Read Will & Patrick Wake Up Married for Free Online Page B

you get to the part where you turn on the waterworks. What exactly do you want from me?”
    “Time.” Will steps forward, his hands in his pockets, and he’s obviously put on his big boy pants, because he’s sounding reasonable for the moment. “Look, I need a little time, that’s all. I’ll figure out a way to get around the rules and then I will happily grant you a divorce.”
    Patrick is more convinced than he wants to be by the strangely compelling expression on Will’s face. “And what am I supposed to do until then? I have a life to get back to in Atlanta.”
    “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    “No.” Patrick’s offended at the suggestion. “I wouldn’t have picked you up if I did. I’m not that kind of guy.”
    “Well you don’t have a job anymore, and you don’t have a boyfriend. So there’s nothing urgent you need to get back to.”
    “Logic is clearly not your strong suit.” Patrick scowls. “You know, I could say that you owe me compensation. Loss of income.”
    Will stares at him incredulously. “You have got to be kidding.”
    “Hey, I lost my job because of this marriage. How am I supposed to pay my bills?”
    “You lost your job because of you . If you’d been at all civil—”
    “Civil? Who needs civil? People with nothing to do with their time, that’s who. I’m a busy man and this whole thing is wasting my time. I want out of this marriage and I want on the first plane back to Atlanta. But if I can’t have both, I’ll settle for one. So consider me out of here.”
    Patrick snaps his laptop closed and stands up, deciding to call a cab and get to the airport as fast as possible. He’s not going to spend another second with Will. Nothing good is going to come of it. “I’ll have my lawyer contact you.” Patrick opens his suitcase and throws in his socks and underwear.
    “Wait.” Will sounds conflicted. “Just hear me out.”
    “I think I’ve heard enough from you to last a lifetime.”
    “You can’t leave.”
    Patrick doesn’t understand why he’s still discussing this. He doesn’t want to care about the money or the people Will claims to be helping with it. He just wants to get back to where he feels safe: an operating room. “Oh yes, I can, and I am. Get out my way.”
    “Dr. McCloud—Patrick, I’ll lose Good Works. People will die because of this choice. People who could be saved with medical treatments funded through my foundation. Can you really live with that?”
    Patrick sighs. He doesn’t know if he can, actually. It’s just that without his job, without work to do, and patients to save, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. If he doesn’t get a new position soon, feelings might crop up. He hates feelings. Especially the old ones lingering from his childhood. Memories. Fears. It’s best when he’s too busy to think.
    “Mr. Patterson, I’m still going to be married to you for at least three days, and probably more, no matter if I’m in Atlanta or Antarctica. My immediate departure from the hell of this hotel room and your endless angst about our mutual mistake isn’t going to affect your precious money just yet. You can have that time you asked for with me in Atlanta, and you in…wherever you hillbillies like to call home.”
    “No—I can’t.”
    “Yes. You can.”
    “But there’s something else I didn’t tell you.”
    Patrick looks up to the ceiling. “Oh, for the love of… Fine, what now?”
    “The Molinaro rules. They don’t just cover the divorce or the annulment, but the circumstances of the wedding too.” Will swallows hard. “We need to have married for love.”
    “What?” Patrick asks, like that makes any kind of sense at all. Like any of this does.
    “No other reason is acceptable. Lack of consummation was our only out.”
    “I hear you speaking, but it’s all nonsense.”
    “Patrick, my great-grandfather insisted on a love match.”
    Patrick rubs the bridge of his nose. Dear God, he’s saddled himself with a