Playing Pretend

Rescue Me

Evan left the house without saying another word to anyone for fear that I he stayed any longer he might join Chloe back on the bed and ruin everything he already had. He couldn’t understand his reactions every time Chloe got upset; he instinctively got protective of her. He hadn’t seen her in 12 years but knew there were feelings he shouldn’t have felt as an engaged man, even if it was for the wife he planned to divorce. He and Erica were perfect together; he was energetic and social while she complemented him with her shyness and laidback attitude. Chloe was opposite of Erica, a fiery and outspoken woman. It didn’t surprise him though; she was like that when she was younger before they parted ways. He could even remember when he told her that they weren’t really married, she needed to stop pretending and grow up, she yelled back at him in front of all his friends that it was fine, she didn’t want to be married to him anyway. Only now he remembered the hurt in her eyes and the tears that threatened to fall. It was also the same time her parents were having problems, so it wasn’t the best time for her to lose her best friend.

Evan continued to drive when he remembered he should probably call his agent to see what could be done to silence the stories.

“Star Agency, how may I direct your call?” asked the receptionist.

“It’s Evan Holloway, put me through to Raymond,” replied Evan. The cheesy elevator music clicked on in his ear before it was cut off with a quick “This is Ray.”

“Ray, it’s Evan, I-“ started Evan before he was cut off.

“Evan, what are you trying to do to me? Why didn’t you tell me you were married? Or is this some sleazy story some reporter decided to cook up since he was bored with your fairy tale ending? If it him, I’ll find and kill the guy who tried to ruin you and me and everything we-“ rambled Ray before Evan jumped in.

“Ray, listen to me, the marriage is real,” said Evan.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me you were married? You know how bad this looks getting engaged when you are already married? Why didn’t you just divorce the first chick when you separated? This is going to ruin your career,” said Ray exasperated.

“I didn’t know I was married,” replied Evan in the middle of Ray’s speech.

“Wait, what? How could you not know you were married? Were you drunk when you got hitched? Do you even know who your supposed wife is?” asked Ray confused.

“No, I mean yes, I mean I wasn’t drunk but I do know my wife,” replied Evan. For some reason he felt like a schoolboy getting scolded by the teacher.

“Evan you have some explaining to do; I’ve been getting calls all morning from the press asking about this marriage of yours and I don’t anything.”

“Once I tell you, you’ll think it’s a script we just read instead of real life,” said Evan.

“That bad? Why don’t you just tell me the whole story and we’ll see how we can save your career.”

“Okay, so I do know who my wife is; she’s my childhood best friend but I haven’t seen her in 12 years,” started Evan.

“If you haven’t seen each other in 12 years, how can you be married?” asked Ray confused.

“I’m getting to that. Anyway when we were about six we were the best of friends and I had always heard my parents say they married their best friend so I asked Chloe, my now wife, to marry me. We were kids so we thought everything was a game. Anyway we asked our parents to marry us, which they did on Chloe’s birthday to play into having a princess wedding/birthday, but little did we know that our parents had other reasons to allow us to marry. We thought it was a game while my parents used me to inherit a ton of money. Anyways, after we inherited the money Chloe and I had a falling out so we haven’t seen each other since.”