PART ONE
Backtracking the last 24 hours I had no idea I was going to end up in such a predicament, and definitely not with him! Seriously?!
I had come to Las Vegas with one of my best friends, Nicole, for her bachelorette party. She was getting married the following weekend and we’d splurged on a short trip to Sin City to celebrate as a sort of long hen party. It was just a quick trip; I flew out on Friday midday from New York City, where I worked at an Advertising firm, and was meant to fly home on Sunday afternoon so I could be back in time for work on Monday morning.
We spent Friday night in her massive suite, after having a huge meal at one of the many luxury restaurants on the strip. We ordered up champagne and wine from room service and sat lounging around, and enjoying the amenities of the suite wearing big fluffy bathrobes that came in the rooms.
Saturday we woke up early and spent the morning at the hotel spa. It was such a luxurious time, sitting around with glasses of champagne while getting pampered for hours on end. My entire body felt insanely relaxed. It was phenomenal.
We got done up in the late afternoon in our party close and went for an early round of cocktails before playing a few cheeky games in the casino. I’d never had much luck so I wasn’t surprised when I lost all of the money I’d put in pretty quickly.
Nicole had sorted a four-course meal for us at one of the top restaurants, and we spent the evening chatting and enjoying being seen out in such a high-class place.
That night we went out to the clubs. I'd sorted a set of passes with my work to get us into any club we wanted. As an advertising firm, they often did promo for several of the clubs in Vegas, and across the US, so the passes weren't hard to come by. No cover, no waiting in line, and free drinks. It was the recipe for disaster. To say I was wasted by 10pm that night would be an understatement. I was absolutely obliterated.
A little before midnight we walked into Tao, one of the trendy clubs in the Venetian where we’d booked a table for the rest of the evening, although my initial plan had been to get everyone out of the club at some point and over to a male strip club. While I'd pushed to have a slightly dirty hen party, we'd agreed to keep the evening as classy as possible. It didn't matter though, I was beyond drunk, as was Nicole, and her sisters and childhood friends were doing there best to rein us in a bit so we wouldn't get thrown out of the club or worse. Didn’t work though.
"It's my neighbor!!!" I shouted, running through the crowd as I spotted a familiar face walk in with some other people.
"Jess wait!" one Nicole's friends said, attempting to keep up with me. She managed to grab my hand and pull me back. "Relax babe, it's just some random guy. Come back to the table."
"No! I grew up next door to him," I insisted, trying to pull my way out of her grasp. "Neighbor!" I shouted at the guy drunkenly, waving frantically at him.
He looked up and gave me a weird look like I was probably the last person he’d want to talk to, just some random drunk girl, and then he registered who I was.
"Oh my god!" he shouted, running over to me and wrapping me up in a tight hug, lifting me off the ground, the smell of alcohol wafting off of him as well as me. I gave Nicole's friend a smug look over his shoulder, proving that I'd somehow won something. "We need to do shots!" he exclaimed as he set me down and began dragging me with him into the crowd towards the bar, losing his friends in the process.
"Jess!" said Nicole's friend, "This is a terrible idea."
"I'll be fine," I slurred at her, letting the guy drag me along.
That was the last time I saw her or any of my group. And that was the last thing I remembered from that night.
--
Still standing in his room I could feel my head spinning. No matter that I felt like I was going to be sick any minute. No matter that I could distinctly taste jagger bombs in the back of my mouth. No matter that I'd somehow ended the night getting married to, and then presumably sleeping with, my childhood next-door neighbor. No matter that my skin crawled just at the site of him.
"What are we going to do about this?" he sighed, holding up the marriage contract.
"It looks real," I said, snatching it off of him and inspecting it. I scanned the fine print, trying to make out just how real it was. 'Legal in all countries of the world' was a phrase that jumped out at me pretty obviously. Well damn. "This is legally binding..." I murmured after a second.
"So?" asked Aston, "Can't we got back and have them undo it real quick? Or rip it up?"
"No, it's legally minding which means the only way to undo it is to have a judge annul it. Rip it up, seriously? You're so dim," I said as I started to get agitated.
"Enough of that," he snapped. “Let’s just be rational for a minute yeah?”
"What you think I want to be in this situation right now? I don't even know how I ended up near you, or why in my right mind I would think that was a good idea in the first place. So excuse me if I'm a bit pissed off."
"Fair enough," he mumbled as if he'd just had his hand slapped, "Listen, if we need a judge to get involved in this then I suggest we call up my lawyer and ask him to help us sort it out, we don't need to broadcast it to anyone else."
"Fine," I said. I watched as he wandered over to the bedside, looking around for his phone. When he couldn't find it right away he started to get frustrated.
"Can you call it?" he asked. "Please?"
I just glared at him for a moment before grabbing my own phone out of my bag. When I clicked it on I noticed I had a whole ton of missed calls and text messages. "Shit," I mumbled under my breath. And then I saw the time. "Shit!" I said louder, my heart starting to beat fast.
"What now?" he asked, exasperated.
"My flight is in an hour, I've got to get to the airport!"
"But, we need to sort this out…"
"Here, I'll leave this with you," I started, slamming the marriage contract down onto the table, "And I'll jot down my phone number for you. Gimme a call when you've talked to your lawyer or whatever." Quickly I scribbled my mobile number down on a scrap of paper and then threw the pen on the table.
"But…"
"Bye Aston!" I said, before grabbing my bag and legging it.
