Chapter 15

“Think we can get into Locust?” Brandon asked.

“We probably could, but I’d rather do something else,” she said mischievously.

He shot her a devilish grin. “What’s on your mind, Mrs. Cates?”

“There’s this thing I used to love, and I haven’t done it since I married a rich guy. Brandon Cates, you’re about to be acquainted with Redbox.”

He smiled. “Which is what, exactly?”

“It’s this vending machine outside drug stores and discount stores where you can rent a movie for a dollar.”

“Rent a movie? On DVD? We have Amazon and Netflix. We can watch practically anything on demand. Why rent a disc?”

“Because, you can get the instant gratification of the DVD in hand for a buck or like a buck fifty if it’s a new release. We can seriously get all the Oscar nominees at once!”

“Do you like the Oscar nominees?”

“Yeah. And it’s available. Movies for the masses. Let’s go find something to rent.”

Marj led him out of the bar and down several blocks until she found a Redbox outside a dollar store. She showed him how to lift the sunshade, insert a debit card, and scroll through the touchscreen menu.

“Many of these are children’s movies. And things starring comedians carrying guns.”

“Snob. Pick one.”

“We don’t have children, so I suppose it has to be comedians. Do you prefer a woman comedian with a gun or a male comedian with a gun?”

“The guy one looks like it has ghosts and the girl one has cops. Let’s go cops.”

“I love the enormous firearms on the poster.”

“It means it will entail a chase scene and someone getting shot in the butt. It’s standard,” she assured him as they made their selection.

Back at the house, Marj managed to locate a packet of microwave popcorn and prepare it. She upended the steaming contents into a bowl, the virulent orange fake butter clinging to her hands from opening the bag. She joined Brandon on the couch as he fumbled with the DVD.

“It’s been literally years since I’ve used a DVD player.”

“It’s a Blu-ray. You paid twenty-five cents extra for the enhanced disc,” she informed him.

“That would explain why it feels so elegant,” he deadpanned. The previews began, and he turned to Marj. “I don’t ever want this kind of misunderstanding between us again. I want to be with you, not just six months from now. I want us to be together for real. Forever. So I have to be up front about what’s going on with Lena on the legal front and with the press slandering us and all that. And you have to be open about your volunteering and your insecurities and why you went out and broke bacon with the Wicked Queen.”

“I didn’t have bacon. She had bacon,” Marj corrected. “And she was nice to me. She understands a lot about being married to a Cates and the overall obsession with Power Regions. Which I still say sounds so phallic that it’s like ‘oh my region is soooo super powerful boom-boom.’” She dissolved into giggles.

“That’s terrible. And not at all what it means. It means that the company centralizes power in a conglomerate for maximum efficiency in management.”

“Yeah, sounds like a big dick to me.”

“We should let you do all the marketing campaigns, then. Invest in Power Regions, our dicks are huge.”

“Well, thick wrists never lie, Cates,” she teased.

Brandon kissed her. He pulled her to him and crushed her to his chest, tipping her head back and kissing her breathless. She burrowed into his arms, wishing at once for the Burberry Prorsum, the Agent Provocateur ensemble she’d had at the ready on the night of the diamond pendant and the canceled date. Yet, she found unexpectedly that she preferred this. The ease of snuggling and teasing and putting in a movie, and ignoring it comprehensively to use the couch for a better purpose. It felt substantial, satisfying. Like this was real life. This was what she’d been waiting for with Brandon.

“It’s only fitting that we have our reunion on a couch, isn’t it?” he said, his voice low and sexy against her neck. “Since the first time we were together was on the couch in that hotel suite in Vegas.”

“I’m glad you haven’t forgotten,” she purred.

“Never,” he vowed, his mouth claiming hers again. They moved together, peeling clothes off and rediscovering one another. She loved the hot, smooth skin of his shoulders, the taste of his neck. His hands played along her ribcage, setting her wriggling with a ticklish urge to squeal. His fingers peeled back the lace of her bra and set about stroking her breasts until her nipples were almost painfully hard. She made involuntary gasping noises, sounds she couldn’t hope to control under the onslaught of his fingers, his tongue.

She caught the waistband of his pants and unfastened them, working them down past his hips so he could kick them away impatiently. Marj reached for him, her hands on his lean, strong back, drawing him near. She parted her legs for him, winding her thighs low around his hips and rocking toward him. When he kept kissing her neck, kept fingering her nipples as if there was no rush at all, she reached between them and seized his hard length in her palm.

She stroked his length until he twitched against her palm and she felt with satisfaction the way he pushed toward her, the way he parted her slit and pumped into her passage. She sighed, replete, as he filled her. Then she started rocking and bucking against him in rhythm, moaning her approval every time his strokes bumped against that spot inside of her that gave her a surge of raw pleasure.

In the background was the high-pitched twinkly music of the DVD menu, the fat comedian’s film never quite beginning because they were both far too busy to push play. Soon, the groans of completion drowned out the theme music, the slap of bare, slick skin covering any sounds from the speakers. Marj called out Brandon’s name several times, each time higher, louder than before as she climaxed. Her body went rigid, and she saw stars as he slammed into her one last time, and she felt him shudder and groan atop her. Marj clung to him, her nails digging into his strong shoulders, her mouth on his neck, tasting the salt of his sweat from the exertion of their lovemaking.

When they were finished, he spooned up behind her on the couch, drawing a blanket across their bare legs. She reached for the popcorn bowl and he turned on the movie. If they spent most of it kissing, and the rest of it in a blissed-out nap, it was still well worth the dollar twenty-five they’d spent at Redbox.

“I’m cancelling tomorrow’s appointments. We need to do more of this,” he said against her tangled mass of hair.

“Sounds perfect to me,” Marj said with her whole heart.

Brandon’s cell rang.

“Don’t get that!” Marj said.

He smiled. “It’s just Paul. He won’t talk long.”

“All right. But no work, honey. Please.”

“I promise.”

When he hung up, he started to get dressed.

“You promised no work.”

“You’re coming with me.”

“To work?”

“Lena is trying to get the will overturned. Since you’re supposedly dead, she thinks she’s won.”

“Man, the Wicked Queen wasted no time. I haven’t even been dead a full day! There wasn’t even a funeral!”

“We’ve got to stop her.”

“I’m going to resurrect from the dead and kick her scrawny ass,” Marj said.

Brandon chuckled. “She can’t win anyway. She would have to wait for the investigation from the plane crash. But I just want to see her face when she sees your face.”

“Me too.” She brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “Hey, how many people actually get a ‘fake’ marriage and a fake death all in the same year?”

Brandon laughed. “Only you, Marj. Only you.”

They both burst out in laughter.

***

They walked to the office and the door was closed. They could hear Lena discussing everything with the attorney in charge of the will.

Brandon squeezed Marj’s hand with a huge smile. “Ready?”

She grinned.

They both burst in.

Lena gasped, followed by the attorney. She wore a black, slinky dress that glued to her curves and black stilettos.

“What the hell?” Lena shouted. “You were presumed to be dead.”

Marj held up her hands in mock surrender. “Surprise!”

Her jaw dropped.

“Is something wrong, Lena? You look like you saw a ghost.”

She let out a trembling breath. “How is this possible?”

“I look pretty good for a dead person, huh?” Marj asked.

“No! This can’t be true!”

“What? No tears of happiness? Oh, come on! I at least deserve some tears that I’m alive. Maybe some sobbing. Or, uh, maybe fainting? A hug? Just something. Anything. Show me what you have. Just throw it right at me. Show me those acting skills of yours.”

“How is this even possible?” Lena asked, confused.

“I’m taking it that a big bear hug is off the table. Because me and Brandon both placed bets. And I bet you’d hug me as tears dripped down your face.”

“Fat chance!”

“Hey! That’s what Brandon said you’d say. Damn it! Now I owe him ten bucks!”

Brandon smirked.

“Are you like some kind of modern-day Lazarus?” Lena asked.

“No, because technically, I didn’t come back from the dead,” Marj said. “You see, I never died.”

“I thought you were dead, Marj.”

“You’ve made a ‘grave’ mistake.”

“Was this some elaborate hoax?” she asked.

“No, not at all. I was mistakenly declared dead.”

Shock and disbelief washed over Lena’s face. “But the papers, and CNN, and Fox News said...”

“You can’t believe everything you hear. Besides, I’m too stubborn to die.”

“I can honestly attest to that,” Brandon said with a smile.

Marj playfully nudged him. “Stop. You love my stubbornness.”

They both chuckled.

“Anyway,” Marj said. “I think I took the mistake in good humor. I even got an email from People magazine asking me to pose for an article.”

“You didn’t tell me that, sweetheart,” Brandon said.

“Well, dear, check your email. I forwarded it to you.”

“I think emails are the last thing on my mind. I can’t stop thinking about how I almost lost you.”

Marj kissed him on the lips. “Don’t worry. I love you. I’m right here, and I’m never going away. I’m here forever. You know that.”

“Your lovey-dovey act won’t work on me,” Lena said.

“I can’t live without you,” Brandon said, touching Marj’s face. “Please don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“Never.”

“I love you so damn much,” he said.

Lena huffed.

“You probably think I paid to have your flight crash,” she said.

Marj looked at her. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“I had nothing to do with that. I just thought it was an unfortunate accident and I jumped on it.”

“Obviously! I’m not even dead and put in the ground, and you’re already contesting the will! At least, give it a few days to absorb the shock of my untimely passing. And damn it, try to look a little bit more sad. Squirting eye drops in your eyes will do wonders for giving you that sad, tear-stained face. Or are you saving that little trick for when the press is around?”

Brandon patted Marj’s hand. “Now come on, honey. Give credit where credit is due. She did wear all black for the occasion.”

“Well, she obviously doesn’t know me that well. I always said I wanted no black mourning clothes, only bright colors.”

“Like those bright red suede sandals you have?” Brandon said.

“Exactly. I want everything nice and bright, including everyone’s lips and nails.”

“What a colorful funeral,” Brandon said.

“Well, I don’t want everyone sad. And I hate dark colors at a funeral. It’s so depressing.”

“I agree, dear. But nothing too loud, and no splashy colors.”

“Good thing I didn’t die,” Marj retorted. “Who knows what kind of funeral I would’ve gotten.”

“Good thing we have plenty of time for planning.”

Lena turned toward Marj. “When you crashed and were instantly cremated, I thought that was your last chance for a hot, smoking body.”

Marj’s jaw dropped. “You bitch!” She looked at Brandon. “Can I please take down the Wicked Queen right now?”

“Now, darling, that’s not how the fairytale is supposed to play out.”

“I say we change the fairytale. Snow White lunges across the room and takes out the Wicked Queen in one roundhouse kick.”

“Now, now,” Brandon said. “We’ll take the Wicked Queen out the legal way...by staying madly in love.”

“Is this some kind of game to you?” Lena asked.

“No, Mom,” Brandon said. “It’s more like a twisted fairytale.”

“I hate you two,” she screamed. “You deserve each other!”

“Well, as you can see, my lovely bride is alive and kicking. So we’re going to go make love for hours on top of a million rose petals at the fanciest hotel around.”

He dipped Marj in a deep, passionate kiss.

“Uhhhhhhh!” Lena muttered.

Brandon put his arm around Marj and they left smiling.

Marj gazed up into his gleaming eyes. “That rose thing you proposed, well, it did sound very romantic.”

“Your wish is my command.”

“At the fanciest hotel around?”

“That’s what I said.”

“And you’ll make love to me for hours?”

“Indeed, I will.”

“I’m in heaven! Boy, I should die more often.”