Married at Eighteen

Part 6

————— Part 6 —————

About an hour later, Emerson and Taylor were sitting across from each other on the couches in the 'living room' area of their suite — which really was just two Chesterfield couches with a wooden coffee table in between. It was 9:00 a.m., which was a reasonable time to have breakfast at, so they had ordered room service and were now eating.

"So... we need to talk.", Emerson began.

He was nervous, but he was also excited in some strange way. Maybe it was because, after their talk, they wouldn't have any more secrets regarding the arranged marriage between them.

"Yeah.", Taylor nodded, nibbling on his piece of toast.

Emerson fiddled with the ring around his left ring finger, a symbol of their marriage. He would have been fine without one, but both their parents insisted that they should atleast have something symbolic to their marriage — other than their marriage certificate. So, on their last date before their marriage, they went ring shopping and picked out a set of rings.

Neither Emerson or Taylor regretted that.

By then, Emerson knew that Taylor was a boy so he made sure to not pick out a ring that was overly feminine, even though he knew that Taylor liked feminine things. Actually, he would have been more than happy to pick out a ring from the female section of the shop, but he saw Taylor keep drifting towards a pair of rings, so he ended up buying those rings.

Emerson admitted to his parents that Taylor had good taste.

The rings were just simple bands, half gold and half silver. There were three diamonds in the middle — okay, that made them not-so-simple bands — but the rings didn't have any engraving on them on the inside.

"Do you not like it?", Taylor's voice broke Emerson out of his thoughts.

"What?", Emerson asked, confused.

"The ring. You keep playing with it. Do you not like it?", Taylor explained.

Emerson's eyes widened, "What? No!". He looked Taylor in the eyes, "Believe me, Taylor, I love this ring. It's from you and a symbol of our marriage — even though we're in an arranged marriage. You might have picked it out, but I love it just as much as I think — just as much as I hope — you do.".

Taylor smiled, making Emerson smile.

"So... how do you know about my family situation?", Taylor asked after they had been sitting and eating in silence for what felt like hours to Emerson but was probably about five minutes.

Emerson already had kind of explained his side of the story, but Taylor had a million things going through his mind then and it would be helpful for Emerson to explain again. Emerson didn't mind.

Emerson swallowed his food and explained again about how Taylor's grandparents had approached them with a proposal about a month ago. How Emerson's parents were a little bit suspicious so they investigated the Madison family. How they found out that the Madison grandchild is actually a boy not a girl. How they remembered that the Madisons had come to them with a proposal for their granddaughter not grandson.

Then, he explained about how he had overheard his parents talking and realized that his schoolmate, Taylor Madison, was being forced into an arranged marriage by his grandparents but he had to act as a girl instead of being himself.

The revelation that his schoolmate Taylor was rich had been shocking enough, though it shouldn't have been unexpected considering that he went to a private school which most rich families sent their kids to.