It took a second – maybe two seconds – but an entire novel played out on Chess’s face as she put the pieces of the story together.
‘Tell me you’re not serious.’
‘It’s not romantic.’ Now that I’d started talking I couldn’t stop, an avalanche of words pouring out of me. ‘Obviously, it’s not romantic. But what was I supposed to do, when I heard that story? I couldn’t just do nothing, not when I could dosomething. And it’s not going to be any different from how things already are between us – I mean, we’ve been housemates for years, and trust me, it’s going to make living in Hobart so much cheaper and easier – and there are so few permanent academic jobs, this is kind of like putting one over on the system, and—’
‘Stop.’
I stopped.
Chess let go of my hand and folded her fingers in her lap. ‘What have you signed?’
‘The wedding’s not until tomorrow, so not much, not yet.’ Why was she so calm? ‘The Notice of Intended Marriage form. A stat dec for the university.’
‘What did you say on the stat dec?’
‘That we’ve lived together for eight years and now we’re getting married.’
She let out a long breath. ‘Okay. Okay. Not great, obviously, but we can work with that.’
‘What do you mean, “we can work with that”?’
‘I can get you out of it.’ She reached for her wine, took a long sip, then set it down again. ‘There are a couple of approaches we can take. There’s irreconcilable differences, obviously, but if you really do feel badly enough about the thing with his sister that you’re willing to undergo an entire ridiculous charade to ensure that this man gets a job he doesn’t deserve—’
‘He does deserve it. Just as much as me.’
‘No, he doesn’t, orhewould have got the job,’ Chess snapped. ‘But if you’re determined to do a solid for him, you don’t have to marry him. There’s no way anyone can legally prove whether you are or aren’t engaged.’
‘Lyons would get pretty suspicious when we kept postponing our wedding. Plus, we already made it pretty clear that we’d be married by the time we got there.’
‘Sadieeeee.’ My name came out of her in a groan. ‘Why did you wait until the last minute to tell me? You must have filed the notice of intent weeks ago! Why are you only telling me now?’
She pinched the bridge of her nose, hard. ‘This would have been so much easier to get you out of if you’d justtoldme.’
‘I don’t want you to get me out of it.’
‘So you actually want to do this?’
I didn’t know how to respond.
‘You actually want to marry him.’ It was a question that sounded like a statement. ‘This man. This fucking private school boy. That’s who you want to marry.’
‘He’s not that bad. He’s… he’s… he’s nice, really, once you get past all the tweed.’
Chess scoffed.
‘And it’s not that Iwantto marry him, exactly. It’s… it’s—’
‘Sadie, if you want to fuck him, just fuck him.’
My mouth fell open.
‘I’m serious.’ Chess drank the remaining half of her glass in one gulp. ‘Arguing is friction. Hate sex is a real thing. If it’ll help you get it out of your system, I will sacrifice one of the last two precious nights I have with you so you can go and fuck him.’
‘I don’t want to fuck him!’
‘But you want to marry him?’
‘Stop lawyering me!’
