Chapter 12
Chris stood at the terminal clutching a bouquet of flowers. The scent of the flowers added to his dizziness. He had flown into LA to meet Chanda. As people began to deplane, he craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of his bride. And then there she was, radiant and gorgeous, her hair streaming behind her and her dress fluttering around her ankles. Her forehead was wrinkled with stress and she seemed to struggle with the burden of her many bags.
“Let me help you,” a man offered.
She smiled politely but firmly shook her head no. Then she saw Chris, and her grin grew huge. “Chris!” she cried, running toward him full-speed. She dropped her bags around her. They collided together like two meteors and held each other for a long time.
Finally, they parted. Chris stared down at her. “Is this day really here?” he asked.
She just smiled up at him, unbelievably overjoyed. “I have waited so long. This love has blossomed so quickly yet we have had to wait so long.”
“Well, are you ready? We need to go to the rental car agency so that we can get to Vegas.”
“Las Vegas is so pretty in the movies,” she said dreamily. “I am very tired, Chris.”
“Would you like to wait?” Chris was disappointed, but he reminded himself that he had ninety days left to marry Chanda. She was here and that was what mattered.
She nodded and offered him a wan smile. “I need to stretch my legs. I have been sitting for nearly a whole day. I slept on the flight, but I am just so exhausted.” The dark bruised-looking bags under her eyes gave away her exhaustion.
Chris took her to one of the fanciest hotels in LA. She kept dozing off in the car and seemed disoriented as Chris led her up to the room. “Sleep,” he told her kindly when he opened the door.
She collapsed on the bed. The bellhop put away their bags and Chris tipped him handsomely. Then he removed his shirt and joined Chanda on the bed. Even though she was like a zombie from her jetlag, she turned into him and straddled him. “I’m so glad to be here,” she slurred, her eyes heavy.
“You should sleep,” Chris laughed. It was amazing how cute she was.
“I want to make love to you first,” she told him.
Chanda slept for nearly a day. By late afternoon, she finally was able to get up, even though she complained of feeling as though she had a severe hangover.
“Here,” Chris said. “I ordered calamari and some aspirin and orange juice.” He drew the room service cart over to the bed. “There’s champagne, too, for mimosas.”
She beamed as she stretched. He leaned over to kiss her swan-like neck. “What are these?” she wrinkled her nose, picking at the rings of fried squid.
Chris dipped one in the pot of marinara sauce and fed it to her. Her eyes widened at the deliciousness. “Yummy.”
“They’re good, right? I am going to show you so many new foods.”
The food and drinks seemed to revive her. “I am ready to go to Las Vegas,” she told him excitedly. “But I need to buy a wedding dress.”
The drive there was more fun than Chris imagined. He played her a mix tape he had made back in high school. It was the same mix that he and Jake used to play when they made trips down to Laredo. The desert streaks by and Chanda stared, mesmerized by the great open expanses of land. “It is all…dirt,” she said with a hint of forlornness.
Chris felt a jolt of panic run through him, turning him cold. “Is it OK with you?” He was terrified that perhaps she would be unhappy here. “My ranch looks nothing like this,” he added.
She simply nodded to confirm that she had heard him. She was too lost in the desert views to reply. Sometimes she would drum her fingers on her legs, which she had propped on the dash of the car.
The brown desert gave away to the lights of Vegas just as the sun began to set and the city began to wake up. Now Chanda gripped Chris’s hand and gasped in shock at the lights and colors of the casinos. As they slowly cruised down the strip, her jaw hung open.
“I have never been here, either,” Chris said. “It’s awe-inspiring, isn’t it?”
He took her to a dress shop. Though it was evening, they were able to find one that was still open. Chanda looked at the dresses, oohing and ahing. Chris watched her, amused by her sweetness and wonder.
“Can I help you?” a saleswoman in a prim beige suit asked.
“I want to look like a princess for my wedding,” Chanda told her.
The saleswoman pretended to find Chanda’s request charming. But her smile faded when Chris told her, “We need it now.”
“This is not a place where you can just pick up a dress for a fly-by-night wedding with a stranger you met a few hours ago,” she snapped. “We must do multiple fittings. It takes a lot of time.”
Chanda faltered, clearly saddened.
Chris pulled out his wallet and showed the woman the thick stack of hundreds inside. “I will pay any price. Just find something beautiful that fits my wife, at least closely,” he said.
The woman’s hardness slipped and a warm smile took its place. “Well then. Come back to the fitting room with me, darling.” She linked her arm in Chanda’s and led her to the back.
Chanda emerged from the fitting room an hour later, wearing a huge wedding dress coated in lace and beads. She really did look like a princess. Chris paid and they dashed to the car holding hands, Chanda still in her dress and some white satin heels that the saleswoman had suggested. The heels fit poorly and Chanda could barely run in them.
The wedding chapel enchanted Chanda. It melted Chris’s heart to see her swelling with excitement. He found a man loitering in the front and offered him ten grand to be their witness. They signed their wedding certificate, then kissed long and hard. At last, they were married. Chris had never imagined that any woman would marry him, after the luck he had had in recent years.
They spent the night drinking and gambling to celebrate their wedding. Early in the morning, they took a flight back to Houston, where Chris’s private plane waited. He flew them back to the ranch as the sun rose, blushing the sky peach and gold.
“Oh, Chris,” Chanda breathed out. “This is so…”
“There are no words,” Chris finished when she couldn’t. “So let’s just enjoy it.”
Chanda smiled at him, then snuggled into her seat. She was still in her wedding dress and the beads reflected the fire of the sunrise. And as Chris stole glances at her when he could take his eyes from the instruments, he found that she looked very blissful and serene. She was content, and he was overjoyed. But he also felt calm. It was because this was his proper fate, what he had always wanted, what was meant to be.