The Hero + Vegas = No Regrets

I’m impressed with myself, and it’s not because of the pink cocktail dress I’m wearing. Despite going out with some of the girls from work last night, I did not booty-call Worth. And I managed not to tell the girls I got hitched in Vegas, even when I was three drinks down. I deserve a ten out of ten.

This dress isn’t right. I pull another from my wardrobe—my last option. I just don’t have a wardrobe that screams I’m married to a billionaire. I don’t know what Worth likes. Not that I’m dressing for him. Except, maybe I am. He seems so into me, I feel like I need to live up to who he thinks I am.

My phone buzzes. It’s Worth.

I answer. “Hey.”

“I’m buzzing your buzzer. Can you let me in?”

“Shit, it’s broken. I’ll come down. I just need to decide what to wear.”

“Whatever you’ve got on is fine,” he says.

“Oh okay, jeans and a white tee okay for you?”

“Completely fine,” he says. “You’ll look beautiful in anything. I’ll be waiting.”

I groan and hang up the phone. He always says the sweetest things. But surely he can’t mean that we can have our first date when I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

I put on a black cocktail dress—which is Holly Golightly meets Zara—grab my bag and pink coat, and head downstairs.

Worth is leaning against a black SUV. He wears a long gray coat with the collar turned up, because it’s fucking freezing. He looks so hot, I want to suggest skipping dinner and going back upstairs.

But I want to get to know Worth. He’s a good guy. He’s also my husband. Our marriage is essentially just a piece of paper—it shouldn’t mean anything. And yet… it does. I’m just not sure what.

“Pink suits you,” he says as he greets me with a kiss.

“Would you have said green suited me if my coat had been green?”

“Absolutely. Because green does suit you.”

I grin up at him. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so adored. I’ve been love-bombed before, but that’s not what Worth is doing. I haven’t known him long, but I know him well enough to understand that he doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean. He adores me. And instead of it making me deeply uncomfortable, I kinda like it.

“You look hot. But then, I did marry you, so I guess you know that already.”

He pulls me closer to him and growls in my ear, kissing my neck. “We should leave now or we won’t make it to dinner.”

We slide into the car and Worth takes my hand in his right away.

“I saw my sister yesterday,” he says.

“How was that?” I ask. He obviously has a very close relationship with his siblings. I don’t want to say anything I shouldn’t.

“She wants to drop out of Columbia.”

“Because she’s on academic probation?” I ask.

“More like she’s on academic probation because she wants to drop out. She says she doesn’t like studying economics.”

“Oh. Well, that’s a bigger problem. It’s nice she came to you, though. Isn’t it?”

He sighs. “I don’t know, honestly. She obviously wants my approval to drop out.” He glances across at me, and I try to keep my expression neutral. “Because I’m older, and because once our dad died, our mom wasn’t particularly engaged, both my sisters put me in a parental role.”

He’s a problem solver for more than the people he invests in, but he seems to like it. “Put you?”

He’s silent for a beat while he thinks. “Maybe not consciously, but that’s the role I’m in. Partly because I was the one who made sure they had their packed lunch and clean clothes a lot of the time. I made their doctors’ appointments and nursed them when they were sick. But also, because I have the money now to pay for their education or whatever else they want to do with their lives.

“You parented them? Because your mother was sick after your dad died?”

He takes in a juddering breath. “I knew if I didn’t step up, we’d all end up in foster care. I wouldn’t let that happen. So I got on with it. Lucky for everyone, I was fourteen and smart. Mom had her good days.” He pauses. “And her terrible days.”

Pain flashes across his expression, and I squeeze his hand. Worth is the dad of the friend group and oh-so-sensible, because that’s what he knows. It’s what his family needed from him.

“I’m so sorry, Worth. How is your mom now?”

“Good,” he says simply. “She moved to North Carolina as soon as Avril turned eighteen.”

“You still see her?”

“Yeah. But we’re not close. Her light went out when my dad died. She wasn’t the same woman after his death, and part of me will always resent that, I think. She gave up so completely. I know depression isn’t something people can control without help, but it felt like she didn’t even try.”

“Sounds like you didn’t have much of a childhood,” I say quietly.

He smooths his thumb over the back of my hand. It’s all the confirmation I’m going to get that I’ve hit the nail on the head.

“Your sisters clearly adore you.”

“And hate me in equal measure.”

“What do you think about Avril dropping out of Columbia? Do you approve?”

“I’m not sure my approval matters. If I don’t, and I put pressure on her to stay, she’s just going to fail her courses. If I approve… I asked her to write me a business plan for what she’s going to do if she drops out.”

“A business plan you’ll approve?”

He chuckles. “Maybe. I just want her to have a plan. To have something to get up in the morning for. I don’t want her to drift.”

It hits me right in my chest that Worth and his sisters lived with the understanding that they weren’t enough to get their mother up in the morning. I can’t imagine how painful that must have been. How painful it probably still is, to this day. “You’re such a good role model, Worth. I have a feeling she’s going to surprise you.”

He turns to me. “It’s possible. The road ahead is full of bends and curves. I didn’t expect I’d be sitting next to my wife en route to our first date, but here we are. Which reminds me, we need to figure out when we can have our second date. Are you free tomorrow?”

There he is, that driven, intense man, never far from the surface.

“I don’t have enough clothes for us to date every night.”

“Enough clothes?”

“Yeah, like, for going out. I don’t go out six nights a week.”

He narrows his eyes like he’s considering his response. “And you don’t want me to pay for a new wardrobe.”

I laugh. It’s not a question, but it’s nice he knows I’d never accept that. “Absolutely not.”

“We could have a sweatpants date? You haven’t been to my place. Come over. I can have a chef prepare dinner and pretend I cooked.”

I laugh again. “I’d like that.”

“Are you going to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving?”

My blood turns to ice at the thought. “I was supposed to,” I say.

“But?” he asks.

“I don’t know if I’m going to go now.”

“My sisters and I usually go to Tavern on the Green. If you’re in New York, I’d love for you to join us.”

“Thank you. Thanksgiving is complicated,” I say. “It’s also my dad’s birthday. I need to figure out what I’m doing and where I’ll be.” I start to feel itchy. I don’t want to miss out on being with my family for the holiday, but at the same time, my family isn’t my family anymore. Everything’s changed. And the fact that Dad will be there? Mom probably thought keeping up with tradition would be normal in some twisted way, but the opposite is true. And what about Dad’s other kids? Shouldn’t he be with them?

“I’m pretty good at running through pros and cons.”

“I’ll bear that in mind,” I say. I’m not ready to tell Worth everything going on back in Cincinnati. I don’t want him to think I’m bringing him problems to solve. I don’t want to be a burden. He’s my lover. My very new husband. I want to enjoy that for a while. But I do start mentally composing a text telling Mom I won’t be home for Thanksgiving.