FOR MONEY, I'LL MARRY YOU.......

19

👉🏻👈🏻

"Althea. What is that?"

Jade couldn't look away from the living room wall under the stairs that led up to Althea's room. She closed her eyes. Opened them again. Stared some more. The photo was still there.

"Hm?" Althea's voice came from the kitchen.

Jade finally spun around.

"That. What is that?"

Althea finally looked up from the counter where she was busy chopping tomatoes. They were fresh ones, organic and plump, and the smell of them filled the room.

Jade was getting spoiled living in this house. To be fair, she had some money now, more than she'd ever really had. That forty thousand still sat there, though, untouched.

"That," Althea said, her eyes doing that slightly squinty thing they did when she was amused, "is a photo."

Jade huffed, scratching Migui under the chin.

"Yes. It is a photo. But where did it come from?"

"It's been there two days."

"I-what?"

"Two days, Jade."

Jade spun on her heel and stared at it again.

"Two days?"

"You're really not very observant. I was waiting for this reaction."

"You had a photo of us kissing on the wall for two days and I missed it?"

Migui walked past her and stalked off somewhere toward his ridiculously large dog bed, where he would, she was sure, stare at them all judgmentally.

"I put it up, knowing your friends were coming tonight. It came about a month ago. Around when you were hiding your keys in the fridge."

The photo was huge. And beautifully shot. It was candid, the two of them kissing in City Hall, smiles on their lips. It looked real.

The photographer had captured it at the perfect moment. You couldn't tell that they were laughing out of awkwardness, at the pure insanity of the situation.

They looked like two fools in love.

"I like that it's in black and white," Jade said.

"Mm. He did a good job. There's another on the TV cabinet."

Jade spun on her heel again.

"There is?"

Althea chuckled. "There is."

Jade walked over to the television, picking up the much smaller framed photo. This one was color. Althea's cheeks were flushed. Jade was biting her lip as she slipped a ring on Althea's finger.

She barely remembered doing that. The entire thing had passed in an anxiety-ridden blur. The photo was finely enhanced. He really had done a good job.

"So this is the subtle look at us we're genuinely married touch?"

Jade put the photo down and walked over to sit on one of the barstools, watching Althea add balsamic with a flick of her wrist to the salad she'd prepared.

"It is. Do you think it works?"

"It does."

Jade quickly stole a piece induce, nor did she fully understand. But it was true. Age wasn't important. After a slow blink, Althea went back to pulling out plates and cutlery.