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.
PART TWO
Somehow I managed to catch my flight. I don't know how my Vegas luck had suddenly turned, since I'd obviously had a pretty unlucky time the night before.
But when I'd gotten to my room I found that Nicole's sister had packed my things for me and that the group was waiting expectantly, ready to leave me behind if I didn’t show in another five minutes. Before the girls could notice I had remembered to slip the ring off my finger and throw it in my purse, not really sure what to do with it.
"Oh my god where have you been?" asked Nicole with a hint of annoyance on her voice as I ran in, grabbed my things and then tried to usher them out the door again.
"My worst nightmare," I mumbled to her as we got in the elevator.
"Babe tell me!" she said, her eyes wide.
"Later," I sighed, indicating that I didn't really want the whole group to know. I wasn't that close with Nicole's sisters, and I didn't know some of the other girls very well. In fact, I'd only known Nicole for a few years. I'd answered an ad she'd put on the internet, looking for a roommate in New York City. I'd moved there straight out of college to attend uni, and then had bagged a job right out of school in advertising, allowing me to stay in the city after graduation. It had always been my dream.
The whirlwind of checking into our flight, getting through security and finding our gate meant that I was able to avoid contact with Nicole for the hour before our flight. And then, luckily, I was upgraded to first class due to my frequent flyer status, meaning I could avoid her for the duration of the flight too. I had to think carefully about how I wanted to tell her what had happened, and what exactly I wanted to tell her.
As we took off I felt incredibly ill, so I took some sleeping pills in the hope that I would pass out and sleep off my hangover. Instead though, I found myself thinking back to my past… with Aston.
*FLASHBACK*
"Hey Jess!" yelled a voice at me as I walked down the street towards my house after school. I turned to see my neighbor Aston chasing after me, his school tie hanging loose around his neck and his bag bouncing off his shoulder. My first thought was that it was weird that he was coming after me. We were in distinctly different groups at school and hadn't really talked in ages. Sure we’d grown up next to each other and played together a fair share when we were younger, but now that we were older we just fell into different groups, we didn’t have many similar interests it seemed.
"Hey," I said to him as he came up alongside me, a slightly curious look on my face. "What's up?"
"So I've been wondering something for awhile…" he started, giving me a sly smile. I could feel my mouth going dry at this, his smile was something that had set me off for ages. It set every girl off in school really.
"What's that?" I asked as the butterflies started.
"Well…" he said, kicking the ground lightly with his shoe.
"What Aston?" I asked pointedly, stopping in my tracks and turning to face him.
"Will you go on a date with me on Friday night?" he asked very quickly.
"Sorry?" I asked, confused. We'd hardly spoken in the last few years, only when we had to at school or if our mothers, who were good friends, had us together for something. Why was he all of a sudden asking me out? Had I heard him right?
"I said, will you go out with me on Friday?" I just stopped and stared at him for a minute, trying to figure out where this was coming from. "Please?" he asked, "Only, I've been dying to ask you for ages…" The look in his eyes seemed so sincere, so hesitantly I agreed. "I'll come round yours at 7pm," he grinned as we continued to walk home.
The rest of the walk was silent. We walked side by side, and I kept sneaking glances at him as I tried to figure out what he all of a sudden saw in me. It was just so weird that he was asking me out.
As I got home that night I found myself more excited than I'd thought I'd be. I was 16 and no one had ever asked me out before. I was a bit of a nerd in school, very focused on my art, and I didn't talk to boys very often. I told a few of my friends about it as we chatted online after school, I was buzzing! Finally something good was happening for me! Finally I was being notice by a boy! Granted it was just my neighbor, but still!
On Friday I picked out my outfit for our date. Aston hadn't really told me what we were going to do so I just put on a simple black skirt and a flowery top. I did a bit of makeup, more than I normally wore, and styled my hair. I thought I looked quite nice. Much nicer than I ever did at school at least.
After I got ready I sat and waited in the front lounge with my younger sister as she watched TV. I watched the clock pass 7pm. Then 7:15.
At 7:30 I sent him a quick text to see if he was still planning on coming, but I didn’t get a response.
At 8:00 I felt pretty rotten, he was a full hour late. And he only lived next door.
"He's not coming is he?" I asked my younger sister after awhile, the wind having left my sails. I felt defeated.
"Well if he is, he's over an hour late."
"Should I go knock next door? Make sure he's ok?" I asked nervously. “Maybe something’s happened and that’s why he’s not here? And not responding to his phone.”
"You could do," she said, not really interested.
I ran upstairs and changed out of my skirt, opting instead for a pair of jeans and a jumper. Nothing fancy in case something really was wrong. When I was changed I slipped some shoes on and then ran out my front door, jumping the hedge and ringing the bell of the Merrygold's house.
"Oh hello Jessica," said Aston's mum with a smile. She seemed fine, but where on earth was her son?
"Hi," I smiled. "Is Aston here?"
"Yeah, he's downstairs with some mates," she replied.
Wait… what?