, and I didn’t do that in return. I should have. I just… I never wanted anyone to get hurt with anything, but now it seems that’s how it’s going to be for everyone. I told Quinn overnight but not her.
My eyes close in regret. “I’m sorry. I should have. We didn’t tell anyone, but that was my decision. I called Quinn overnight and told her, but I didn’t want to wake you. Roman and I got drunk in Vegas, and I don’t know. We just did it. We didn’t think much about it until the next morning when we woke up with hangovers and rings on our fingers. Our plan was to get a quickie divorce and have no one be the wiser.”
I hit start, and the coffee maker makes a loud bubbling and churning noise as it fills the mug with magic.
“Okay, well, that’s a bullshit notion and I’m pissed you didn’t tell me.”
I sag my hip into the counter. “I know. You have every right to be. It was shitty. It wasn’t meant to be, though. I just felt like it was something we didn’t want a lot of voices on at the moment given everything.”
She releases a heavy breath into the phone. “Fine. I get that. But I’m even more pissed that I had to learn that you’re making out with your bestie on a freaking Mexican beach through the internet. Are you sleeping together? I mean, I had a feeling you were.”
“Your intuition is as good as mine.”
“Only about other people and not myself.”
“Truth. That’s so fair.” I add sugar to my coffee and stir it in as I reply. “Yes, we’re sleeping together. But we weren’t when we got married. The sex part started here.”
“Holy crap! Braelyn, you’re having sex with Roman! I can’t believe it and yet I can.”
“You sound like my mother.”
“I already spoke to your mother. She called me at first light. This is huge. Oh, hold on. Quinn is calling, I’ll merge her in.”
“Girl, I’m on twenty-something hours of no sleep and now this? How am I supposed to go home and sleep when this is all over my phone?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m not helpful with that. I’m waking up to this, so my day is just about to start.”
“I’m about to get on the T to head home, but I keep getting alerts on my phone.”
“Lovely,” I mutter.
Roman saunters out of the bedroom wearing boxer briefs and a scowl. I lift the coffee to my lips and take a sip before I hand him the mug.
“Who is that?” he mouths.
