Husband With Benefits

"Autumn."

Autumn looked up to see Gabe Frost standing there in front of her and tried to give him a smile, though she was sure it looked like a grimace.

However, he too, could only smile slightly and she watched him pull the chair across from her and sit. Her eyes caught the glint of the metal on his fingers and she felt her heart thud. It wasn’t a dream. She really had gone insane and married Gabe Frost. That ring was the evidence right there.

As Gabe settled into the chair opposite her, Autumn fidgeted with the edge of her shirt, suddenly feeling self-conscious under his gaze."How are you feeling?"

She shrugged, "Confused, I guess. I don’t know..."

Gabe nodded," I understand it is a lot to take in. You can take your time to process this. Whenever you’re ready, we can go through the annulment process."

As she was about to nod, she stopped. He was talking about annulment... Why had she not thought of this? Throught out the hours that she had been sitting here, trying to process everything, not once had she thought of a way of getting out of this ’odd’ marriage. In fact, the marriage had felt like a soothing balm on the wounds that Pierce and Bianca had given her.

Which was ridiculous and silly for her. She couldn’t cling to Gabe when he had done so much for her. If he has not stepped in when he had, she would have been utterly humiliated by those people... which reminded her..." Thank you for stepping in. I don’t know why they did what they did, but if you had not..."

She watched as his eyes hardened and he spoke with clenched teeth," I overheard them before I knew that they were planning to target you. They misguided you purposely to come to the registrar because they wanted to humiliate you. It seems they have been discussing this entire scenario over the entire weekend. I was enraged to know that someone would be this malicious, but when I knew they were going to be targeting you, I decided to step in. I just didn’t expect to... really get married."

Autumn nodded, her gaze still fixed on the ring on his finger. Why did it fit him so perfectly?

Gabe noticed her gaze on his hand and felt a jolt when he realized he was still wearing the ring she had slipped onto his finger. He had planned to take it off as soon as he left the office. Feeling foolish, he started to take off the ring," Here, I’m sorry I should have returned this to you first thing...It’s an heirloom?"

Autumn nodded,"The set belonged to my parents. You... were recently married? " Autumn asked as she noticed the pale mark on his finger when he slipped off the ring that she had given him.