Virgin Marriage by Alexa Riley
Chapter 1
Caroline
Iroll over in bed and stretch. I need to get up. I can hear Gia singing to herself in the shower and it makes me smile. She loves to sing but she’s terrible at it. She’s worse than I am and that’s saying a lot. That still didn't stop her from making us do the seventh grade talent show together, where we not only danced but sang too. It was awful, but thank god at the time we went to an all-girls school together back in Seattle or it might have been more embarrassing. She really could talk me into almost anything.
I would have done the talent show every year with her if it would’ve kept her from moving all the way to Chicago in the middle of our eighth grade year. We stayed close, but high school would’ve been better if she was by my side.
I throw the blankets back and get up to go make some coffee. I don’t drink the stuff, but Gia swears by it. I put on my slippers and snag my phone off the side table before opening my bedroom door at the same time as Gia comes out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Her dark hair is hidden under a towel on her head.
“Hey, I wanted to give you a heads up.” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “It rained last night.”
The same dog that pretends he can’t hear me when I call his name almost knocks me over as he comes flying out of my room where he was hiding under my blankets. He was next to me all night and tried to kick me out of the bed.
“Elvis, no!” I take off after him, but somehow the dog who moves at a snail's pace—unless you drop food—is faster than ever and leaps with his short stubby legs onto the sofa, pushing the curtains out of the way. He looks out the window to see if it rained and I groan.
“Sorry!” Gia yells from the hallway.
Elvis turns and his big ears bounce as he plops down on the sofa and gives me a look that says he will not be walking today.
“You have to go out for at least one walk,” I tell my stubborn dog.
I’m pretty sure he’s a mix between a basset hound and bulldog. He was a rescue Yana and I found and I love the little brat, partly because he reminds me of her. I lost the woman who I considered my mom six months ago. People say time helps heal, but I don't feel like anything has changed yet. At least now I’m back with Gia and that helps.
“He’s the stupidest, smartest dog I’ve ever seen.” Gia comes back into the living room a few moments later in a pair of jeans and hoodie that reads “Northwestern University.” “Are you sure he isn't basset hound and bulldog with a touch of cat?”
“Sometimes I wonder.”
He acts like a cat most of the time. He’s allergic to water unless it’s to drink. He gets pissy if his long ears fall into his water bowl and if they do, he stands in front of me and paws at me until I get a towel and dry them off. It’s adorably annoying.
“I was going to start the coffee,” I tell her while trying to give Elvis a hard look of warning. He lets out a huff before getting up and pawing at the sofa and turning in circles. Once he’s good and ready, he plops down and sighs.
“Marco is picking me up. He said he already got me one.” She smiles for a moment then stops. “Makeup.”
She dashes back to her bedroom to get ready before her boyfriend gets here. At least I think he’s her boyfriend. I haven't heard any titles put out there yet, but he acts like she’s all his.
It’s adorable watching the two of them together. I don't have much to go off myself because my parents didn’t have a marriage of love. Seeing something like they had growing up never made me crave a relationship. Being in an all-girls school didn't push the issue either. It wasn't until my first year of college that I tried to see what could be out there. Johnny Rule was my first boyfriend, if you could even call him that. He had me slamming the door in the face of dating rather quickly.
Then life happened and dating was so far from my mind, but seeing Marco and Gia has me wondering what I might be missing out on. Yana always said I was meant for a great love and that one day I would have it and it would be nothing like my parents’. She told me that weeks before she died when I told her I’d never fall in love. She made me promise that I wouldn't lock my heart away because it would only make me more like my parents. She was right, but then again she always was.
I walk back into my bedroom and put on a pair of skinny jeans and a pink hoodie. I glance at my other sweatshirts that are just like Gia’s. I got them during the one year of college I completed. I hated every second of college, but I went where my parents wanted me to go. I lived close enough to the school that I didn’t move into the dorms like most of the other freshmen, and I felt more lost then than I do now living in a city I know nothing about. I’m a dog walker with no idea what I’m going to do with my life, but I’m happy and that’s all that matters. Right?
“CC,” Gia calls for me.
I walk back into the living room and I see Marco standing there. He’s looking down at Gia like she hung the moon for him alone.
“Marco got you hot chocolate since you hate coffee.” She holds it out for me.
“That was sweet. Thanks, Marco.” He raises his chin and smiles politely but he never says much. I fight a laugh because I think he only got me a hot chocolate because he knew it would make Gia happy that he did something nice for me. That doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it makes me like him even more. Maybe he wants to make sure I’m team Marco when Gia’s family finds out she’s been dating someone.
“Well I’m off. I have two tests today,” she groans, but I know she’ll do fine. She spent all night studying. I quizzed her and helped her make flash cards.
“I’ll take you to your favorite pizza place after you’re all done, sweets,” he tells her in his thick New York accent. I don’t know much about Marco yet, but one thing I do know is he’s not from here. I also know he must come from money because he’s always dressed in an expensive-looking suit.
“Don’t you have work?” she asks as she grabs her backpack off the hook next to the front door. He takes it from her hands to carry it for her.
The way they look at one another makes my heart ache for something like that. Or even a silly crush where I know what it’s like to get butterflies in my stomach.
“Thanks again.” I raise the hot cup I’m holding and Marco nods again as they leave.
I lock the door behind them before I finish getting ready and enjoy my hot chocolate. When I come back into the living room, Elvis lifts his head to look at me with those puppy dog eyes.
“Let’s not fight about this,” I say as take his leash off the front door hook. “You only have to do the first round of walks with me and then I’ll bring you back.”
I know he can't understand me, but sometimes I wonder if he does. He needs the walk because he’s gained some weight since Yana died. Both of us have been eating our emotions. Maybe the weight gain wouldn't be a big deal if he wasn't sometimes a brat and I have to carry him when he decides he’s done walking.
I glance at my phone, knowing I need to get a move on so I’m not late. I double-check to make sure I have all the keys to the places I’m going today. When I’m all set I look back to Elvis, who hasn't moved an inch.
“Fine, we’ll stop at the bacon truck.” At the word “bacon” he’s off the sofa and standing next to me. Once again his short stubby legs move quicker than normal. It’s not a food truck that only sells bacon, but it’s what Elvis knows them for. “Don’t you have to use the bathroom anyway?”
I click the leash onto him before grabbing my crossbody bag that has the other leashes I’ll need. We take the elevator because I don’t want to push my luck with Elvis and his already grumpy mood. I give Jake, our doorman, a wave as he opens the door of our building for me and I make my way towards my first dog pickup.
Being a dog walker was never something I thought I would do for a living, but then again I never thought I’d up and leave my life behind in the middle of the night before either. It took my parents almost two weeks to realize I left and I’m pretty sure it was only because Stacy, my father's assistant, told him. She called me to ask me why the check to my university was returned with a letter stating I didn’t enroll for my sophomore year. Who knows how long it would have taken them otherwise.
I was done with them when they hadn't even bothered to come home from their summer trip to Europe when Yana passed away. I called them in a frenzy when she got sick and I rushed her to the hospital. They told me everything would be fine but it wasn't. She died three hours later. The woman who was more of a parent to me than my own since I was a little girl left me. They didn't bother to come home for the funeral either and I couldn’t forgive them.
I felt lost and alone until Gia showed up. She sat next to me while I cried and refused to leave my side. I knew she had a life to get back to and I also knew, unlike my parents, her family would be all over her about getting back to Chicago. When she told me to come with her, I didn't have to think on it. I packed my bags, and Elvis and I left with her.
Gia told me she had a spare room that I would be calling home from now on. Her mom and dad made me feel welcome, too, even though I wasn't sure how they’d feel about it at first. I knew they paid for Gia’s place while her only job was to get perfect grades—which she did. When I got here they hugged me and told me they were happy to have me home and they felt better that Gia had someone to stay with her.
Gia’s family offered love and caring better than my own family. I missed them almost as much as I missed Gia when she moved. I was broken up inside when they moved to Chicago. I spent so many nights at their home as a child wishing my family was more like theirs.
“See? It’s not so bad out,” I tell Elvis after our fourth dog pickup this morning. He dodges puddles as if they’re landmines. When he does get a little water on his paws he prances until they are dry again.
It’s been hard getting used to holding so many leashes at once without tangling them together, but I’ve started to get the hang of it and I love it.
I sigh when the dog park is in sight. The dogs start to get excited when they see it too.
I step into the fenced-in area, letting them off their leashes to run and play. I sit down on the empty bench with Elvis because he doesn't join the other dogs. Instead he makes me help him up on the bench to lie next to me. He lays his head on my lap and I know he likely felt my mood shift when I was thinking about my family. I pull out my phone to play with it while the dogs roam around. I pet Elvis so he knows I’m fine and I glance over to see his eyes close.
An email dings, and when I see it’s from my father's assistant I don’t click it. I simply file it away with the others and then click on my Kindle app. I go back to the book I was reading last night before I passed out.
I may not be where I thought I was going to be this time last year, but I know one thing’s for sure, I might be sad and a little lost, but I know I’m where I’m supposed to be. I have no plans to ever go back and I won't let myself be sucked back into the life my parents wanted me to have. I’m happier sitting on this bench where my plans consist of petting Elvis and picking up dog crap. It’s a million times better than living a life for someone else.
