All Chapters of Teach Me How to Love You: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

A routine formed between us. Afternoons meant Alan coming home from the office, two or three hours of driving practice, then him heading back to finish his day while I split mine between the library and his parents' house to see Nana.He always picked me up on his way home, wherever I happened to be.I ran into Shawn again at the library. He joked about running for his life the day my "husband" showed up.He apologized again, insisting he had no clue I was married that day, or he'd never have tried his luck. After that, whenever I saw him, we just talked. At some point I started seeing him as a friend.Nana made Lory and me promise her to always be cheerful around her. No gloomy, sad faces. She wanted the last of her days filled with fun moments. I ran her errands at the flower shop. She walked me through everything I needed to know to actually be useful there, until I basically became her eyes.I ended up loving it more than I ever expected to, spending afternoon after afternoon soak

Alan hadn't said anything about the picture. Lory told me there was no cause for alarm, that he probably wouldn't make much of it either way.As much as I knew that to be true, it still didn't ease my mind. He had watched Shawn hit on me, even though he didn't utter a word about it. Still. I wished, more than anything, that she hadn't sent it.I knew the terms we agreed to. Alan himself had told me I was free to see other people. But this picture wasn't something I wanted him to see, agreement or not.Lory snapped me out of it, insisting the worst case, which we both knew wouldn't happen anyway, was that I'd just explain Shawn was a friend.We left the club around two in the morning and headed back to her parents' place. Tiptoeing into the kitchen for water, laughing under our breath about it feeling like high schoolers sneaking in after a party they were banned from attending. Lory flipped the light on and had both of us jumping and screaming.Alan was sitting there in the dark, unbo

What I had done was buy myself time. Alan would bring the divorce up again, that much I knew for certain. And I already knew I wasn't divorcing him.I wasn't breaking the promise I made to Nana, barely hours after she died. Crazy as it sounds, that wasn't the only reason for my refusal. Somehow I'd started liking being Alan's wife.Ours wasn't a normal marriage by any measure, but he'd been more of a husband to me than most men manage to be to wives they actually chose.I was still deep in denial about most of it, but if I was honest with myself, some small, stubborn part of me had already started catching feelings, and that part wished, quietly, that we really were husband and wife in the true sense.Everyone braced for Alan to drown in it. He surprised us all and did the opposite.After the hill, he just, functioned. Went back to doing everything he was supposed to do. Breakfast most mornings, even if it was barely a few bites. Home for dinner on time. He even took me for two more d

I could tell Alan was furious with me. I didn't care much, because I was furious right back.He didn't say another word, gracious enough to honor my request, and dropped me at my own house. I slammed the car door on my way out, just as hard as I had climbing in.He didn't pull off right away. From the porch I caught him watching me through the windshield. I knew this was the worst possible time to pick a fight, but I was too angry to think straight.From where I stood, I saw the breath leave him, his shoulders dropping, before he shook his head and drove off.Only then did I turn around and walk inside, straight into Noah and Lory kissing.Any other day, I'd have lost my mind over catching them. Today I didn't have it in me.I walked past without stopping, told them to act like I wasn't home, and shut myself in my room. Asleep before I even got comfortable.By the time I surfaced it was already evening. Only Lory was in the living room, still in her white from the burial.I sat beside

I came down to the kitchen the next morning to a cup of coffee and a note in Alan's handwriting, wishing me the best start to my day.I was grinning cheek to cheek over it, before I remembered I had handed him his unfinished letter to Amy the night before. Slowly the grin thinned as I wondered if he'd written the note for me to compensate for the one I'd seen.But it made no sense that he would care that much. Releasing a deep breath, I shook my head. "I need my head intact for today. Don't start today with this, Nora."Grabbing the coffee, I left the note behind and headed out, because taking the note meant rereading it, and rereading it meant thinking, and thinking meant a whole day of divided attention I couldn't afford.The next two months passed in that same rhythm. One I willed myself to keep, avoiding Alan.It started as avoiding the divorce conversation. Once I was fairly sure that conversation wasn't coming back around anytime soon, it turned into something else, avoiding him