Vows: A Collection of Short Stories

The Second Chance

The second-floor hall had not changed much in the two decades since Diana had walked them last. The floors may have been more scuffed, the paint changed, the benches chipped, but all that notwithstanding, it was the same. Even the smell was the same, a mix of air conditioning and various perfumes and body odors.

Diana hadn't expected to feel much of anything walking down the hallway with her fiancé in tow. Afterall, she had only worked here for about a year and a half, two decades ago. But the sight of the sign reading Clerk's Office suddenly brought back a flood of memories she hadn't expected. Her pace slowed almost to a stop as she approached the sign. Her fiancé, David, must have noticed because he stopped and turned to her, "What is it? We need to go in to get the marriage license first."

"Nothing.", she said. "Did I ever tell you I worked here in my early 20s?" David shook his head. "Really? No, you never mentioned it".

It wasn't all that surprising that she never mentioned it. Like most first jobs, it had long dropped off her resume in the subsequent years. She couldn't even remember if she had mentioned it to Chris, her first husband. Probably not.

Diana and David walked into the large Clerk's office. It had undergone some renovations over the years. The counter was no longer open. Plexiglass now divided the counter from the public. A tickertape number system was now in place rather than the long line Diana remembered. David took the lead and pulled a number from the ticker tape which read eight. The current number was six. Fortunately, they wouldn't have to wait long.

David leaned over and whispered, "Nervous?". Diana didn't respond. "Nervous?" he asked again. "What...no, not nervous.", she laughed.

"Seven, number seven.", a young blondish clerk called out. An elderly man stepped forward to the Clerk's desk and proceeded to ask about filing for a restraining order against his neighbor. Diana laughed to herself. She remembered how many elderly people asked for that very thing when she was worked there. Somethings never change, she thought.

At that moment, another youngish woman opened her clerk's desk and called out "Eight." "That's us.", David said.

Us, Diana pondered. Us...that was the first time she had even thought about herself and David as an us. Funny, Chris had been gone for five years, but she still thought of them as an us. Maybe that's what fifteen years of marriage does to you. Diana looked at David and smiled. We could be an us someday, I suppose.

Diana and David had only been dating eight months when he proposed. She hadn't considered remarriage until her daughter, Sophia, was out of the house. Actually, she hadn't even considered dating until Sophia was out of the house, but when she met David in Sophia's last year of high school, she reconsidered.

Then, last month, David proposed and she accepted. Neither one wanted a big wedding, so a quick ceremony at the courthouse would suffice. David didn't have any children from his first marriage and Sophia was away at college now; it would just be the two of them.

As they filled out the paperwork for the license, Diana remembered back to the day she had done the same with Chris. That may have been the last time she stepped foot into the building. Maybe. She wasn't sure, but it had definitely been a long time. She doubted anyone would remember her working there.

"There's your license.", the clerk stated as she handed over the license to David. "The fee for the ceremony is $108. You can pay that here and present your receipt on the third floor where the ceremonies are held. Would you like to do that today?"