Page 68 of Teaching Roman

Chapter Thirty-One

Rose petals had been sprinkledover the bed and the sheets had been turned down. It looked as though we’d stumbled into a brochure for a honeymoon suite, and then it hit me, we had. The realization burst through me with a fit of giggling.

Roman nuzzled my cheek as he laid me on the bed. “Something funny?”

“It’s all so surreal,” I said. “We’remarried.”

“It hasn’t sunk in for me either. I’m happy and disoriented at the same time,” he said.

“That sounds like a decent start to a marriage. There are worse benefits than blissful confusion.”

“You know the other benefit?” he asked me.

“I’m hoping to,” I said, reaching for his belt buckle.

“I’m trying to have a serious conversation and your mind is in the gutter.”

“I thought you wanted to make love to your wife?”

“I do,” he said. “But it just occurred to me that my wife will enjoy some benefits at Olympic State.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I will?”

“For one thing, there’s no rule against being married to a student. And for another, immediate family of faculty receive a discount in the tuition department.”

“Too bad you aren’t faculty,” I said.

“I will be next year. They offered me a position as a junior professor.”

“And you didn’t tell me this?” I asked, sitting up in bed.

“With everything going on with Aba, I forgot.” He shrugged his shoulders, and my own face fell. He wasn’t excited about it.

“Do you need to stay here?” I asked.

“There’s no job here,” he said, “and no tuition reduction for my wife.”

“I don’t need your help with money.”

“You’re my wife,” he pointed out.

“If you think I can’t take care of myself—”

“Hold on, Jess. I never said that. The fact is that we’ll be living together and sharing expenses. I don’t expect to support you, but I do plan on helping. We’ve got to get you through medical school,” he said.

I set my jaw, staring up at him. “I can pay my own bills.”

“I know that,” he said. “You just don’t have to do it alone anymore. Compromise, remember? Besides, my pay won’t go very far. You’ll still get the pleasure of taking out student loans.”

I scrambled to my feet and kissed him on the cheek. “How exciting.”

“Where are you going?” he caught my hand as I turned away from him.

“The bathroom,” I said. “So I don’t have to leave that bed for another five hours.”

“Sounds promising and ambitious.” He paused and shifted on his feet. “Did you remember to…”

I reached for my purse and held it up. My diaphragm was tucked safely inside it. “Reason number two to go to the bathroom.”