Page 32 of I Love You, I Hate You
@Lukethebarnyardcat
Oh okay we’re going big today, got it
@Noraephronwasagenius
Don’t mock, I’m serious. What do you think about marriage?
@Lukethebarnyardcat
Like, as a concept?
@Noraephronwasagenius
Yeah.
@Lukethebarnyardcat
I do want to get married. I just don’t think I’ve met the right person, you know?
@Noraephronwasagenius
Same. I want to get married, but sometimes I wonder if I’m capable of being that selfless? I don’t know, it seems hard. And I don’t really have a good model for it. My dad was literally never around, and my mom’s good guy radar has been on the fritz for a long time.
@Lukethebarnyardcat
Me either. Here’s to being selfish assholes?
@Noraephronwasagenius
Clink clink, motherfucker.
Chapter Thirteen
Owen set his glass back down on the bar and checked his watch. The wedding wasn’t due to start for another ten minutes, but Victoria hardly seemed like the sort of person who would cut things close. She had shooed him out of the hotel room a solid forty minutes ago to get ready, less out of shyness and more because he wasin her damn way.
A few other wedding guests trickled out of the hotel bar and he fiddled with his cufflinks. By all rights a two-hour drive to Duluth with Victoria should have been at least a little awkward, but it wasn’t. It wasfun. Victoria had started out with a pile of work—not on their case, she had warned him almost immediately—but by the time they were out of the Cities and had hit open road, he had talked her into packing it away. She mocked his playlists but picked one anyway, and then Owen learned something unexpected:
Victoria had a gorgeous voice. It was low and sultry and he was, for the first time in his life, slightly self-conscious about his croaking, off-key singing. Normally he belted it out and damn the critics, but this time, he decided to listen. And when he turned into the hotel parking lot and his heart sank at the thought of turning off the music, he realized that this trip was a very stupid idea indeed.
It was something he had known on some level since he decided to try and play knight in shining armor by bringing her soup, and possibly for longer, but now it was utterly undeniable.
He had feelings for Victoria. Real, actual feelings; not just lust. He liked that she was prickly and complicated and he liked that there was a side of her that he had to work to see. He’d always appreciated a challenge, and Victoria was nothing if not that.
But he wasn’t quite sure how she felt about him. It was entirely possible this was all just lust and attraction for her, even if she seemed to be lowering her walls for him just a little. Plus there was the Nora factor to consider, and he just didn’t even know how to begin to untangle that.
“Ready?”
Owen turned and choked on his tongue. He thought he was prepared to see Victoria in black tie—leave it to Andy and Cassie to throw themselves the fanciest wedding of the year—but he wasn’t. Not in the slightest. Her floor-length dress was nothing more than a simple, beaded sheath, but the deep purple hue set off her eyes like nothing he’d ever seen before, and it clung to her like a second skin.
She arched an eyebrow. “Owen? The wedding?”
“Right. The wedding,” he sputtered. Leaving his glass on the bar he walked with her to the room in the back of the building where the ceremony was set to begin. Huge windows opened up onto Lake Superior, a deep blue on this late autumn afternoon. Trees framed the view to the left, orange and red on the spit of land that stretched out into the lake, waves crashing against the rocks below. The hotel itself was a Gilded Age stunner, but Owen hardly even noticed the gleaming floors or impressive chandeliers because when Victoria turned around he realized her dress had a long, draping neckline that left her entire back bare. His fingers itched to touch her skin but he curled his hand into a fist instead.
The ceremony was short but beautiful. Owen barely heard a word, even though these were two of his best friends getting married, because he kept glancing over at Victoria, wondering if she was real. She kept twisting the program into a tight cylinder and then unrolling it, and he once again had to curl his hands into fists to keep from weaving their fingers together. He had promised to keep his hands to himself, after all, and anyway, hand-holding was not a part of their deal, even if he wasn’t completely sure what their deal was. They really needed to have a goddamn conversation about this.
But when they stood to go join the receiving line, Victoria shocked him by nonchalantly holding her hand out to him. He took it without comment, uncomfortably aware that his heart rate had sped up. Last time he had gotten this worked up over hand-holding he had been fifteen and worried Sarah Collins would notice his palms were sweating while they walked to third period math class. Victoria didn’t seem perturbed by it at all, sweaty palms or no, and he let himself lace his fingers with hers as they walked. Every cell in his body screamed for him to pull her aside and ask her if they could talk about what they were, but the fear that she’d laugh at him and confirm that it was just sexual attraction kept him quiet. He allowed himself to rest his hand on her lower back while they searched for their table, her skin smooth and warm to the touch, and he was almost positive her smile lingered on him longer than usual.
Owen pulled out her chair just as Mark and Priyanka slid into their seats. Mark and Priyanka had been nearly inseparable since that night at the bar, a fact Andy annoyingly took sole credit for in their group chat as often as humanly possible, completely disregarding Owen’s protests that he deserved at least fifty percent of the credit. Owen hadn’t told Mark he was bringing anyone, largely because he half-assumed Victoria would bail at the last minute. But for once in his damn life, Mark played it cool and stuck his hand out for Victoria to shake and introduced himself. “Are you a friend of Owen’s?” he asked mildly, flicking his eyes toward Owen.