She was still giving me a pointed look, but even through the wild jungle of my panic I recognized that it wasn’t a look of disappointment. Will you please retrieve them for me? I’ll cover your desk.” “I need a few number-ten envelopes from the supply closet. She hadn’t given me a pointed look after that for a full six weeks. Sometimes I thought she liked me too, like the time she came back from vacation and discovered I’d organized the copy room according to her preferred design. The woman was always five minutes early and fully prepared for all meetings.

She was no-nonsense, dedicated, and never gossiped. We were the two highest-ranking administrative employees in the firm, and we worked well together. And by send away, I mean lock me away forever if he can manage it.Īs far as coworkers went, I liked Ms. And by nunnery, I mean a mental hospital. Opal lifted her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes, my throat tightened and my cheeks heated.ĭiscovering one’s cousin wishes to send thee away to a nunnery will do that. We’d been working together in the same space for going on five years and I’d grown accustomed to her pointed looks, usually. Struggling to paste on my polite smile of perpetual calm, I glanced at the older woman. The kind of look parents everywhere administered to children when they were acting like a fool, as I sometimes caught Ms. It was the kind of look I imagined mothers gave their kids during teenage years. I sensed the older woman hesitate, and felt her disapproving eyes move over me. I stiffened, instinctively straightening my spine, and managed a raspy, “Yes, Ms. I stared unseeingly at the dark, solid wood surface of my desk while trying very, very hard not to FREAK THE FREAKITY FREAK OUT! Not waiting for his response, I ended the call and clutched my cell to my chest. “Your job.” His words were as flat as matzo. Uncle Eugene huffed, the sound ripe with impatience. Opal and anyone else who might walk through our shared space, I whispered, “Let me call you back. “Please wait,” I whispered, dipping my chin to my chest, allowing my hair to fall forward. I heard a chair creak, and then he repeated, “He’s planning to have you committed.” The unexpectedly disastrous, panic-inducing call. It had been directed to the person on the other side of my call. “Sorry,” I said to her, even though my sharp question hadn’t been directed to Ms. Opal didn’t do this often-send me disapproving looks-just whenever I spoke too loudly. Mouth pinched into a disapproving pucker, my coworker’s gaze lingered on the cell in my hand. My sharp question earned me a sharp look from Ms. The basic elements of a marriage are: (1) the parties' legal ability to marry each other, (2) mutual consent of the parties, and (3) a marriage contract as required by law. Marriage: The legal union of a couple as spouses. What Happens in Chicago, Stays in Chicago

Marriage of Inconvenience by Penny Reid