Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO
NOW
I WANT A DIVORCE.
Those four words shouldn’t have come as a surprise after spending most of the last year apart. They shouldn’t have come as a surprise after spending our entire relationship lying. It was only a matter of time until one of us—more likely her—pulled the trigger. I figured there are plenty of people who have been put into arranged marriages that make it work, right? Some of them even end up falling in love. I guess that was never in the cards for her for us.
We kept our secret for over ten years. What started in December 2015 came crumbling down when I made a dumb mistake, and she realized our time, as required per the contract, was almost up. There was a division between us. One that had always existed but that we chose to ignore until we couldn’t anymore. The longer we stayed together, the more we grew apart. She started coming home less and less until she didn’t come home at all. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I told my best friend, Finn, last month. There were a lot of questions, but he took it well, I think. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to take that kind of news. A few days later, I told Nick, my cousin and best friend, who didn’t take it as well.
“I’m sorry,” Nick said after a moment. He rubbed the tension growing between his eyebrows. “You’re going to have to repeat yourself. I could almost swear you just said you’re in an arranged marriage .”
“That is what I said.”
He downed the whiskey in his glass, letting the words process before finally saying, “Josh, what the actual fuck?”
Nick stared at me across the desk of his home office like I had four heads. The same guilt I had felt over the years raged through me. I hated it—lying to him, to my sister, to everyone…Nick and I had been best friends our whole lives, even before my family moved back to Dad’s hometown of Bridgeport, South Carolina. We were born just shy of two months apart, and despite the distance from Bridgeport to Gainesville, he always felt more like a sibling than a cousin. When we moved, it was the best belated birthday gift a four year old could ask for. We went from a seven-hour drive to ten minutes down the road. “You guys, you seemed so… perfect . So put together. So…in love.”
“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” I swirled the whiskey in my glass.
On the outside, Nick and his wife appear to have a picture-perfect marriage, but don’t be fooled; they’ve had their problems. What started as a simple favor to get Nina’s mother off her back ended up being a can of worms no one ever expected to open. Despite everything that had happened between them (a fake relationship, blackmail, keeping secrets from each other, the death of her father—oh, and don’t forget her mom fucking her ex-boyfriend), they are happy. Genuinely happy and in love. Watching them make it work despite everything…I guess I thought Elizabeth and I could do the same.
It felt good to tell the truth. This was a secret I’d been hiding for a long time, and as time passed, it got harder and harder to keep. Every time I thought we were getting somewhere…something would come along and tear us apart.
“What is it with this group of people and keeping secrets?” Nick scoffed.
“It’s what the Villas are good at.”
“Well, apparently, the Davises aren’t far off.” Nick shook his head and poured more whiskey into his glass and mine, even though I still had half of what he poured before. He mumbled something to himself before draining the glass again.
That was almost two months ago.
Since then, I’ve spent most of my time working. A recent promotion at work has kept me so busy that I wasn’t even going to come today, but my sister threatened to kidnap me if I didn’t show up. Considering who she’s engaged to…I have no doubt Finn would make it happen. I get the distinct feeling they made the same threat to Elizabeth because she looked as annoyed as I felt when she walked in the door behind Nina.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see my family, but this is the last place I want to be. Spending time with my soon-to-be ex-wife on Halloween isn’t exactly the highlight of my day. Not to mention, her birthday is tomorrow, and I’m sure she’s overjoyed to be here with me…
“Can you help Nick move those?” Nina asks, pointing to the oversized letters that spell out BOO and the balloon arch sitting off to the side of the dining room.
The whole place has been decorated top to bottom for the Halloween party my sister is throwing—the first of many in the new condo she and Finn have purchased together. I thought the décor was a little over the top when I walked in, but Michaela wants everything to be perfect. So, when Ophelia asked for a balloon arch and light bulb letters, she got them.
Ophelia is Nina’s four year old niece and her father’s pride and joy. She’s had Nina’s brother, Kai, wrapped around her little finger from the day she was born, and it didn’t take long for her to do the same thing to my sister. They had become close even before Nick and Nina got married, which made them officially my family.
Our families have blended seamlessly, especially after Nick married Nina. I feel bad for Nina; she’s trying to remain neutral in the battle between me and Liz, but I know it’s hard on her. We didn’t think about what would happen if or when we ever decided to end the arrangement. Or at least I didn’t. Our lives had become too intertwined.
“Aye, aye, Captain.” I salute Nina with a small smile. She’s wearing a green neon shirt made to look like Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.
In her arms is a tiny Boo in that cute purple monster costume with the googly eyes on top—you know the one. Inside is Elena Joanna Davis, Nick and Nina’s two-month-old daughter. Just before their second “official” wedding last year, Nina was told there didn’t seem to be much hope of her getting pregnant after none of the medical interventions had worked. Then, she woke up in mid-January sick as a dog and, thinking she had caught the flu, went to the doctor a week later only to find out she was five weeks pregnant. Elena came a few weeks early but is healthy as a horse and the sweetest baby ever. And that kid looks more and more like her mother every day (she has Nick’s eyes, though). Just like Ophelia looks more like Nina’s older brother, Kai, every time I see her. Those Villa genes are strong.
“Where are we moving these?” I ask Nick, who shrugs.
“She said anywhere but here,” he says, throwing back the hood of his Sulley costume. “She told Michaela it was going to be in the way, but Mic said just wait and see. Now here we are…”
“Foyer?” I motion behind us through the doorway that leads out of the living room and into the grand foyer.
“Works for me,” he says, lifting his side of the balloon wall.
The penthouse Finn and Michaela purchased earlier this year is extravagant. The place has two floors, five bedrooms, six bathrooms, four terraces, a library, and an office. It’s just shy of six thousand square feet. How do I know that? Because Michaela told me it’s exactly forty-four square feet less, and it might be the only thing she has that’s bigger than Nina’s. Truthfully, I could see Nina buying a place like this more than my sister, or even Finn, but Nick and Nina settled for a simpler condo on the eighteenth floor of the Plaza.
The foyer overlooks the northwest side of the city with unobstructed views of the Woolworth Building and the One World Trade Center. There isn’t room for the balloon arch near the stairs, but it will fit in the hallway that leads to the front door. There would be plenty of room for the letters by the piano in the sitting area to the right of the staircase. Everything would probably look better underneath the stairs, but I’d rather not try and find a new home for the thirteen-foot-tall Jack Skellington.
“How ya holding up?” Nick asks after we set the backdrop down.
I shrug. “How would you be?”
Being within feet of the person I’ve spent the last six years married to but trying not to make eye contact with or speak to has been much harder than I thought. I hoped we could at least be civil, but I guess not speaking is being civil in its own way.
“Well, my situation would be a bit different,” Nick smirks. “I’m not in an arranged marriage.”
There’s a cheer from the terrace down the hall that leads through the kitchen and into the family room. My sister had Finn set up a beer pong table for the child-free adults. It’s classy, I know, but it keeps them entertained.
Michaela pulls the orange wig from her head as she walks out of the kitchen. Then she pulls at the green scarf tied around her neck, loosening it, before straightening out her purple dress —she and Finn dressed as Fred Jones and Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo. “What are we whispering about?” my sister asks. God, she’s the nosiest person alive.
She was the third person I told the truth about my marriage; it was only a matter of time before she found out, considering both Finn and Nick knew. It was better she heard it from me than from one of them.
“Yeah, what are we whispering about?” Finn joins us. He kisses her temple before he plants another one on her lips. It’s sweet—sickeningly sweet—and a tad gross, but I’m happy for them.
Their relationship came as a surprise to me but not to the rest of the family. Finn and I have been best friends since high school, but he and Michaela always seemed to hate each other until two years ago. At first, it was strange to think about—my best friend and little sister together—but after getting over the initial shock (and finding her half-dressed at his place one morning), with some help from Elizabeth, I got over it. Hard not to when you see how they are with one another. Finn says he didn’t feel that way about her when we were younger, but I wonder if he’s just kidding himself. Michaela, too.
“Are we telling secrets in here?” Alex, Nick’s little brother, joins us from the dining room. He’s dressed in an orange Garfield the Cat onesie.
“Nick and Josh were whispering about something,” Michaela says.
“We weren’t whispering about anything,” I hiss.
“Sure sounded like it.”
A knock at the front door echoes down the hallway, halting the conversation. We share glances, unsure who it could be. Anyone who was invited is already here. Finn goes to answer it.
“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Sheffield,” a man says, and over Finn’s shoulder, I see the head of the security for the building. “We have a small problem.”
“What’s going on, Scott?” Michaela asks, stepping up to Finn’s side.
Scott huffs. “We got a noise complaint. Now look—”
“I bet it was that old woman, Glenda, down the hall,” Michaela says with an eye roll.
“—I don’t think you’re being that loud, but I have to say something.”
“Her name is Gladys,” Finn corrects Michaela before turning back to Scott. “We’ll do our best to keep it down.”
“We’re not even being loud,” my sister exclaims and looks to me for support.
“You’re being a little loud,” I say with a simple shrug.
“Like I said, I think you’re fine, but when a complaint is made, we gotta address it,” Scott says. “Just tell your friends outside to turn it down a notch.”
“You got it, Scott,” Finn says before Michaela can get another word in.
“She is always on our case.” Michaela groans. “She needs to give it a rest already.”
“You need to give it a rest already, Shortcake,” Finn quips, walking through the threshold with Michaela hot on his trail.
Nick turns to me when they’re gone. “You want a beer?”
I consider it, but right now the only thing I want is a little peace and quiet. Maybe Gladys was onto something.
Walking into the guest room, I close the door behind me and fall back against it. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I rub my eyes and let a heavy sigh push past my lips as I walk down the small hallway further into the room my sister has designated as mine whenever I’m in town. Turning the corner, my steps falter.
Elizabeth sits on the ottoman against the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the East side of Manhattan. She stuck out like a sore thumb among the other partygoers, dressed in her bright yellow plaid skirt and blazer set. White knee-high stockings and white Mary Jane pumps (are those what they’re called?) rounded out her costume: Cher Horowitz from Clueless . It was a movie she had made me watch countless times.
“Cher, huh?” I offer a polite smile, but she doesn’t do the same.
“It was the only thing I had, considering I wasn’t even going to come.” She stands from the ottoman, wiping her hands on the front of her skirt, straightening it.
“Michaela threaten you, too?”
“Nina.”
A soft hum in agreement. I should’ve known Nina was the only reason she was here. Between my sister and my cousin’s wife, there’s no way either one of us would be able to avoid each other like normal divorced people. We’re going to have to learn to put up with one another to get through the holidays for the rest of our lives.
“Sorry, I didn’t know this was your room. I just picked one to get away from everything for a minute.”
This is the first time we’ve been alone since she filed the papers a few months ago. I don’t think it’s ever been this awkward between us, not even the first time we were alone together. When she moves to leave, something in me forces me to try and stop her.
“Elizabeth, I’m sorry. I don’t—We can’t avoid each other like this. We’re going to see each other, and I don’t want it to be weird.”
Her stare narrows. “A little late for that.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I know we couldn’t make things work,” I say, taking a small step toward her. I don’t miss the slight twitch in her face. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t try and be friends again. For our family.”
Her scoff is like a shot to the heart. “You still don’t get it, do you?” Elizabeth shakes her head in disbelief, continuing, “Josh, we can’t be friends…”
“Liz—“
“This was always the plan. Now, time’s up, which means we don’t have to pretend anymore. Make sure you tell Juliet I said hi.”
Juliet? She can’t be serious.
Elizabeth tries to push down the hallway, but I grip her hand, not letting her slip past. Warmth spreads down my fingers and through my veins at the touch, and when her eyes shoot to where our hands meet, I know she feels it too. Gently, I grip her chin and force her eyes up to meet mine. “I’m not seeing Juliet.”
“Shocking. You were quick to run to her when that letter showed up.”
“Elizabeth, she never showed.”
“And if she had?”
My words falter. What if she had? I don’t know. There was nothing in the letter she sent indicating what it was she wanted. She just said she wanted to talk. Fifteen years was a long time to send a letter out of the blue. I still don’t know how she got my address, but regardless, there was something in me screaming to fly out to Wichita and find out what was so damn important. But then she never showed.
“I don’t—I don’t know!”
“Exactly. Goodbye, Josh.”
“This isn’t all my fault,” I say, gripping her arm. “You didn’t want this, Liz. You wanted out as soon as possible. You ended things well before that letter ever showed up. Don’t act like you’re innocent in all of this.”
Elizabeth stares down the hall, avoiding any chance of eye contact.
“I loved you.”
Her brown eyes blaze with fury when they finally meet mine. “You don’t even know what that means.”
“You left me, Elizabeth! You made the choice. You filed the papers. You—”
“We were never meant to stay together, Josh!”
“Then why do you act like I’m such an asshole?” It comes out louder than I meant it to, but this woman knows exactly what buttons to push to drive me up a damn wall. “What am I missing?”
A single scoff is her only response.
“For the love of God, tell me!”
“It wouldn’t change anything.”
Her gasp lingers between us when I push her up against the wall. My hands on her hips hold her in place, her jacket raises, and my thumb grazes a strip of bare skin on her side. Her skin is soft and velvety under my touch. Our faces are less than an inch apart. Her breath comes out in small gasps across my face, and the faintest smell of red wine still lingers.
The hum of anticipation of what could happen next buzzes between us. My lips barely brush against hers, but a crash from downstairs sends us jumping to opposite sides of the hallway.
Elizabeth lets out the last breath she has been holding, and I can see her building the walls back up piece by piece. She straightens her jacket and turns to leave. Before she walks out the door, she looks over her shoulder.
“Do you know what I realized, Josh?” A sad smile tugs on her red-stained lips. “We were just biding our time, filling the void. But we don’t have to do that anymore. We don’t have to keep pretending. If we happen to be at the same place, I will be cordial to you, but make no mistake…We are not friends. We will never be friends.”