I still had a week off from work and I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know how it was supposed to be now. For the last several months, I had been talking to Craig pretty much every night. I spent the whole week waking beside him in bed. It was hard to adjust from that, to nothing.

Now instead of talking to him before I went to sleep, I was instead forced to toss and turn in the bed, thinking about him instead. But I couldn't feel him, and I couldn't talk to him. That was the worst part of all.

When my second week of vacation was over, I was ready to get back to work. It was only but a distraction from what was going on in my head, but I welcomed it. All I could think about was Craig and I still wasn't answering his calls. I knew that it wasn’t for the best, because he would get in my head. He always did.

Several people that I worked with knew that I'd went to see Craig and I didn't talk much about what happened. I just said that I had a good time and he was great. I didn't want to admit what had really happened. But then I talked to Candy. She was the only person that really knew what was going on, and I needed her help. Her husband knew a lot of people, and in particular, I was looking for a good divorce lawyer.

I didn't want to really talk about it over the phone, so we agreed to meet up later in the day. I hadn't seen anybody since I got back, and it seemed like it was time. The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I was just going to have to do this. I didn't want to, but I had to. I couldn't stay married to him, there was no way.

“So, tell me what is going on Jeanine. You sounded really freaked on the phone.”

“I guess I did huh? I need you to talk to your husband and see if one of his friends can help me. I don't know what else to do, but I need a good lawyer.”

“What happened?”

She looked worried and I told her that everything was fine.

“So then, what do you need a lawyer for?”

I didn't want to tell Candy, not really, but I knew I was going to have to. I knew when I called her that I was going to have to spill it all. A part of me wanted to tell somebody what he had done, what happened while I was gone. How all of my hopes and dreams had somehow been crushed and now I was left to pick up all the pieces.

I gave her the quickest version that I could think of. I didn't put in how much I cared about him, or how good he felt when he was touching me. I couldn't say those things because they still killed me. I had imagined what could happen between us, but now there was nothing. Now I was talking to my friend about a divorce lawyer, for my marriage that I hadn't even really agreed to.

“So, you're married right now?”

I shook my head and told her that I was.

“Crazy huh?”

“Yeah, that is crazy. Is that guy nuts or something? I mean I don't get it. How do you get married and not know that you're getting married?”

“Because I didn't know my Spanish very well, and I don't think he's nuts. Craig is far from nuts, trust me. He is a doctor. Very good from what I hear. I think that he thought it would be romantic. Our cultures are very different.”

Candy sat back in her chair and took a sip of the water in front of her.

I didn't know how supposed to feel about all of this, but I knew that I had to do something about it.

“So, you need to get divorce?”

“Yes.”

“And is he going to agree to it?”

“I think so. He told me that he would do whatever I wanted, but I don't think that he really wants to.”

“This guy really loves you, doesn't he?”

Her question threw me off because it was not the first thing that most people would think of. I was duped into marrying him, he had set me up, conned me, so I wasn't thinking about how much he loved me. I guess that he did though, he had to right?

“Maybe, but that certainly isn't the way to show somebody that you love them. He shouldn’t have done it this way. He should have told me about it, asked me like a normal person. It wasn't romantic.”

She had this dreamy look on her face and for the life of me, I would have guessed that she wished that she was in my situation. As crazy as it sounded, I felt like that was how she felt. That somehow, she could understand what Craig had done. I just couldn’t.

“It is romantic, if you see it the right way. It would have been a hell of a story to tell your children. It is really sweet.”

I told Candy that obviously she lost her mind. There was nothing romantic about someone marrying me without my consent. But then I forgot who I was talking to. She had married her husband when she was drunk and in Vegas. It had worked out for them, so Candy liked to think that it would work out for everybody. I don't think that was the case at all.

“I am not saying what he did was right Jeanine, but I am saying that it's, cute. You know how I feel about grand gestures. Fate.”

“I know that you like just saying that everything happens for a reason, but I certainly don't feel that way. I think it happened because he thought he could do it, and then I wouldn't do anything. I mean, what could he have possibly thought, that we would just go off into the sunset and everything was going to be fine?”

“I don't know him, but I do think it's romantic. He was that cute guy you showed me a picture of, right?”

I sighed to myself. Of course, she was worried about what he looked like.

“I don't think it's romantic at all and I want to divorce him.”

Candy said that she would help me get in contact with a good lawyer. I knew that it was going to be a little more complicated because he was out of country, but I didn't think that it would be as big of a deal as it came out to be.

Apparently, since I got married in his country, their laws applied and that meant I was going to have to jump through a lot of hoops. When Craig had said that people in his culture didn't get divorced, he wasn't lying. It was going to take a small miracle to get my divorce. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be, until I started the proceedings.

I met with the lawyer and told him a very condensed version of what happened. I made sure that he knew that I had been coerced and that I hadn't known that I was actually getting married.

“How did you not know that you were getting married?”

“We were in a church and everyone was speaking Spanish. Craig had my hand, and it just happened. I know it sounds crazy, but I really didn't understand what was going on. If I would have known, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you now Candy.”

“And this is after only a couple hours of meeting him?”

I shook my head and told him that it was the case. He sat back in the plastic seat at the restaurant and whistled.

“You know this sounds crazy right?”

I knew that it did, but at the same time I didn't want him to tell me out loud. I could have lived without that.

“I know that I could have handled this better. But now I want to get this annulled. I shouldn’t have to be married to him, and go through all of this. I want it to be like it never happened.”

“Yes Jeanine, that is what it is. But there's certain things that have to happen, or not happen to get an annulment. Did the two of you have sex afterwards?”

The tall blonde-haired man was looking at me in a strange way and I knew that he was seeing me naked right now, and in some sort of sexual position. It was clearly written on his face. I wanted to say something, to tell him off, but Candy had said that he was the best lawyer around.

“Yes, we did.”

“Just once? Did you both complete?”

My face was getting redder. “More than once.”

“So, an annulment isn’t even an option for you.”

“Why isn’t it?”

“Because the marriage has been consummated. How many times?”

I didn’t like the way his line of questioning was starting to get to me. I hadn't talked about it, tried not to think about it since I left, and I didn't want to start now. That was one part of the relationship that had not been a problem at all. It was the other stuff, little stuff that was all around it, that was the problem.

“Yes, in fact many times. We didn't after I found out we were married, but many times after the marriage.”

“And how long before you found out?”

“About a week.”

“That wasn’t very long. How many times could you have gotten intimate?”

I thought for a moment and I knew that it was becoming a game to him. So I was going to play it. “I don’t know, thirty or forty times.”

“Oh, wow.”

He had a smile on his face and I didn't quite like it at all. I knew that he was just trying to get information, but I felt like I was being judged as well. I had made a lot of bad decisions in the last few weeks, going to see Craig was definitely one of them. But I wasn't going to let that stand in my way any longer. One way or another, I was going to have my divorce.

“So, we also have to make sure that you are not pregnant. It says here that a certain amount of time must be observed after the last time having sex, as well as a negative pregnancy test must be submitted to the court.”

“What?”

“Are you on a contraceptive or did you use protection?”

Again, I could feel my face getting red and I was shocked at his forwardness. He was shamelessly flirting with me, when it was time for me to get a divorce.

I sighed and told them that we hadn’t.

“It seems as though this will not be as easy as we’d thought. You also have to petition the judge and he will ask for you to go there and be seen. He holds special jurisdiction and can add conditions.”

“Why can’t this be easy?”

“Because you ran to South America and married a stranger.”

Crap. Jerk or not, the rude lawyer was right.