Vegas Knot (✔️) | Love Travels #1

Nine

Enrique stares across the table at me, jaw slack and hands cupping his empty coffee cup.

"Say something?" I prod, hoping he heard what I had to say. "Please."

"You want me to stay married to you?"

Yes, because that was the salient point I just made.

"Yes, I do. At least for the next week. Let's get to know each other. We can stay here in Vegas and you can come to Divya's wedding things and there's some stuff I want to explore in the area. What do you say? There's a fancy hotel and free food in it for you." I'm really laying it on thick but the thought of having to turn to the Elvis impersonator keeps me going.

And he meets me with even more silence. Am I that terrible that he doesn't even want to pretend to be my date?

Finally, he looks up at me. "And what happens at the end of the week? What do we do then?"

There are two ways this could go. He wants to be done with me and get a divorce. Or he wants to stay married to me. The two options are so wildly disparate that I have to tread carefully with my response.

"We could reassess the situation then. If we use this time to get to know each other a bit it should make it easier to decide what to do. All I'm asking is that we commit to a week for now and then we can talk about what comes next. Maybe you'll be tired of me by then."

"I hope not."

Yeah, well, me too dude. But these half answers are killing me! The long silences are probably even worse.

"So, what do you think?" I say when I can't take the silence anymore. We've been sitting in the cafe so long that it's almost empty of the lunch crowd.

"I think I can't agree to a week."

"I need a week, thought, because—"

He interrupts me. "I'm going to need at least two."

Two weeks? "What's two weeks going to do that one week won't?" Why prolong the torture if it isn't working?

"I know it doesn't feel like a big difference, so I'm hoping you'll agree. I just want more time to get to know you before we have to decide. I want to go back home and settle into our lives and experience some life together before we make any permanent decisions. So I'll be your date to all of... Divya?"

"Yes, Divya."

"I'll be your date to all of Divya's wedding festivities, if you want, but I want a week with you once we're back home. Which is where for you?"

"Don't change the topic. I'll give you a second week if you do your job this week. If we are believable enough to fool Divya's family, then you get the second week. Deal?"

"Where do you live?"

"Canada," I say simply.

"Oh, good," he laughs. "I have a cousin in Toronto. Maybe you know him."

I'm in the middle of a groan when he starts laughing. "I'm from Vancouver," he says through the laugh. "But I'm living near Banff at the moment."

I could work with that. "So you want me to come back there with you for a week? Is that the deal?"

"If you want it to be, it is."

"You have a spare bedroom?"

"Now who's changing the subject?"

"Answer my question."

"I have a spare bed. 'Room' is questionable."

I pretend to mull it over for a minute, but a vacation in the mountains sounds nice. "I'll do it. But only if you are convincing. Even a whiff of Divya's family disbelieving you and the deal is off."