“Tell me about the last thing that you remember from last night?” I ask.
She moves to her side, pulling up her covers and keeping her breasts from being bared to me.
“I remember the V.I.P. lounge, I remember that we discussed my job, your parents and how you were always viewed. I remember that we hung out and drank from the bottle service. I remember that you pulled my hand and we danced. And…and… I think that’s it. Did you slip me anything?” she asks with all vulnerability.
“Not a damn thing. I wouldn’t ever. I’m not that kind of person and that’s not the kind of crowd that I converse with. Are you sure that’s the last that you remember?” I ask, hoping that there may be more.
“That’s the last that I remember. I thought when I awoke earlier that you were actually Becca,” she admits, then as if a lightbulb turns on, she looks at me. “And who was that that came into bed with us?”
I ignore her question and focus on the fact that the greatest and most monumental event that happened last night has escaped her. An idea that we drunkenly came up with and agreed to.
“That ring on your finger. That is a ring that we searched for, high and low. As soon as we left the airport, I had to make a few phone calls and even bribed a jeweler that Felipe knew to open early, very early. We got married last night. It was all a part of our agreement.”
“Our agreement? Airport?” She turns to look at me.
“Yeah, we talked about this. I’m sorry, I keep forgetting that you don’t remember everything. But, under the circumstances, I should likely attempt to jog your memory. Let’s see what Felipe is cooking. Since you don’t remember the majority of the night, let’s get dressed. I find it better to discuss matters of business fully clothed, rather than indisposed.”
She hesitantly pulls the sheets with her as she slips inside the bathroom. After roughly ten minutes, she returns, looking freshened up and alert.
I motion for her to follow me into the living room of the suite that we’re staying in and pour us both a cup of coffee. Not really knowing how she takes hers, I hand it to her and point to the array of additions that anyone could ask for.
The party that we traveled with is still mostly asleep in some of the other rooms along with the main living space and so, I bring us both on the patio of the room. Felipe has made himself busy by tidying up the space and making breakfast from grocery bags near his feet on the floor.
Connie sits in the chair opposite of me and smiles with her cup of coffee.
“Okay, let’s begin with this, where are we?”
“We decided to take the party up a notch. It was actually your friend’s idea. She sure as shit is laughing riot. At first, she was timid, and then she got a few drinks in her and wouldn’t stop talking. She said that she was wanting to conquer some of her bucket lists items, and she mentioned that you both had a trip planned that got cancelled.”
“Wait a minute, we’re in Miami? Why are we in Miami?” Her voice seems to climb an octave when she asks this. “That’s all the way on the other side of the country!”
“I have the means and figured that it was a fun adventure, plus I love Miami.”
“And this agreement? How did it get to be that I am wearing a ring on my ring finger?” She asks after taking a hesitant sip of her coffee with her eyes on mine.
“Okay, so the bottom line is that we made an agreement that would benefit both of us.”
“Okay.”
“Well, my darling. The reason why you’re wearing a ring on your ring finger is because we got married last night as part of our agreement.”
Chapter Five
Connie
There are no words that can describe what I’m feeling right now. One moment I was in San Francisco, and the next, I’m in Miami, straight across the United States.
This can’t be.
I couldn’t have been so drunk that I got on a plane, got married to a stranger, and ended up in city very far from home!
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I laugh.
“I’m not,” Devin says seriously.
“Why not?”
“Because, last night we discussed how this would benefit the both of us. You don’t recall any of this?” he asks. “I don’t want to beat around the bush, especially when I’m feeling guilty that you don’t remember last night.”
“Let’s just get the band-aid off. Tell me, Devin, what happened last night?” I plead.
“We discussed how a marriage could be a good thing,” he says as if it’s nothing.
“I’m not understanding how, I mean we don’t really know one another. There’s a reason why people don’t jump into a marriage.”
“This is more-so a marriage of convenience, not of love. You’re correct, we don’t know one another, but we are attracted to each other. We mesh well in bed, and I don’t see how that factor can’t be a good thing,” he says with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
“If this isn’t something that love is supposed to take part in, why sleep together?” I ask.
“Because why let a good thing slip through our fingers. We were hot for one another last night, and we rolled with the punches. If you choose to never sleep with me again, while I wouldn’t like that, I will respect that.”
“I’m so confused.” I say shaking my head.
“Last night, we decided that a marriage would benefit the both of us and that’s why we did it. It will help me with my family and my obligations, and it would benefit your career.”
“What does my career have to do with getting married?”
“You’re a nurse and you want a job at the hospital, not at a small practice where your skills aren’t being utilized to the fullest of potentials. With my networking and connections, not to mention who I am, you could be working at San Francisco General by the end of the month.”
I look at him in confusion.
“Who you are?” I ask.
“Devin Richards.”
“And is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“As in Mayor Richards.”
“Um, I don’t think so. Mayor Richards is much older.” I shake my head as he throws his head back and laughs.
“He’s my father.”
“Your father is Kenneth Richards?” she says loudly, then mumbles, “and you’re the son that they always talk about.”
“Curious to know, what do you hear about me?” He quirks an eyebrow and asks.
It’s never anything good. The stuff that is usually reported is that he’s got some secret and so the papers keep trying to figure out what the secret is by making up bizarre stories and seeing what fits. He also has a pungent for partying. His family wants him to settle down, but he doesn’t show any signs of doing so. Reporters stick to him like flies and he even eggs them on sometimes.
“You know what they say about you, why would I need to relay any of it. It would just be repeating what the reporters say. I don’t know if any of its true, but it doesn’t matter to me anyways.”
“Au contraire – it matters very much now. We’re married, so now we’re a team.” He smiles.