Vivian
MY HEAD WAS pounding. It hurt too much to open my eyes. My tongue felt as if it weighed a ton and even though I wanted to move, I couldn’t because it was too painful. After several moments, I was able to open my eyes. I stared at the ceiling and shielded my eyes from the bright light. Something didn’t feel right. Actually, the hotel room didn’t even look like mine.
Where was I?
I glanced down at the white comforter. I wasn’t in my regular night clothes. I felt like I was in a dress or something. I pulled back the comforter and gasped.
Why was I in a wedding dress?
I covered my eyes with my hand and tried, with all my might, to think about last night and what happened. Brent and I were having drinks and maybe we ordered food. But definitely drinking.
The big question was: where was I now?
I didn’t meet anyone. Did I?
No, I was with Brent. I know I definitely wouldn’t leave him and go anywhere with a stranger, no matter how drunk I was at the time.
I turned my head to the right and all the air left the room. Next to me, in bed, was Brent.
“Oh my God.” I sat up extremely too fast and the room began to spin. I slapped his chest to wake him up and find out what in the world was going on. I held my head, praying I could focus. There were many unanswered questions spinning around my head.
“Ouch!” He curled into a fetal position. “Why did you hit me?”
“Why am I in a wedding dress?” I yelled and then moaned in great pain.
“What?” He blinked several times. “What is happening? Oh my head is killing me.”
“Welcome to my world.” I muttered. Dropping my hand, I gasped again. “Brent, why do I have a gold wedding band on my finger?” The shiny piece of jewelry was staring at me.
“Huh?”
I pushed my hand into his face. “What is this?”
Brent sat up and looked down at his hand. He was sporting a gold band as well. “You don’t think we…” He trailed off.
I racked my brain trying to remember what happened last night. It was all a fog. I tried hard to remember something besides us drinking but nothing was coming from my memories. “Where’s my phone?”
“Why?”
“Just help me find my phone.” My phone was an extension of my soul. I wouldn’t be anywhere without. I document everything on it, and it’ll tell me what happened. I got up, hiking up the dress as to not trip on it, and began tossing everything in sight. First I threw the small couch cushions over my head. I wrapped the train around my arm and rushed over to the dresser and searched through it. Out of the corner of my eye, I found my purse. I dumped out the contents but there was no phone.
“Here.” Brent picked it up on the nightstand next to him. “This one is yours.”
I jerked it from his hands and began to thumb through it. I had Googled wedding chapels. Used Uber to get to the One Stop Wedding Chapel. I opened my credit card app and saw a charge from the same chapel. I was losing my mind as I flipped through my pictures and saw numerous shots of Brent and me – getting married.
“Oh my God!” I fell onto the bed because my wobbly knees couldn’t hold me up anymore and the tears began to burn my eyes. What have I done? Would I have done this without thinking it through? “Wait.” An idea popped in my head. “This can’t be real. We were drunk. Drunk people can’t be of sound mind to sign a contract. Right?” I looked over at him and he was rubbing his temples. His head must have hurt as bad as mine.
“This is Vegas. I’m pretty sure their motto is: drunk people marry here.” He growled at me.
“Maybe it was fake?” I was racking my brain trying to come up with some type of reason why I would and praying it really wasn’t real.
He gave me the look as if I shouldn’t have even asked the question because I knew the answer. “Viv, do you think Vegas has fake weddings?”
“Shut up.” I gritted my teeth at him. I was still flipping through my phone trying to find something to tell me this wasn’t real and then… “Oh no.” My head fell into my hands. “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.”
“What?”
“I texted my publicist telling her I got married.” The text was staring at me. It was officially burned into my brain and undeletable.
“That’s a bad thing?”
I jerked my head up ignoring my pounding headache. “It is a bad thing because I don’t love you. I love my career. I love my independence. I love myself. Not you.”
At one time in my life, I lived and breathed Brent. He was my everything, but now my life had changed. Did I miss having companionships and such? Sure, but this sure wasn’t the way to fix it.
He glared at me. I knew I hurt his feelings.
“Why would you even force me to do this?” I continued my tirade of questions.
“Me? You think I forced you? What makes you think that?” he asked in a stunned tone.
“You’re nothing but a broke cowboy. You saw me as your money ticket. So, you got me drunk and made me marry you.” It was the only reasonable explanation. I would have never, ever done this if I wasn’t tricked. It was all his fault. I would have never thought he would be cruel like this. A con artist.
“A broke cowboy?” His face turned red. “You’re the one who walked out of my life ten years ago. You don’t know a single thing about me. How can you assume I’m broke?”
I rolled my eyes. “Please. You still live in the same one-horse town. I don’t see you as a billionaire.” Even though he knew how to rub two nickels together and make a dollar, he wasn’t popping out gold bars.
“And you are?” He sneered at me.
“I’m sure I have more than you.” I quipped back at him.
He was about to say something else, but my phone rang. It was Olivia, and I quickly answered.
“Vivian, where are you?”
“I’m...I’m…” I didn’t know where I was. “I’m in Brent’s hotel room.”
“I received your text message.”
“We have to contact a lawyer and get this taken care of.” I ordered her. I never ordered her before, but this is going to ruin everything I’ve worked for.
“Tell me where you are and the three of us will talk.”
I didn’t want to talk. I wanted an annulment and get Brent out of my life. “Where am I?” I asked him. He told me the hotel and I passed it on to her.
“I’m on my way. Just stay there.”
I ended the call and stormed past Brent, trying to find my clothes. Once I did I slammed the bathroom door shut and jerked off the wedding dress and got back into my pants and blouse. I couldn’t believe this happened. I’ve always been smarter than to let some guy talk me into something wild and crazy.
I splashed water on my face trying to wash away the reality I was sucked into. I had my cabin in Washington and that was where I’ve been since graduating college. I did tutoring until my manuscript was picked up by a publisher and for the past eight years, I’ve been involved with my imagination. I have always wanted to be an author. It was my one passion. And even though I wasn’t sure I could do it, I kept plugging along because it was my dream. Brent could take it all from me.
My mother warned me of this. She told me boys break hearts.
“Who is he?” Mom was standing on the porch of our home.
Our home wasn’t like the typical farmhouse in Billings. We lived in town, had a small yard, and my parents worked white collar jobs. Both of them. Most of my classmates’ mothers were housewives and the majority of them lived on large ranches. I was different. Of course.
“He’s a classmate.” I passed her going into the house.
“What’s his name?”
“Brent Rush.”
“Is this considered a boyfriend?” She followed me.
I couldn’t truly explain to her what Brent was to me because I didn’t know. “He’s a friend.”
“Well, Vivian, you know little boys will break your heart. You have to remain strong.”
I was raised to be an independent thinker and now look what has happened to me. I got drunk in Vegas and eloped with my former boyfriend.
Now, what am I going to do?