* / strangers .

MAYA HAWKE Photographed by Jordan Zinda opening for Bright Eyes at the First Avenue in Minneapolis, May 11th 2023

"you know, since i am on suspension..." he took a sip of his whiskey, "it means, i am technically no longer your bosses' boss. did you think of that?"

"you know, i'm not sure the technicalities count so much when it's just a suspension." shalea's career was on the line and she was aware of it, yet she still didn't move away from him to rejoin her friends, choosing to sit across from him, leaning in. "they'll lift it, and you'll be my bosses boss again and i'll have to start ignoring you in the halls, pretending i don't wanna kiss you."

after being hunched over with his hands on his knees, elliot forced himself to straighten up in order to meet their eyes. "...are you good?"

"sorry, am i good?" a laugh slips past their lips, hand rubbing against their neck. "you look a second away from spitting out blood and i wasn't touched. are you good?"

"i'm not here to charm my way into your heart. it is clear that we both were forced into something we didn't want." he confessed to the blonde. "our parents have made a big choice for the both of us that neither of us wanted or were okay..but regardless they are our family and what is done is done. there is no reason to make me more miserable with your attitude. i wasn't in on this whole scheme. it was done behind my back as well. asides having the sour and nasty attitude is only going to make things worse for the both of us." he told her looking down at her from her seat. "you are my wife and i am your husband and that is that. for now we grin and bear it. we fake it in front of these people and pretend like today is the happiest day.. and then when it is over we can go our separate ways. lord knows my house is big enough for you to never see me." he murmured to her.

"my attitude?" she bit back the scoff that wanted to fall from her lips with the words, too much attention drawn to her and how displeased she was with the whole day and whole ruse would just lead to her parents mad at her and that wasn't something she needed. so instead she pasted her best attempt at a realistic smile to her face, let her hand rest on his for a moment and keep the insults inside before the wrong person overheard. she ignores the glint of light off the ring from her hand that stayed sitting atop the skirts of the wedding dress she was told she had to wear, a grand spectacle to go along with the rest of the day. "post-honeymoon can't come soon enough, then." but his words reminded her of the true reality of it all, to keep up appearances she had to move in with him and pretend they were happy and in love, a brand new family rather than a business transaction.

“ have i done or said something to upset you? ” already a week into their month-long honeymoon and they had spent it either apart of silently sharing dinners together, where they inevitably, parted ways once again. for an entire week, henry had been wracking his brain on every minute detail since they'd met. he had overanalyzed all his prior dialogue and even questioned if his body language was an error; going out of his way with gifts and showing up for them only to be dismissed or an excuse to arise where they needed isolation. “ forgive me, for whatever vexation i have caused you.. it was not my intention. i simply wish to be a dutiful husband toward you and now i see.. i might have come on too strong in my advances. ” he would always take the fault for something; a flaw of his since birth — sorry was the most used word in his vocabulary. “ do you regret saying i do? i know you have a lot of people counting on you, but if this is not something you would like to do, i will happily make up any excuse if it'll make you happy and untether you from this grand duty. ” henry, however, had been excited ever since he got the news that they were to wed. he also knows, they did not ask for this, so unlike everyone else in their lives; he would stop trying to force something if it truly was not in their heart.

"it... is far more complicated than that." she found it hard to meet his eyes, he had been nothing but kind to her from the first moment they were betrothed, a doting and loving husband but the wrong husband entirely. it was nowhere near his fault, and she knew that in a place deep within her, but it was all too easy to ignore in the stead of a sour expression and full disinterest in the life he so clearly wanted to build with her if she was so willing. "no, that is entirely unnecessary. i do not hate the idea of being your wife, i just thought my life would be a little different than how it has turned out to be. i need to apologise, this has all been terribly misplaced." jacinta was too far from revealing the truth still, a secret she could not even mutter to herself in the silence of the night when she knew no one was around to overhear. unvoiced yet so important to her, a secret paramour dying in the weeks before the wedding and jacinta having to mourn in private entirely too fast. "i imagine this is a touch different to how you imagined this to be as well."