Deciding it was just plain easier to purchase the dress instead spending even more time inside of that store trying to pry it loose from his shirt, and explaining what in the world we had been doing in the dressing room, we walked out with two dresses instead of just the one.

Back in the limo both of our phones started blowing up. Apparently everyone had already landed safely in Pennsylvania, some a tad more shaken up from the flight than others—well, one anyway. Chase was showing me a picture Max sent him on his phone as he said, “Your brother is so wrong.” He didn’t even attempt to cover up the laugh that followed.

Max had sent him a picture of Danielle losing her lunch and whatever else she may have eaten as soon as they stepped off of the jet. “Poor thing, at least she won’t be hounding me about getting on that jet anymore.” I promptly received a text from her reading, Your brother is an asshat!

While still laughing at them, Chase grabbed a joint from his side. Holding it up to show it to me he said, “How about a race?”

“You’re insane, but fuck it.” Like he said, we were going to have nothing but fun today.

We were choking like a couple of asthmatics when the limo lurched and we heard a loud-ass pop.

The driver called on the intercom as he pulled over to the shoulder on the highway asking us, “You two okay back there?”

Chase hit the button to answer him with a, “Yeah, we’re okay. You hit something?”

“Nope, ’bout to get out and check to see what happened now.”

After handing me what was left of his joint, which was practically nothing to show that he had won, Chase got out to see what was going on too. I took that moment to check in with Alex and see if everything was going alright on her end. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when she informed me that everything had gone smoothly, and everyone was more than happy to take an unscheduled paid vacation for the week. Said she and her wife Nicole would be boarding their plane in the morning right after dropping off their kids at her mom’s.

As soon as I finished texting with her, Chase got back in, and by the expression on his face he did not have any good news to relay. “I am so not liking the look on your face right now,” I said.

“Tire blew out.”

“Okay, driver changes it, we get back on the road, no big deal.” When he remained silent, “Please tell me it’s not a big deal.”

“I could tell you that, but you’ve known me more than long enough to know I was lying.”

“Shit.”

“Yup, he is about to put the spare on it, but he still has to take it somewhere to get a new tire before we get back on the road. A spare won’t be good enough to get us all the way to our destination.” Now it was my turn to remain silent before he continued, “And, he won’t be able to do that until the morning since it’s a Sunday and all the repair shops are closed.”

Luckily, there was a Hilton not too far from where we were, but they only had two rooms left; one single and the honeymoon suite. Apparently the Matssuricon was going on, an anime convention, so almost all the hotels were booked up. While we couldn’t leave the driver hanging (it wasn’t his fault the tire blew out) he wasn’t getting the suite. We could deal with sharing a room. Same difference as being in the limo together, right?

Unpacking, I threw a small hissy fit. “I can’t believe my fucking luck. You know what, I take that back. Why the fuck did Max give us so little time to get this shit together? What if something happens and we still can’t get the damn thing fixed tomorrow? We were already crunched for time as it was.”

“Calm down, you’re gonna get frown lines.”

“Screw frown lines! I’d like to get more than a few lines around Max’s neck while I strangle him! If he wanted such a short notice wedding, why couldn’t he go to a same day state like Vegas? Hell, he could have even came here!” I just wanted to hit someone, or throw something. I felt hot, I was so damn pissed.

“It wouldn’t have been that easy here either.”

“Yes, yes it would have. I looked it up when I was trying to find a way around Pennsylvania’s law, unsuccessfully. Ohio has no wait time, along with a few other states.”

“Still, I doubt you could just walk in like Vegas.” He seemed to think on that for a minute before adding, “How about you put your money where your mouth is.”

“What?”

“If you’re so sure it’s just that simple, that easy to get married here, let’s make a bet.”

“You’re nuts.”

“Maybe, but how much better will you feel if you have the chance to say ‘I told you so’ to Max.” He was right about that part. “I bet you two thousand dollars that it won’t be that damn easy to just walk in and get married. You win, you get to say I told you so, and we both know how much you love doing that.” I started to laugh so hard tears began forming in my eyes. But that laughter died when I realized he was dead serious as he continued, “We can always just get it annulled after the fact. Plus, you’ve already got the dress, and I’ve got a suit. So…” Chase held out his hand to shake on it, and I must have still been high (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it, any other reason just didn’t make sense. When in doubt, blame intoxication.), ’cause I shook it.

Before sealing the deal, we had to head to the local court house, which was conveniently only ten minutes away from the chapel, to pick up the marriage license, something I thought was going to be much harder than it actually was.

I admittedly clammed up at first when the clerk (and the woman looked just like Genine from the original Ghostbusters; glasses, nasal voice, and all) asked why we wanted to get married. I couldn’t very well tell her it was a bet. Instead, I simply told her, “Because we’re just so much in loooooove.” I even batted my eyelashes.

At her incredulous look, Chase tacked on, “I’ve been in love with this woman for as long as I can remember. So before she has a chance to think too hard on it, I would like to get married to her as quickly as possible.”

Okie dokie, that made me just a tad wet. “When the hell did you start taking acting classes?” Blurted right out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

“Ma’am?” This came from the clerk, making me realize that was the very much wrong thing to say to obtain the license.

“Oh, nothing. That was just, beautiful.” Then I added on when I noticed the dreamy eyes she was staring at Chase with, “I mean, who wouldn’t want to snatch this one up?”

“I just need both your licenses, and forty-seven dollars.” After giving the lady what she asked for, she had it all printed up in less than a minute, and was handing it to us.

“Wait. That’s it?”

My expression must have been one to behold, because Chase just barely held back his laugh. Good thing the clerk was too busy looking Chase up and down to notice.

“Yes, ma’am. Just take that right down to ‘The Wedding Chapel’, and you’re all set. You don’t even need witnesses.” Then for good measure she also added, “Congratulations.”

Before I had a chance to start stammering again, Chase gently grabbed my arm, gave the clerk a wink, and nice and politely dragged me out of the door. I was in way too much shock to utter a single word.

Turned out she was right, we didn’t even need witnesses. But, when we spotted a couple in cosplay in the lobby as King Darian and Queen Sirenia from Sailor Moon, I couldn’t resist asking them to stand with us after they said their own ‘I do’s’.

---

And a mere three hours after our impromptu bet was made, we were saying I do. When the official said, “You may kiss the bride,” in front of Queen Sirenia and King Darian, we sealed the deal with a kiss that left my head reeling, my hormones amped up, and a slight wonder if fate really did exist.