Read Online I Am Having So Much Fun Without You by Courtney Maum - Free Book Online Page A

cared so much about her family, I think she would have thought to introduce us to you beforehand. Or at least invite us to the wedding. That might have been nice.”
    I assured him that my own parents hadn’t been invited either, an interruption he dismissed with a wave of his hand.
    â€œLook, son, I don’t know you well enough to decide whether I like you or not yet, but Anne certainly seems to, so I suppose that’s good enough for now. But I want to get one thing straight: you need a job.”
    Deeply rattled, I explained as calmly as I could that I didn’t just sit around all day flinging paint upon the floor.
    â€œI sell things, you know. In a proper gallery.”
    â€œI’m sure of it. Surely. But you’re both young, still. Anne’s going to be a great lawyer, but she’s got a lot to learn.” He reached down and tugged at another weed, treating me to a conciliatory view of his bald spot.
    â€œIf you do move back to Paris, we can help you get settled. I have lots of connections, friends who could be helpful, and I want Anne to be happy. I mean, that’s all Inès and I want.” He rubbed his chin, as if deciding whether or not to pursue this line of thought. “I’m an art lover myself, Richard, and I hold a great deal of respect for the work. But until you’ve got an established name in the business, I’d love to see you aim for something to rely on, a predictable income from a respectable source. I imagine that’s not too much to ask in exchange for her hand?” He clapped me on the shoulder with his manicured paw. “What do you think?”
    Knowing full well that disagreeing would lead either to an imposed divorce, forced exile in England, or the disinheritanceof his only daughter, I agreed as, of course, I had to. Monsieur seemed genuinely pleased, and shouted out to the washerwomen inside that we’d be having digestifs with our café.
    Upon our return, the changed energy between us was enough to signal that I had been accepted. Inès embraced me, and Anne smiled with weary gratitude. Inès launched immediately into the planning of our second wedding, insinuating that the first had simply been a rehearsal for what would certainly be the grandest, most unforgettable day of our lives.
    â€œAfter all,” Madame added as she put out the saucers for coffee and cake, “everyone likes seconds!”
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    That meeting with her parents was probably the first time I felt like there was someone other than Anne whom I couldn’t disappoint. Nowadays, there are loads of people in my life to let down—my daughter, my gallerist, the baker at the boulangerie who looks absolutely crestfallen when I don’t have exact change—but up until then, it had just been Anne and me. There were fewer expectations. There were so many fewer things to do wrong . We simply had to love each other and earn enough for an occasional dinner out. It was easy. Easy! Love was all there was.
    But no one tells you what you start doing to each other when you wed. People talk about the stability and the comfort of knowing that you have someone who will always have your back; they speak of the convenience of pooled assets and tax benefits and the joy of raising children, but no one explains that six years into it, a simple request to Pick up a half pound of ground turkey and maybe some organic leeks? on your way home is going to send the free, blue sky crashing down like a pillory around your neck, see you clutching your paper number at thebutcher’s, ashamed to be just another sucker bringing white meat home.
    And no one tells you what it’s going to feel like when the mystery is gone, or about the roots of repugnance that will twitch and rise inside you when you realize that your spouse has met the actual person behind each name in your phone’s repertoire, that she knows exactly how much wine you’ve