Chapter 8

 

Cody

 

“I’m going to get the door really quick,” I said as the pounding at the door continued. “Take a few deep breaths.”

Alexis didn’t look good at all. She was pale and hyperventilating so much that I thought she was going to pass out. The banging on the door was distracting and there was no way I could calm her down until I got rid of whoever was at the door.

“Dude, we need to get going. Our flight is in two hours,” Todd said as he and Henry stood at my door.

“We’ve been trying to call you all morning. Where the hell have you been?”

The two of them pushed into my room and saw Alexis on the couch still wrapped in a towel and in the midst of a panic attack. As much as I wanted to explain to them what was going on, there wasn’t time. Instead, I went over to Alexis and tried to calm her and left the guys standing by the door.

“Honey, take a few deep breaths. This is going to turn out just fine. There’s nothing to panic about. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere,” I said calmly.

“Actually you are going somewhere,” Todd jumped in. “We need to go to the airport.

“I got married last night,” I said to the guys to try and get them to be quiet for a minute and understand that I was in the middle of something big here. “This is Alexis. You two remember Alexis, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Henry said.

“You got married?” Todd asked.

“It’s okay. We can figure this out,” Alexis mumbled. “I know you didn’t mean it. I didn’t know what I was doing. We can figure this out,” she continued on.

The thing was, I liked the idea of being married to Alexis. This seemed destined and a lot of my problems were solved by the two of us getting married the night before. Plus, I actually liked Alexis. Of course, I didn’t know her well, but the opportunity to get to know her more was really exciting to me. She was the answer to what I needed and I was perfectly happy to try and make this marriage work.

“Oh my God, dude. You got married?” Henry started to laugh hysterically.

“You were supposed to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid last night. I didn’t think I had to watch you,” Todd said as the two of them both continued laughing.

The whole time Alexis was in tears and rocking back and forth. She was so distraught by the whole thing. There was no way I was going to get this figured out with my friends standing there bringing the whole mood down. They thought this was some joke. There wasn’t time to explain things to them. For the time being, I just had to get them out of that room so I could talk with Alexis.

“Guys, you really aren’t helping. Can you shut up for a minute?”

“I guess you can go and we can figure it out later,” Alexis said through her tears.

“I’m not going anywhere. I will stay here with you and we can figure out what you want to do. But I’m okay with this, I think. I mean if you are.”

“You’re okay being married? Who the hell are you?” Henry chimed in. “This is insane. Did you buy her that?” He reached over and grabbed Alexis hand and looked at the diamond ring. “Shit you bought that with your poker winnings didn’t you? Damn, man. This is messed up.”

“I really need you two to get going,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’re not helping.”

“You are going to miss the flight,” Todd said and came to pull Henry toward the door. “Do you want us to leave without you?”

“Yes, I’ll find another flight. You two need to leave,” I walked them to the door and literally pushed them out as I closed it behind them.

Alexis was so upset about this wedding. I felt horrible. Even though this was going to really help me I didn’t want to be married to her if that wasn’t what Alexis wanted. She was a great girl and I genuinely hoped our wedding hadn’t messed up what she had going on with her acting career.

“You live in Chicago, I live in Los Angeles,” Alexis continued on as if she was talking more to herself than to me. “We can’t be married. Even if we wanted to be, this couldn’t work.”

“I can move to Los Angeles, would that help?”

“Are you saying you want to be married to me?” Alexis asked as she calmed down enough to talk a little.

“I’m just saying I don’t think we should make any rash decisions. I really like you. I know this was crazy and I totally understand that it’s messing with your acting career. Maybe you can tell them what happened, and they can work it into your show. Hell, they already like you. This is a fun story. We are a super cute couple,” I said and sat down with her on the couch. “I’ll be in the show with you if you want me to.”

I was totally open to helping her make this work while staying married, so it would also work for me and my situation.

“Cody, it’s a show about singles dating in Los Angeles. I won’t make it past the first day since I already broke the contract. There’s no way around it,” she said getting a little angry with me for even suggesting it. “I’ve ruined everything.”

“No, there’s always an answer, baby. I’ll come to Los Angeles and we can work it out together.”

“You’d just drop everything and move out there with me?” she asked with her eyebrows furrowed as if I was delusional.

“Sure, I could do that. I could get my own place and take you out on dates like we would if this night hadn’t happened. I don’t want you to feel bad about this. It’s exciting. We can make this work. You like me, right?”

Alexis looked at me a little curiously and thought about the question for much longer than I’d expected. I knew the answer though. She liked me. We had just spent the whole morning making love and sleeping in each other’s arms. I just had to convince her to give this a chance. It was my livelihood at stake.

“Yeah, I like you,” Alexis finally said and leaned in toward me. “This is crazy though. Cody, we actually got married.”

“It was kind of your idea,” I laughed and teasingly pushed her. “You wanted that Elvis to marry us.”

“Man, I know. I don’t remember everything, but I remember that damn Elvis.”

We both laughed at the bits and pieces of the night that we could remember. It was rather funny how everything had come together and I was sure that someday we would both look back on this night with fond memories. The trick was going to be figuring out how to make sure this didn’t ruin Alexis’ chance at stardom. Somehow I had to figure out how to make this thing positive for her. The connection, the chemistry that we had, we could figure the marriage part out as long as we could get the business end of things wrapped up.

“So are you feeling a little better?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Cody. I really don’t want to lose this deal.”

“How long until the show actually starts taping?”

“A month or so,” she said.

“Okay then, we have time to figure this out. There’s no hurry. If you absolutely hate me then we can get it annulled before the show. You’ll still be single and I’ll hire an attorney for you to help figure out your contract and make sure they don’t fire you.”

It seemed like a good plan to me. We could take a few weeks to get to know one another and not stress out about the whole marriage thing. Being married was just a piece of paper. It didn’t mean any more than that at this moment in time. Of course, I wanted this to work. I was going to put some serious effort into making the situation a great one for both of us.

“So you’re not going to leave right now?” she asked softly.

“No, I can stay. When are you supposed to leave?”

“Not until tomorrow.”

“How about you text your friends and let them know you are okay. Then you and I can go explore the town a little and have a good afternoon together? Does that sound alright?”

“I don’t have anything to wear,” she said pointing to the towel she was still wearing.

“I happen to know there is a mall just down the street,” I said playfully. “There were a lot of nice shops in there.”

“Okay,” she said.

As she went to stand up but I pulled on her towel mischievously. If we were spending the rest of the day together, I certainly wasn’t opposed to just staying naked in bed for the rest of the day. I enjoyed making love to her. Just the thought of her naked under that towel had me hard with excitement again.

“Or we could stay in?”

“I’d like to go out if that’s okay with you?”

“Yes, I’d love to take you out.”

We got dressed and went down to the lobby to get a cab. In the heat of the day, there was no way we were walking the strip to the mall area. Alexis was busy texting her friends throughout the ride and I just sat back watching her.

She was smiling with each message she sent and received. I liked watching her when she didn’t know I was watching. Alexis had a softness about her face. The gentle curve of her lips was accentuated when she had lipstick on the night before, but the light natural pink color of her lips was just as beautiful without lipstick. Her hair was pulled up in a bun and she was wearing the sparkling dress she had on the night before. There weren’t many girls who could wear a dress like that without makeup, but she pulled it off. She didn’t need a stitch of makeup to be beautiful.

I felt butterflies in my stomach while we drove to the mall at Cesar’s Palace. This woman was my wife. The comedy of errors that had landed us together was long but that didn’t matter. If it didn’t mess this up, this beautiful creature could be mine forever. It was out of the ordinary, crazy even how we had come together. Yet, I wasn’t scared by the turn of events at all, I was invigorated by the opportunity.

“Back at the location of the crime,” I laughed as we pulled up.

Our driver didn’t think it was all that funny though and I saw him reach for a button and take a picture of the two of us in the back seat. I smiled as I paid him, trying not to laugh.

“Oh, I remember being here,” Alexis loudly announce as I held my hand out for her to climb out of the cab. “Did I take a nap here?”

“I was shopping for a while. You know I think I originally wanted to come here to get you some shoes. Those heels looked like they were causing you a lot of pain and we were going down to Freemont street. I thought we might ride the zip line down there.”

“There’s a zip line?” she asked with excitement.

“Yeah, do you want to go?”

“I think I do!”

“Okay, let’s get you some clothes and we can go down there. It can be our honeymoon zip line adventure.”

Perhaps having a great day with me would take her mind off her television show and the possibility that she would lose it. Selfishly I hoped she would fall in love with me and not want to get a divorce or an annulment when the next month was over.

There was no way for me to know how this would all turn out with my father’s estate. The clause specifically said that I had to stay married for five years. I’d never looked far enough into the details to figure out what exactly happened if I broke the marriage off before the end of five years. Maybe there was a graduated payment option? Perhaps I would just have to pay the money back? By that time I could have secured bank financing and the whole thing would turn out just fine for me.

For the time being, I was taking my own advice and not worrying too much about it. Instead, I was committed to having an amazing day with Alexis. Lots of fun and romance so the two of us could go forward with excitement for our situation instead of dread.

“All these stores are really expensive.”

“That’s okay. It’s my treat. Pick out whatever you’d like.”

Alexis was excited about the clothes and it was fun seeing her like that. We went into shop after shop as she tried things on and did mini fashion shows for me. She always came out of the dressing room with a big smile on her face as she twirled around in whatever outfit she had on. When she finally settled on a pair of jean shorts, tank top and sandals I was relieved to have the two-hour shopping spree over with.

It was utterly amazing to me how Alexis was still full of energy after all of that shopping. I had spent most of the time sitting and waiting for her and I was exhausted.

“Thanks for the outfit. Let’s go check out that zip line,” she said as she practically bounced out of the mall a few steps ahead of me.

“Do you always have this much energy?”

“Only when I’ve had a morning full of orgasms,” she said playfully and wrapped her arms around me.

We were in the same location by the fountain out front as we had been the night before. I felt the passion from our kiss even more so than the night before. She was so full of life and excitement. Even after all the emotions of the afternoon, Alexis was able to find a way to smile and move forward. This was exactly what I’d been looking for in a woman. Someone who could deal with the stress of life and be sad for a minute but then pull herself together and not complain. I’d worked hard throughout my adult life to surround myself with people who had a positive outlook. It was a relief to see that Alexis had a similar view as I did.

“Oh, I’d be happy to give you many more of those,” I pulled her in close and grabbed her butt. “You have an amazing ass. Did I tell you that yet?”

“No, but thank you.”

“Should we go try out that zip line? I think we could both use a little fun.”

“Yes, let’s do it, but no drinking tonight,” she said. “I think I’ll stay sober for a little bit.”

“Me too. I can’t remember the last time I drank that much. I won’t be able to look at a strawberry daiquiri the same ever again,” I said truthfully. “In fact, just the thought of it has my stomach turning a little.”

We took another cab down to Freemont street and this time Alexis sat close to me and I grabbed her hand into mine. It was still light out as we made our way down Freemont street hand in hand. The lights above us weren’t shining yet but there were a lot of characters on the walkway including magicians, people dressed up as celebrities and other random performers.

“I wish we would have made it here last night,” I said as we walked. “It is beautiful when all the lights are going.”

“I’m not in a hurry. We can hang out until the lights turn on.”

The more we walked the more the tension of our day was released. I felt Alexis relaxing too and her grip on me softening with each step.

We found the zip line and I bought tickets for us to do it together. There were four lines that went all the way down the street and we went with another couple who had just gotten married also.

“This is so exciting,” the other woman said. “I’m really scared though.”

“Me too,” her husband said.

“Are you scared?” I turned to Alexis to try and comfort her as we waited for our harnesses to be connected to the line.

“No, I’m excited though.”

“Me too.”

Just before they finished connecting us to the wire I reached over and gave her one more kiss for good luck. She looked calm as could be as we stood there, while I was literally shaking from nerves.

“How are you so calm?” I laughed when they pulled us up into position.

“I figure I already got married while here. There’s not much else that could go wrong. The law of bad luck is on my side.”

“That is not comforting at all.”

“Sorry,” she laughed.

“Ready,” the zip line operator asked as he looked for each of us to give him the thumbs up. “One, two, go!” he yelled without ever making it to three.

Our bodies were released, and we went barreling down Freemont street like superman. The way we were harnessed in added to the excitement. I couldn’t help but spread my arms out wide just as if I was flying and I noticed Alexis and the other couple were doing the same thing.

It only took me and the other guy a few moments to push ahead of the girls. Our weight likely played a factor in how quickly we moved compared to them. I tried to look back and see Alexis but the momentum of the zip line kept my eyes looking forward most of the time.

When we finally stopped at the middle point I had a permanent smile on my face. That had been an amazing time. It was so fast and exhilarating.

“Oh my God, that was amazing,” Alexis said as she jumped into my arms.

“You just need to walk up those steps and then they will connect you to the next line,” a woman told us.

We were still geared up in our full body harnesses as we held hands and worked our way slowly up the stairs. This was the kind of life I’d imagined I would find with a woman. Doing fun and exciting things like this was what I wanted to do when I visited places.

The idea that I might have actually found a partner in life was beyond what I’d expected from this weekend. But as I held hands with Alexis and walked up to the next platform, I found the thought running through my mind over and over again. How extremely lucky was I that I had run into her there in Vegas? We had a connection and chemistry that had pulled us back to each other the second night. The conversation we had was so good that we stayed hanging out with each other throughout the night, drank and had a great time. It had to be fate if there was such a thing.

“So you’re going to head back to Chicago?” Alexis asked while we waited for our turn on the next zip line.

“Yes, just give me a few days to get things in order and then I’ll come to Los Angeles. Does that work for you?”

“I’d like that.”

“I know this is scary. I can’t wait to get to know you more. I’m excited about this. Exhilarated by the possibilities of us.”

“I’m not sure what I think about it all, but I’d like to date you,” she said and then we both noticed that the couple next to us were looking at us oddly.

“We got married last night,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. “We didn’t plan on it.”

“Oh, now it’s making more sense,” the woman said.

“If it’s any consolation, we have only known each other three months,” the man added. “I don’t think time is a determining factor in love.”

“Great point,” I agreed.

“So there’s hope for us after all,” Alexis said and gave me a kiss.