Chapter Thirteen
Evie
“Early as usual, hubby?” I say to Noah as I sit down next to him in LRG class. Only a handful of students are here, since class doesn’t start for another ten minutes.
Noah is vigorously writing in his notebook, but as soon as my butt hits the chair, he slams the notebook shut.
I raise my brow at him. “Were you working on a secret love note or something?” I put on a huge grin as I slug his arm. “Aw shucks. You don’t have to woo me with romantic words.”
Noah sighs as he shakes his head. “Just working on a song.”
“Ooh, that’s awesome. How’s it going? Can I see?” I reach for his notebook, but he snatches it away and shoves it into his backpack. He takes out his school notebook and flips to his LRG notes. Yes, Mr. Perfect takes notes in this class.
“No one sees or hears the lyrics before the band performs the song on stage,” he tells me.
“But I’m your wife.”
“My pretend wife,” he corrects.
With an exaggerated gasp, I slam my hand to my chest. “I’m your pretend wife? Oh my gosh. Are you telling me I’ve been living a lie?”
Noah shakes his head again, though this time he’s hiding a tiny smile. “Only for the last two weeks.”
I fall back in my seat with another exaggerated gasp. “And here I thought I was living the perfect life.”
“Why are you early?” Noah asks.
“My teacher ended class early because she had an emergency. I figured I’d come here and get in some sketches. Almost forgot my Shnookums would be here waiting for me.” I stretch my arm around him and press my cheek to his. “You’re the sweetest.”
“Sometimes I wonder how I’ve managed to deal with you my whole life,” he mumbles as he removes my arm from around him.
I’m about to answer, but then someone stops before our desks. When I glance up, I realize it’s Mallory.
“Oh,” she says as her eyes move from Noah to me. “This is kind of my seat.”
“Right. Sorry about that.” I’m about to get up and sweep my backpack off the floor, but then I stop and look at Mallory. “Wait. Are you hitting on my husband?”
Her eyes grow big. “What?”
“Won’t your husband get jealous if he sees you hanging out with another guy?
Because I would totally tear all your hair out if I caught you flirting with my sweet husband.
” I put my arm around Noah again. “The big man on campus is unfortunately taken. Well, unfortunately for you. Not for me, though. I got myself quite the catch.” I press my lips to Noah’s cheek.
His eyes nearly pop out of their sockets.
“Um…” Mallory glances from me to Noah and then back to me with a puzzled expression. “Right. I guess I’ll wait for my partner over there.” She glances at Noah one more time before walking away to sit at a desk on the other side of the room.
“Okay…” I say as I remove my arm from around Noah. “Did I mess up or did I do you a favor?”
“What?”
I nod toward Mallory. “She’s not your girlfriend or anything, is she? Because if she is, I messed up big time. But if you don’t want her around, I just did you a solid—”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Noah says with a shrug. “And I don’t mind having her around.”
I raise a brow. “So you’re just friends?”
“I guess.”
“You guess? What do you mean you guess?”
He shrugs again. “I’ve known her since freshman year and we’ve always hung out in the same circles. But I don’t have feelings for her and I know she’s interested in another guy. Why is this your business, anyway?”
“Just wanted to make sure my marriage isn’t being threatened.”
“Evie...”
“I’m kidding! I don’t want to mess anything up for you. So if you like her, I can move to another desk.”
“Evie, I just told you like six seconds ago that I don’t have feelings for her. Sometimes I wonder if you even listen when I talk.”
“Only when it’s important,” I joke.
Mrs. Duncan walks into the classroom with a stack of papers. Great, I hope she doesn’t pile on us a hard assignment. I have so much work to do on my paintings and can’t worry about an assignment I won’t get graded on. But I know Noah would kill me if I checked out of our fake marriage.
“We have a few minutes before class begins,” Mrs. Duncan announces as she settles down at her desk. “Continue talking amongst yourselves.”
I look at Noah. “Do you have anything to tell me?”
“I don’t think so. Why?”
“We’ve been married for such a short amount of time and have already run out of things to talk about? My gosh, how will we ever celebrate our fiftieth anniversary?”
His brows shoot up. “Fifty years?”
“Yeah. That would be cool, wouldn’t it? To be married and still be in love after so many years.”
Noah just watches me for what feels like forever.
“What? Do I have paint on my face or something?” I ask.
“No, you…actually, yeah. You do have paint on your face. You always have paint on your face.”
“So why were you staring at me like that?”
He shakes his head. “Sometimes you surprise me, Evie.”
“That’s good! That’ll keep our marriage alive and exciting.”
The bell rings just as the last few students enter the classroom.
Mrs. Duncan stands with her stack of papers and starts handing them out to the couples.
“For today’s assignment, tragedy has unfortunately struck your young married lives.
I have assigned each couple a unique tragedy catered specifically to their situation.
So no couple here will be going through the same thing as another couple.
Everyone’s experience will be different, based on your circumstances and lifestyle.
This will be your first major assignment, and hopefully there will be more sometime in the near future.
You will need to put your heads together and come up with solutions to your problems. Remember to take into account every aspect of your life that has been affected by the tragedy. ”
She stops before my desk and lowers a piece of paper onto it.
“After you hand in your assignment today, I will most likely do a follow-up over the weekend with potential outcomes based on the solutions you provided. Some of you might do such a great job that I won’t need to do a follow-up, while others may make matters worse.
Which means some couples might finish their assignment days before another couple.
That’s okay. We’ll see how everyone does next week and take it from there. ”
As soon as she’s done explaining the assignment, I slide the paper to the corner of my desk so Noah can read it, too.
“Wait, what?” he asks as his eyes rove rapidly over the words. “I got injured during a football game?”
“Oh no. My poor husband.”
“Even though my medical bills will be paid,” he says as he continues to read, “I’m out for the season and will have a salary cut.
” He looks up from the paper to me. “This blows. It says I injured my leg and will need to be on crutches for six weeks. How will I help take care of Melly? I’d hate for you to take on so much of the responsibility. ”
“That’s okay,” I say as I slide the assignment closer to me so I can read the rest of it. “I’m willing to take on the responsibility so you can heal properly—wait, what the heck?”
“What?” Noah leans forward to read the words. “Did I miss something?”
“I’m being accused of plagiarism? What on Earth?” I gape at the words. “It says someone saw my art displayed in a gallery and is accusing me of stealing their design. Is Mrs. Duncan for real? I would never ever steal someone else’s artwork. I’m a unique individual and so is my art. The nerve!”
“It doesn’t mean they’re right,” Noah says.
“Look!” He points. “We had to go to court to prove they were wrong.” His eyes widen.
“Wow. That lawyer was expensive. We had to use all of our savings to pay her. I guess we had no choice but to use the money we wanted to set aside for Melly’s college fund. Darn.”
“So let me get this straight,” I say as I study the assignment.
“You got injured and are on crutches. You’re getting a salary cut.
I not only got accused of plagiarism, but we had to spend all of our money on a lawyer.
And even though we won the case, no one wants to buy my work because my reputation has been tainted. Oh my gosh, this is a nightmare!”
Noah slides the assignment closer to himself to read the rest of it. “We can’t afford to pay rent and you’re having a hard time caring for Melly by yourself. It says we need to think of solutions.”
“Oh, I’ve got a solution,” I say with a frown. “I quit.”
Noah gives me a face. “You can’t quit on life, Evie.”
“I didn’t sign up for this kind of intense drama!”
“It’s okay, we’ll figure it out,” he assures me. “We just need to put our heads together and come up with some good solutions. The important thing is that Melly shouldn’t feel like anything is wrong. I want her to have a fun and normal childhood.”
That’s sweet of him, but I don’t see how we can get out of this predicament. To be hit with so much tragedy at once? Sheesh.
“We aren’t alone,” I point out. “We have family, don’t we?”
Noah’s eyes light up. “Of course! Our families are very much involved in our lives.”
“Okay, so what do we do? Ask them for a loan?”
Noah thinks about it for a second, then shakes his head. “I don’t want to ask them for money unless we’re extremely desperate. But I think we might need to move in with them because we can’t afford to pay rent and there’s no way in heck I’m letting my little girl be homeless.”
“Of course. My parents would be super happy to open their home to us.”
Noah’s brow raises. “Your parents?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong?”
“I just thought we’d be moving in with my parents.”
“Why would we choose your parents over mine?”
He shrugs. “No reason. Just, my dad would understand our situation because he dealt with injuries, too. He’ll know how to help us.”
“Yeah, but my parents would devote all their time to helping us get back on our feet.”
“And mine wouldn’t?”
“No, of course they would.”
Noah opens his mouth to say something, then shuts it. We both sit here quietly.
“We can take turns staying at our parents’ houses?” Noah finally suggests.
“Moving back and forth with a baby? No, we need somewhere permanent. At least until we could afford to get our own place again.”
We’re both quiet again. I glance around the room and find that most couples seem to be doing okay while others are struggling. I wonder what kind of tragedies they’re going through.
“There’s something we need to consider,” Noah says, drawing my attention back to him.
“We probably can’t afford to pay for a babysitter.
How can we find someone who will do it for free?
Unless you want to care for her, but I’m sure you need to focus a lot of your time on building back your reputation. ”
“Maybe one of our siblings would be willing to do it for free?”
Noah twists his lips. “They’re busy with their own lives. It wouldn’t be fair to thrust this upon them.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But I’m the one who will need to look for a job because you’re injured.”
“And I can’t care for Melly on my own without help.”
“Right.”
We’re quiet yet again.
“I think we should ask our parents for help again,” I say. “Maybe one of them would be willing to give up their job to take care of our baby.”
Noah stares at me. “You want to ask one of our parents to quit their job?”
“Unless you want to ask them to pay for a babysitter.”
“Are you okay with asking them to pay? Each can pay fifty-fifty.”
“I’m okay with it if you’re okay with it.”
“Yeah.” He writes it down on the assignment sheet, along with the other solutions we’ve come up with. Including the decision to stay at his parents’ house, since his dad has experience with injuries.
“Good thing we have amazing families,” I say. “We don’t need to shoulder this burden all on our own.”
He smiles. “Yeah. We’re very lucky.”
I fall back in my seat with a huff. “Dealing with these kinds of life issues is causing me way too much anxiety.”
“See how beneficial this class is for the future? We’re learning so much.”
“Too much,” I mutter.
He nods to the assignment. “Let’s write everything down and give it in. Don’t worry, wifey. We’ll punch tragedy right in the face.”
“Makes me wonder what other problems Mrs. Duncan will throw our way,” I mutter again.