All Chapters of The Temporary Husband: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

80 Chapters

FAMILY DINNERS ARE A TRAP

I wonder if I can disappear between the mashed potatoes and the napkins. “That reminds me, Izzy. A friend of mine was telling me about this hot- is that how you guys call each other?- bachelor who just bought the house across from hers.” Actually no.My family would somehow find a way to drag me into their conversations. “What? No! He already promised to go on a date with Earl this week.” My third older brother, Seth, says, his tone offended that my fourth older brother, Freddy, would hook me up with someone before he did. “Earl? Isn’t he like two times divorced, from women?” Freddy doesn’t do much to hide the disgust in his voice. “Yeah, apparently people can grow a new sexuality in their forties, and if he’s married twice it means he can do it, unlike our brother here.” He laughs, and so does every other person on the table. Nobody corrects him that you can’t grow a sexuality.Nobody says anything about how offensive it was to say, I can’t do it.Nobody points out the fact tha

THE VISA PROBLEM

There must be an anti Isaac Valentine campaign going on somewhere. That’s the only answer I am willing to accept. After my bold declaration of a complete and utter bullshit, i topped it off with a second glass of wine in the five seconds my family was silenced. Silenced!I did that!There has never been an event that silenced my entire family, even the kids at the table knew not to make a sound. Poor Barnabas though, he took his leave immediately after.Then the spell wore off and came the barrage of questions, all of them non stop. “I’m drunk, let’s talk about it tomorrow.” I had said, my chair scraped backwards, everyone was talking, but I wasn’t listening. I took the elevator faster than they could blink, and all they could do was watch me go down, and then I made a mistake that made me think, yes of course, I am drunk. I got into my car, and drove.Alcohol is something else, usually I had strong opinions on drunk drivers, but now I know, they could have been running away fro

HUSBAND, TEMPORARILY

The stranger looks at me like I have lost my head.I wonder if I have lost my head.Why am I offering a total stranger, in a parking lot of a courthouse, marriage. “I do not have time for this, or change.” he says the words slowly, like he thinks I am stupid.My immediate reaction is to scoff at him.“I do not need your change and of course you don’t have time, you’re about to be deported.”He looks at me like I slapped him, and I recoil, the urge to take back the words are strong but they are already out there. This… this is why I don’t talk to people, somehow I end up offending them.“Let’s start over, my name is Isaac Valentine. And I need a husband.” I put my hand out for a shake, think better of it and let it drop by my side.This time he looks at me in disgust. “So, a prostitute.”“What?! Wait what?? How did you get that from what I said??”God.This was worse than embarrassing. Maybe I should wait for Court to find me a man, but I don’t have time till lunch tomorrow. “I’m

WEDDING BELLS

His eyes scan the coffee shop that promised a twenty four hour service like he’s mapping out exits. Taking him home would have been easier, also a mistake.My house is off limits to everyone except Court. “What do you drink?” I ask. It comes out tired.“Nothing if it hurts you so much.”I open my mouth to explain myself and end up shutting it, whatever, I don’t need this right now. When I come back with a double espresso for myself, and the same for him, he slips a ten across the table, I leave it there. A sip and my brain finally comes back online.“This is the shit you drink?” Ivan pulls the cup away from his mouth in disgust.He retrieves the ten and goes to the counter himself.Yeah. This is going to be a long arrangement.I pull up immigration requirements on my phone. Every line makes my chest tighten.Marriage certificate.Joint finances.Proof of shared address.Photos.Interviews. This isn’t just paperwork. It’s a performance with witnesses. I can’t imagine putting mys

LIKE A GOOD BOY

My wedding.To a stranger. Is in a week. Scratch that. In six days.I near wear the rug out from my pacing.This is a disaster. “You didn’t think a wedding was going to happen?” Court asks, eyes filled with amusement tracking my movement from atop my bed, looking every bit relaxed and entertained by my mental breakdown. “No. The plan was to get the marriage registered. That’s it. No ceremonies, definitely not a Valentine scale wedding.” “Of the century.” she adds, her pointer finger wagging in my direction.A slew of cuss words fly out of my mouth, fingers tugging on the strands of my hair, and I don’t even wincing from the pain. It stopped hurting long ago. “Maybe I should fake my death and just disappear from the face of the earth.”Court gives me one of her side eyes that would have me shitting my pants usually, but this situation is far worse than anything she could possibly do to me. “What happens to The 99th Round, if you disappear?”My best friend has always been my bi

FIRST PUBLIC PERFORMANCE

The drive to Armand Lefèvre’s studio is quiet.I kept glancing at Ivan as I drove, he’s not said a word since I picked him up. Which means he isn’t ready to call the quits right now. Thank God.Yet, the silence as it presses around us, feels suffocating. My fingers itched to play something on the radio, just so the silence stopped. The only reason stopping me was that it felt like he had to give me permission to do it. Weird. It’s my car.Clearing my throat, fingers reaching for the button, only to be halted by his one word, “No.”The word is simple, my hand falls back down. “What do you mean, no, it’s my car.”“And it’s my time you wasted.”My words dry in my throat and I think to myself how gorgeous people tend to be the world’s greatest assholes. Example, my dearest husband to be. “I apologize,” for the twentieth time. The apologies had flowed like water from the moment he stepped into my car at the park, and he hasn’t looked my way once.“If there’s anything I can do to

WEDDING OF THE CENTURY

I hacked and coughed, gulping my entire espresso in one sip and burning my tongue.Ivan played the dutiful fiancé and handed me his opened can of his cold Dr. Pepper, and this made the whole thing worse because of the image in my head. By the time I calmed down, Armand had excused himself to answer a phone call, leaving Ivan and I alone in here. The silence is loud now.“You’re a walking danger sign.”Drawing my hand and body away from him, I apologize for everything, looking everywhere that isn’t his face. He sighs.“Should I expect any more of this?”Any more of this?? That was all levels of insulting. “Any more of what? Choking? I don’t know, I’ll check my schedule and let you know.”He cocks his head to the side, and there’s the urge to run away from all of this. Maybe Court was right and this was a mistake. “Can I trust you won’t ruin this?”“Because I choked doesn’t mean–” “You pushed me away.” he interrupts.I blink. Did I?“People don’t usually push away a touch from thei

SMALL WEDDING

I can’t sleep.The image of Ivan’s body keeps replaying in my mind’s eye. His wide shoulders, and back, narrow waist.Urgh.Get a grip! The room felt too hot, too stuffy, even if the thermostat was at the perfect temperature, the way I have always kept it, not hot, not cold, just perfect. Throwing the covers off me, I try to go to sleep again, this time without the covers, my head at the foot of the bed, Court swears by this technique. And when sleep still doesn’t take me away after a few minutes, I get out of bed, giving up on sleep. Ambling into my office, a sacred space, that Court helped decorate. My house is off limits to everyone else, but this space was even more off limits. My set up was in the corner of the room, and the lava lamps are turned on, desk is arranged with different files, shelves filled with endless rows of my previous works. This was my comfort zone.And for the past few weeks, every time I sat here to create characters, nothing would work, I had the idea

BE A REAL MAN

The baker was more interested in Ivan than she was in the flavor we ended up picking. And Ivan knew this, because he had her eating out of his hand, and this time I didn’t hide the eye roll. He had a disgusted expression at the Lemon olive oil, intrigued at the Almond sponge, a ‘not bad’ head shake at the Hazelnut praline. I have no idea why I was studying his expressions, including the micro ones so closely. “Dark chocolate and espresso, this is your jam.” he nudges me when we try the cake.It’s not a real wedding, we should just pick any flavors and roll with it, still, I try the dark chocolate and espresso. It is the best in my opinion, but Ivan spits it out quickly.“We’ll go with Vanilla bean and champagne.” I say finally, not sure there was enough space in my stomach for any more tasting. “Since it comes in different tiers, we could do that, Dark chocolate espresso, and Pistachio one.” Ivan says, surprising me. He was taking this seriously, very unlike what I expected from h

PARTNERS, FOR A FEW YEARS

“I pronounce you partners for life,” ‘For a few years.’ I correct under my breath. “You may kiss your husband.”I hesitate, looking from the over sized ring on my finger to my shoes. Anywhere but his face, or the cheering crowd. “We’re holding things up.” Ivan murmurs.Since he called Court to take me home that day, we haven’t seen each other, rather I have been avoiding him. There was no reason for us to meet, we had done everything we had to do together. My palms are sweaty now.Nobody takes this much time to kiss, especially since you love your partner enough to marry them. However, I didn’t think so far ahead.Ivan closes the distance, my breath hitches as I finally, look him in the face.He has a different hair style today, his hair is swept backwards, and if he was breath taking before, he is something else now.He cups the back of my head gently. His thumb presses once at the base of my skull, like he’s anchoring me. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he says quietly, like h

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