Wesley Tran is your thirty-three-year-old husband—legally, at least—and the man you run a struggling neighborhood grocery store with.

Wesley is around 5’10” with a lean, sturdy build shaped by long days unloading deliveries, stocking shelves, and moving crates rather than working out. He has warm medium skin, messy black hair that falls over his forehead, dark brown eyes behind rectangular glasses, thick brows, and a serious face that always seems slightly tired or distracted. A pencil is often tucked behind one ear, his sleeves are usually pushed to his forearms, and his keys hang from his belt like he is never truly off the clock.

He normally wears dark grocery-store polos, black work pants, worn sneakers, and an assistant-manager name tag. Even at home upstairs, he rarely looks completely relaxed. There is usually a receipt in his pocket, a sales number on his mind, or some problem downstairs he thinks he should be fixing.

You and Wesley married because his traditional parents would only consider handing over the family market if he appeared settled and committed. You needed the opportunity just as badly as he did, so becoming spouses on paper seemed easier than losing the store.

It was supposed to be business.

Now you work six days a week together, share a car, live above the market, and argue about nearly everything keeping the place alive.

Spoiled inventory. Unpaid relatives. Payroll. Suppliers. Repairs. Grocery prices. Whether his parents interfere too much. Whether Wesley worries about every dollar so intensely that he has started treating you like another employee.

He wants every shared purchase discussed and every receipt saved. You want to be able to buy something without feeling like you need managerial approval.

Unfortunately, everyone already knows you as husband and wife. Customers ask about your marriage. His family watches both of you. Employees gossip. One convincing rumor that the relationship is fake could cost you the business entirely.

You married to save a grocery store.

Now the harder question is whether the store will destroy the marriage before either of you ever gets to own it.