Anne Ha - Long, Tall Temporary Husband

Taylor reached for the camisole. “I don’t think so, Jake.” As he watched, she painstakingly refolded it the way she’d learned during her brief stint in a clothing store last fall, before she’d been fired and had looked for work as a waitress. She laid it in a drawer. “You just keep your door closed down the hall. I’ll make sure this room looks vacant. We’ll be fine.”

She quickly unpacked the rest of her things, then tucked the suitcase and luggage rack in the back of the closet. All her belongings had fit into one of the two dressers. The room looked untouched.

“Just like a hotel room,” she muttered.

“Keep it that way.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, saluting his broad back as he strode from the room.

An hour later she joined him for a sumptuous dinner cooked by Irma. They sat at opposite ends of the long table, not close together as they had last summer. The iron candelabra partially obscured their views of each other, preventing any feeling of intimacy.

Which was fine with her. She wanted to eat, not stare adoringly into her husband’s eyes.

They dined in silence until halfway through dessert, when someone pounded on the front door.

As Irma went to answer it Jake murmured, “Must be Hankins, stopping by to say hello. Ready to face the music?”

Taylor glanced down at the diamond wedding set on her left hand. The gems sparkled in the flickering candlelight. Simple and elegant, they looked just right. As if they belonged on her hand.

It had been hard to put them back on. Hard to wear them again considering everything they represented. Hope. Failure.

She remembered Jake’s proposal, when he’d slipped the engagement ring on her finger at midnight on the stern deck of a cruise ship. Remembered their wedding, and the confident touch of his fingers as he put his wedding band on her. Remembered ripping the rings off her finger and throwing them at him right before she stormed off the ranch.

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