One Bedroom Apartment

Visa-vis

Avery spent the rest of the day getting stuff to make dinner and playing with Jim. It was bizarre not living in the truck anymore and it was like she flung herself into someone else's life. What was even more weird was seeing her photos and flag hung up. She wasn't paying too much attention to the time when she heard the front door unlocking.

"I'm home!" Maggie said, sounding tired. Avery quickly pulled the chicken bake out of the oven to start cooling so Maggie could eat.

"Hey! I'm in the kitchen! So I was thinking, and I think that if we start now we could reasonably and quickly build up the evidence we'd need to pull off a visa marriage. We already live together in a one bedroom apartment and my pictures are on the walls, and feasibly we'd only need to do it for a few months before getting hitched to make it realistic. Then you could get citizenship and not have to worry about all the bullshit around renewals," Avery meant to bring it up slowly, but shouting it across the apartment while she plated their food worked too, she guessed. Maggie stood baffled in the entry to the kitchen. She was still wearing her work boots, her hard hat was in her hand alongside her bag.

"What?" She asked. Avery shrugged, putting the plates on the table.

"Let's get married for your citizenship?" Avery said, shuffling nervously. Now that she'd said it out loud, it sounded insane.

"I cannae ask you to do that. You'd be throwin' your life away an' any chance at a relationship," she said walking back over to the couch and started taking off her boots. Avery snorted.

"I mean, the ladies aren't exactly lining up to date me, and the ones that are are- I get fetishized a lot," Avery said, shuddering a bit. "They call themselves devotees and for some reason this," she gestured at her leg, "really gets them going. Besides, once you're a full citizen we could always get a divorce. Or do, like, a five year prenup."

"There's a lot of variables with that. If the divorce was under any suspicion tha' it was just for the card then I wouldn't get to stay and I could face jail time for fraud. You could face jail time," she said. "I've already looked into it a few years ago, it's no' worth it. I really wouldn't wan' to rope you into all this," Maggie shook her head.

"I'm volunteering. Call me a cowboy because I'm roping," she said with a nervous smile. "The offers there if you wanna take it. I could think of worse people to be married to."

"I'll let you know," she said softly. The clock was ticking and she could tell Maggie was getting stressed about it. There were only about two weeks until her visa was supposed to come in. "Why would- would you really do tha'?" Maggie's face was indecipherable, as she stood next to her room.

"Yeah, I'd do a lot of crazy things for you," Avery blanched. "Uh. Buddy," she finished lamely, trying to play off her accidentally way too dramatic confession.

"But why?" She asked softly. "I- you haven't known me that long," Avery wasn't sure how to answer that, so she decided to go for the truth.

"Because you're really pretty and you looked sad that you couldn't visit home and I really wanna do something to help you but this is the only thing I can think of to help," she blurted out. Pretty girls had been Avery's weakness since she was a teenaged lesbian, especially pretty girls that needed help. Maggie blushed.

"Let me get changed, I'll be right back out. Thanks for cookin'," she smiled softly at her. Avery nodded, smiling back. Rein it in, dude. She sat at the table, waiting for Maggie and wondering if she should just go get an excavator for the hole she was digging for herself. Maggie came back out in her pajamas, which was her usual routine. She took the plate from Avery gratefully and went to sit down after grabbing her water bottle. "If- wha'-" she blushed while she was trying to stammer. "If we did do tha' how would we fake our relationship?"