Accidentally Married

Chapter Five

I found my writing mojo that evening and found myself penning a thriller short story, probably inspired by the books I'd been reading lately. I've written in a lot of different genres over the years and while thrillers weren't exactly intellectual, they were fun, both to read and write.

I sincerely hoped that no one I knew ever died in suspicious circumstances because while I needed to research the potency of poisons, the most lethal places to stab someone, and the payload of explosives for my plot, I had a feeling that the police would not view my internet history very kindly.

Publishers don't like authors mixing genres but I could always publish under a pseudonym. Not that this was novel length, it would have to be included in a collection of short stories or something.

This time I didn't cut back on my running, I was only writing this for fun, so I made time to run every day and do yoga every other day. My route was now up to seven miles, which was the longest I had ever done, and I was proud of myself.

On the Wednesday, Tracy texted me a link to another gossip sight, this one claiming that Tom was cheating. I was seriously debating the wisdom of continuing to call Tracy a friend.

I checked the link and my heart stopped for a moment as I saw him with another woman. I was trying to talk my way out of feeling bad, when I noticed that Tom's hair looked a little different. He'd had it darkened a shade or two from his natural blonde for this project, and it was slightly longer than in these pictures.

I was sceptical for a few other reasons. The primary one being that Tom was very intelligent, and I honestly didn't see him insisting on us remaining married (to please the conservative US Oscar voting audience) then being stupid enough to be photographed with an extra marital affair. Plus, these two were only walking down the street together, so even I couldn't be at all sure there was ever a relationship between them.

Just to be sure though (I knew I'd drive myself mad with a maelstrom of thoughts if I wasn't certain) I got the image address and did a google image search. I found that the picture was from last year, with an unknown woman. This site had reused to make it appear that he might be cheating on me.

I replied to Tracy, telling her that if she continued to send me untrue gossip links, I would block her number. She came back basically swearing at me and I blocked her. To be fair, we hardly even saw each other once a year these days.

Tom phoned me the next morning to say the picture was old and he wasn't cheating on me. I thought that was odd language for him, since this wasn't a real marriage, but I assured him that I had already figured that out.

Evidently Luke was keeping him informed of some of what appeared in the press, just not what related to me. I filed that information away for future reference.

He said he was looking forward to getting home and for some unknown reason, I offered to cook for him that night, as if we were a real married couple.

He seemed delighted and said that would be appreciated as he would be tired, thanks to having a hectic week trying to make up for lost time. We decided to spend the night at home, with me cooking something that could keep, just in case he missed his flight or was delayed for any reason.

He then pressed his luck by asking if I'd make something sweet for desert. I hadn't baked anything since he'd been gone but I assured him I would; how could I say no when he all but begged me?

I decided to bake a sticky toffee pudding, which would have a maximum of four portions so, I wouldn't be tempted by it for too long.

Tom arrived back at about eight o'clock on Friday night, just when he was expected, and I'd dressed in one of my new sets of lingerie for the occasion, so I was ready for all possibilities.