Hauntingly Beautiful Girls

"Honest Unreliability"

I jump slightly when the phone rings. Half expecting that it is that nice writer, I am surprised to find it is someone else.

Someone I have not heard from in years. Someone that hinted marriage long ago, but ignored me completely in recent years.

I answer the phone. "Yes. I remember you. Yes. I still live in the same place. You are where? My front door?? OK. Give a couple of minutes."

I put on the thick comfortable robe (the kind to wear when reading books) and open the door.

It is him, still I have to ask what he wants at this hour. I leave off asking what he wants after some many years.

It is surprising. He wants to marry me. Recently, he got the things he had worked so hard to get. He would be the top man in the firm. A position that had big perks and stock options.

Of course, I will marry him. Of course.

I launch myself onto him and push him down on the couch. Kisses all over his face. He starts to talk, but I put a finger on his lips.

I have to ask. "Do you remember what I told the first time we.. met."

He looks confused, but he gives the right answer. "You will never tolerate a husband that told you any lies."

My kisses shower his face again. But he falls silent in a few minutes, and I find him asleep.

I do not smell alcohol on him. So, unbutton his jacket and shirt and take off his shoes. First the closest shoe falls to the floor, and then the other shoe drops too.

I go to sleep in my bed.

In the morning, he wakes up and asks what he is doing here?

He appears doubtful, but checks the phone call records on our two phones. He eventually recalls the marriage proposal from last night.

He hugs me nicely, and says I should get dressed.

It is like a dream come true. An executive husband. Nice house. Trips in limousines. Fashionable clothes.

More than that. I liked him, I always did.

Our first step is to visit his lawyer. Pre-Nuptial agreements to sign.

I know women everywhere sign them all the time. I know many women would just sign the agreement.

It was just too much. I would have no rights at all. I would inherit next to nothing, and could suffer huge penalties if he divorced me.

Eventually, I pushed him to be more kind, and he relented.

Happy and stressed from the earlier badgering, I visit the lawyers restroom. It is just the three of us in the office. When I find there are no paper towel for drying, I try looking around the receptionist's desk.

They walk out together. They have agreed to a plan. Signing what I wanted today, then working slowly over years to take my conditions away.

He was going trick me. He was going lie.

I scatter out of office crying. I use the stairs, so I do not have to wait for the elevator.

Two floors down, I run into a succubae. She leads me out a ground floor door at the back.

"Listen to me. He does not deserve you. Not now. He has finally gotten the job he wanted, but he is fading away. He would make you an unpaid administrative assistant with bedtime benefits. But now also making you an unpaid health care taker as he faded away.

Here is the question. I think already made the choice to not marry him. I can take you away by magic, but you must commit to a deal to pay. It would save you from running into that man and his lawyer."

When I agree, I find myself in a strange house.

The succubae tells me to read the stories and email on a laptop.

These are stories about me. The email is saying how he spent all those hours after the date just writing.

In the time it takes me to think it through, nice man comes around the corner wearing a robe.

The succubae lays out the deal.

"On each anniversary of your wedding, after you have both gone to sleep, we will remove some life. If one of you gets sick, we will stop taking payments."

They were a very happy couple together for many, many, years.