by Alice Wasser
We got our marriage license two weeks ago and this was the first available appointment. As Sam signed the paperwork, he looked kind of nervous, like they might deny him the right to get married because of his wheelchair or something. But everything went pretty smoothly. Neither of us had ever been married before or had any crazy history we had to explain.
When we were waiting to be called in by the judge, Eric took several photos of us in the courthouse. As usual, I started to get worried about looking fat in the photos. But I did end up taking Sam’s advice about joining Weight Watchers, and I’ve actually lost 15 pounds. So the good news is that I’m no longer obese. Just plain old overweight.
“You know, this is your last photo as a bachelor,” Eric said to Sam.
“Thank God,” Sam said, pulling me into his lap and kissing me on the lips.
“Yeah,” Eric said. “It isn’t that great.”
Eric and Alicia are working on patching things up. Eric has a very promising interview back in Portland, but even if he doesn’t get the job, they’ve decided that they want to stay together. I’m not sure exactly how they’re going to work it out, but it’s sweet that they’re both dedicated to trying.
Sam put his hand on his glasses. “What do you think? Glasses or no glasses?”
I shrugged. “You look cute either way.”
He did. He looked devastatingly handsome in his white shirt with the black jacket and tie. I couldn’t believe that in an hour, he was going to be my husband.
“Having second thoughts?” he asked me. He was teasing, but there was a nervous tremor in his voice.
“Of course not,” I said. “How about you?”
“Are you kidding?” he retorted. “I practically had to drag you here kicking and screaming.”
That wasn’t true at all, but Sam liked to tease me that it was. I wanted to marry him just as much as he wanted to marry me… I just hadn’t wanted a big wedding. The City Hall deal was something he was doing for me.
The judge called us into the courthouse chapel, which was actually specifically decorated for wedding ceremonies. I had been worried it might be kind of dingy, but it was actually really nice. The room was bright and clean, and there were some colorful flowers all around. The judge marrying us was a woman in her sixties who seemed only slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the groom was in a wheelchair.
“Can you… join hands?” she asked us, looking uncertainly at Sam’s hands.
(At least she didn’t ask me if I was Sam’s nurse.)
“We sure can,” he told her with a wink.
I reached out and took Sam’s hand. Despite his joking around, he really must have been pretty nervous because his hand was shaking. I gave him a squeeze. He didn’t squeeze me back, mostly because he really couldn’t.
Eric was holding our rings for us. We actually ended up returning my original engagement ring and buying something more modest. I liked the original ring, but it just wasn’t me. Just like the big wedding ceremony wasn’t me. I preferred the simple, small diamond that Sam and I picked out together. “Are you sure you don’t want something bigger?” he kept asking me. But I held firm.
As the judge spoke, I looked at Sam sitting in his wheelchair. I couldn’t believe this was it. This man was going to be my husband. For the rest of my life. It was pretty intense. As I looked at his blue eyes, I felt like I had picked right. I adored Sam, and God knew, he seemed to love me too for some reason. He was sweet, kind, considerate, and amazing in bed.
The fact that he was a quadriplegic was completely unimportant, beyond the fact that it was one part of what made him the wonderful person that he was.
“I love you,” I mouthed to him.
“I love you too,” he mouthed back to me, flashing a broad smile.
The judge gave us lines to recite to each other. With this ring, I thee wed, and with it, I bestow upon thee all the treasures of my mind, heart, and hands. Honestly, I had no idea what I was even saying. I just focused on getting the words right and not screwing it up.
(Not that it mattered if I did. It was just the two of us, after all.)
I slid the gold band onto the fourth finger of Sam’s left hand. I only vaguely remembered how strange his hands had seemed to me when we first met. Now I loved his hands.
When it was Sam’s turn, he wanted to put the ring on my finger without any help. It was really important to him to be able to do it, but it was obviously incredibly difficult for him. It took him several minutes, but the judge waited patiently, smiling down at us. He let out a sigh of relief when the ring was on my finger.
“By the power vested in me by the State of California, I now declare you husband and wife.”
I let out a breath when she said the words. That was it. We were married. We were freaking married. Sam grabbed me, pulled me into his lap, and gave me a kiss that was totally inappropriate for a courthouse. But that’s just Sam.
“Good luck to you two,” the judge said to us. She smiled at us and said, “I marry a lot of people, and you two seem like you really love each other. I think you’re going to be a great couple.”
That was nice that she said that. It’s possible that she said it because Sam was in a wheelchair, and she felt like she had to say something nice. But still, it made me feel good that she said that. I mean, it wasn’t like we were tipping her.
(Oh my God, we weren’t supposed to tip her, were we?)
Eric took a bunch more photos of us holding up our marriage certificate, then Sam couldn’t wait another second. We were leaving tomorrow for our honeymoon in Hawaii, but he wanted to get back to the apartment right now to… well, you know.
On the drive home, I kept looking at the ring on Sam’s left hand. I kept thinking how that ring meant he was a married man and he was married to me. We were going to wear these rings for the rest of our lives as a symbol that we belonged to each other. It seemed like such a big deal. I touched my own ring with my right hand and smiled to myself.
We came to a stop at a red light, and Sam turned his head towards me. “Red light kiss,” he said.
I laughed and kissed him. “My wife,” he said as he pulled away.
“My husband,” I replied.
“Oh man,” Sam said. “We are going to be the most obnoxious couple ever.”
I couldn’t wait to get back to our apartment and let Sam ravage me. Hell, maybe we’d even make a baby tonight, biology be damned. Or maybe not. The only thing that mattered was that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. I had just married the man of my dreams.
Not too shabby for an ugly girl.
A letter from the author:
Dear readers,
Thank you so much for reading my story! I would love to get feedback from readers, both good and bad (although I would prefer good!). Please consider either leaving a review on Amazon or you may contact me at [email protected].
Thank you once again.
Alice Wasser
http://confessionsuglygirl.blogspot.com/