“I’m Chris, by the way.”
“Grace,” I said, trying and failing not to smile.
“Very nice to meet you, Grace,” Chris said, shaking my hand.
It felt nice to touch him, even for a moment.
“Now, I know you’re busy, but I was wondering if you might want to have dinner with me,” Chris suggested, dipping his head down slightly so he could look at me from under his eyelashes.
“I recently bought this tower, and I hired a new chef for the restaurant. The crowds haven’t been big, and the chef is pretty down about it. We’re trying to upgrade the tower to attract more people, however.”
“Oh, good,” I said, “because the décor in here…” I gave a thumbs-down.
“This was hot in two thousand three,” Chris countered. Then he stood up and offered his hand.
“You like seafood?”
“Love it.”
“Great. This guy makes an amazing fennel-and-smoked-salmon tart. You’ll adore it. It’s perfect first-date food.”
“So you own this tower, huh?” I said as we walked arm in arm across the lobby to the restaurant.
“Yup,” Chris said. He grinned at me. “Maybe later you can come up and see the view?”
I bumped him with my hip. “I think I just might.”
61
Epilogue Grace
“Welcome to the reunion special ofMarriage in a Minute,” Rainbow said as all eight of the inaugural class ofMarriage in a Minutetook a seat on one of the upholstered chairs around her. “Just as a reminder for our viewers, we started off with four couples. When we last saw you three months ago, two of you chose to marry for real, and two did not.”
“We wanted to check in with you and see how you’re progressing in your lives either as singletons or as married couples since the show ended,” Priyanka said, smiling.
A redhead wearing heavy makeup started crying. “He cheated on me a week after we married.” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “Now we are divorced.”
The bald man sitting next to her rolled his eyes.
“Cheating was uncalled for,” Priyanka scolded the now ex-husband. “Why would you hurt her like that?”
“I just realized I didn’t want to be married to her,” he said stubbornly. “I found someone else who is actually the love of my life, and we’re having a child.”
The redhead screamed, “You’re having a baby?”
“Yes,” he said, “because I want my own child, not a dog that is only loyal to you and chews up my shoes.”
“That’s why we don’t need a puppy,” I whispered to Chris.
“But they’re so cute,” he said in a low voice. “And I donated a huge chunk of my inheritance to that animal rescue.”
“It wasn’t that much,” I hissed back. “Don’t pat yourself on the back.”
“How about we hear from our next married couple?” Dr. Kwame asked.
The sporty brunette glared at her husband.
“He said he was all in, that he wanted to make it work. Except all he wanted to do was have me work for him as a maid-slash-mom, picking up his shit off the floor, cleaning up after him, and cooking for him. He even had me invest in his failing businesses.”
