by Lovell, Dani
When he emerges from the bathroom, he’s fully dressed and gorgeous. My heart flutters just looking at him. Again, he looks dapper, with a crisp white shirt, smart jeans and another very smart jacket. His aftershave wafts out of the bathroom with him and my stomach knots in excitement. I’m about to marry that smell. Oh god, this man… he’s going to be my man; no one will get to go on a date with him or kiss him… or be intimate with him again - just me. Me!
“Wow,” he says when he sees me standing by the window. “You’re beautiful, you look perfect. That dress is… wow, stunning on you.”
I smile shyly. “Thank you.”
“It looks like a little wedding dress.”
“Well, I didn’t think so when I bought it, but when I thought about what to wear this morning - this just seemed right.”
“Perfect.”
“You look very handsome, too.” I say with a smile, feeling shy.
“Thank you, darling. Are you ready to go?”
I nod. I’m not taking my bag, I don’t want my phone or purse or anything. I don’t need anything but myself and my passport, and Oliver can carry that for me.
He smiles and takes my hand, looking into my eyes and winking, “Let’s go,” he says, slipping our passports in his back pocket.
He walks me down the hallways and out to a cab at a fast pace, and once inside the vehicle, he exhales and squeezes my hand, smiling at me before asking the driver to take us to the Clark County Marriage Bureau.
“Sure,” the driver responds, “you guys getting a licence there today?”
Oliver smiles at me before answering. “We are, actually, yes.”
“Cool, congratulations. Where’s the ceremony?”
“I booked this morning at a small chapel…” Oliver says before giving the name.
“Really?” I ask, how has he done all this research without me knowing? “Where was I?”
“Asleep, darling.”
“Did you get any sleep at all, Oliver? I only got about three hours so you must have had hardly any…”
“Worth it,” he says, shrugging, matter of fact.
“You want to take my number?” the cab driver asks. “I’ll come get you and take you to your slot.” Oh… Sounds so romantic…
“That would be great, thank you. Hopefully we won’t be long in here.”
“This time on a Wednesday? You’ll be fine.”
“You see this a lot, then?” Oliver asks exactly what I was thinking.
“Not too much but probably more than most - I work in Vegas, ya know?”
We both smile and look at each other. Are we really going to do this? He takes my hand again. “You okay?”
“Mmm hmm,” I respond with a smile and he simply squeezes my hand and lifts it to kiss before sandwiching it with his other hand, tightly.
“Good.”
It takes about ten minutes to get to the office, and once in there, we’re dealt with at an amazing speed. We fill out a form, hand over a fee and our passports, et voila! Free to marry in any Nevada wedding chapel with immediate effect. It’s crazy how easy this all is.
Once we’re back in the cab, we sit again, quiet and slightly dazed in our tired states. I rest my head back and close my eyes, I’m excited, but oh-so-tired and a little nervous.
“Clare…” Oliver whispers, touching my face gently with his hand, “…are you sure you want to do this? Please don’t worry about hurting my feelings if you’re changing your mind; this is very fast, very out of the blue, and I know what you’re like - I don’t want you to go ahead with it just because you’re too afraid to upset me.”
I turn my head to look at him and I smile. “I love how considerate you are. I love that you’re worried about me. I love what we’re doing and I can’t wait to start living a totally different life with you. Please don’t think I’m changing my mind. I’m worried you might, afterwards… I mean it was only a couple of days ago that you had a different girlfriend. I don’t want you to rush into this because she was a bitch and I was always nicer to you than she was. But I’m definitely not changing my mind.”
The cab driver looks in his rearview mirror, clearly fascinated by our conversation and I regret saying that so loudly. I hope he doesn’t think badly of Oliver for moving on so quickly.
“That’s not why I’m doing this, Clare. We’re here where this can be done so easily, we have loved each other as best friends forever and recently realised… more than that. I don’t want to date and wait and get everyone involved - while we’re here, I want to marry you and start our new life in the most committed and serious way. I’m serious, I want to do this so much and I will not regret it. I give you my word on that.”
I grin and nod. “Let’s do it then.” I say, excitedly.
“We’re here, guys, are you doing the drive thru, or…”
“No, thank you. We’re going inside.”
“Well you’ve got a little extra time - you might wanna take a little look-see, it’s a cool place if you like that sorta thing.”
“Thank you,” Oliver says, climbing out of the car and reaching for my hand to help me out. The building is really quite… ugly. Not really what one would expect, but in all honesty - I’m not bothered.
“The lady I spoke to on the phone told me that if you’d like flowers, we can go into the flower shop here and you might be able to get a simple bunch made up.”
“Oh, that would be nice, and as we have some time…”
“Exactly.”
We enter the small florist area and are greeted by a very sweet lady who seems to know Oliver already. She takes one look at my dress and tells me she could make me up a small posy of ivory roses and I smile gratefully - that’s exactly what I would have asked for myself.
“Oh! Oliver!” I gasp, as the lady goes into the cool room to get the roses. “We don’t have rings! Can you get married without rings?”
“It’s fine, I asked all about that, we can get them here; we’ll just get whatever we prefer and change them later, if you want.”
“Oh, phew. That’s okay then. I’m okay with changing rings later, I like being unconventional when I’m being conventional.”
He smiles at me and presses himself against me. “And I love that.”
When the small bouquet is made and we’ve picked out some very, very simple gold bands - Oliver pays and we head in to the chapel. There are a few different rooms to be married in here, but Oliver has picked the smallest and most intimate. The decor… well it’s tacky to say the least. The bright red carpets and fake Grecian pillars look like they’ve been here for centuries and the cherubs, hand painted randomly all over the walls and ceilings are… in all honesty - revolting.
Oliver notices me taking everything in and giggles, nudging me with his elbow. “Classy, don’t you think?”
I laugh, I love that he’s thinking the same as me. “It’s funny.”
“Well you won’t forget it in a hurry. Are you sure you want this? You don’t want to wait and have a more traditional, elegant wedding?”
“No!” I cry. “I do not, this is half the fun Oliver. No one else is here, this is something for you and I to remember. When we decide to go public about all of this - then maybe we’ll have a party or something, but I love that you and I will have something to talk about, forever, that no one else will fully understand. It’s just us.”
“Good. I love how you think.”
When it’s our turn, we are ushered towards the small room and allocated a witness. My stomach rumbles… hunger, hangover, nerves… no idea, but I don’t have much time to think about it because within moments, the pastor begins. This is it.
No more than six minutes later, Oliver and I walk through the door again, back out into the garish hallway… one hundred percent married. A photographer was in there with us, ensuring we have something to remember the moment that we were… married. Oh my god.
The vows were very sweet and romantic, the actual ceremony was really rather emotional. Te
ars ran down my face, I’m not sure how Oliver was feeling, but he never cries. At anything. He was smiling handsomely, though, and brushed my cheek with his thumb at one point.
We pay the pastor a tip as we stand in the hallway, another most hilarious unconventionality about these fast weddings - being handed an envelope immediately after you’re married to say the pastor isn’t paid and would we please consider donating a tip. In this case, we were more than happy to do so - he was lovely.
Once paid, we’re told how we can obtain the photos and asked to leave so we don’t cause an obstruction. I’m amazed that we only woke a short while ago and suddenly we’re a married couple…
We get back in the cab, holding hands and smiling as the driver congratulates us and begins our journey back towards the hotel.
“So… we need to check out in, what? An hour?” I ask, trying to get my head around what happens next.
Oliver chuckles and squeezes my hand, “Yes… but Clare, we just… we just got married… you’re my wife now.”
I look at him with a frown, but smiling. “I know… it’s so weird. What happens now?”
He grins and shakes his head. ‘I don’t know! We need to decide what to do in terms of when to tell the others and the folks, and then have a good chat about how to move forward, back at home. But Clare… I’m excited,” he says, reassuringly as he leans towards me and kisses my cheek, lingering. “You’re my wife…”
I turn to look at him and smile, holding his face in my spare hand and kissing his lips softly. “I know… I have a husband… this is - this is bizarre. I didn’t so much as have a boyfriend yesterday.”
“It’ll be good, darling. I promise.”
“I know,” I whisper, leaning in to give him another kiss.
“How long will it take you to pack up?” he asks, his eyes taking in every contour of my face, and he glides the backs of his fingers along my cheek bone.
“I can be quick…” I say, smiling.
“Good. I need to make love to my wife,” he whispers, brushing his lips against mine, and my stomach clenches… those words… oh god, I’ve been waiting my whole adult life to hear those words. And coming from Oliver, too! Incredible.
I must sigh out loud as I close my eyes because he chuckles into the kiss, his hand wrapping around the side of my neck, under my ear, and his mouth opening to introduce his tongue. He’s so slow, so gentle; so loving, and gosh… I love it.
I release my flowers to hold his face in my hands as I kiss him , again - opening my eyes slightly to watch that affection on me. Does he really love me enough to want to marry me? Like, in real life? The concept seems so crazy, no one has ever been remotely ‘right’ to even become engaged to - why all of a sudden is Oliver the man I should marry? Oh… this is why, you dork. He’s amazing.
“We’re here…” the driver says, waking us from the passionate spell, “…congrats again, you guys enjoy the rest of your stay.”
Oliver pays him and we step out of the car. I take a deep inhalation and smile as he holds my hand and we walk inside the hotel foyer together. I’m clutching my small posy of roses and can’t stop feeling the need to run my thumb around the delicate, gold band on my ‘ring finger’, just to confirm this has actually happened.
“You look beautiful.” he whispers. “I’ll always remember what you looked like today.” Aww…
“Thank you. I love this dress so much more than I did when I bought it, because of this morning.”
“It was perfect,” he says as we approach the lifts, “and I’m so excited to see you slip out of it… your flawless body; pure skin… all mine and waiting for your husband to taste and savour it.”
Oh good god, yes… now. All this marriage/husband and wife talk makes me really, inexplicably horny. What’s with that?
“Hey!” a female voice calls and of course I recognise it instantly, and begin to panic. Flowers, I need to put the flowers somewhere! I tug my hand out of Oliver’s and quickly drop the bouquet onto a nearby chair facing the opposite direction, as we spin around to see Bea racing towards us. “Hey! Where’ve you two been? We’ve been calling and knocking for you, it’s lucky I saw you as we were on the way. We’re just going for brunch before we leave, it’s a better option than stopping midway…” she pauses, tilting her head to one side as she runs her eyes over the pair of us. “Where have you been, you both look lovely!” Oh, holy, we didn’t plan this…
“We decided to hit a couple of the posh shops and thought we’d do it in style, you know - look the part and all that.” Oliver says, quick on his feet.
“Hey, shopping? And you didn’t invite me?”
“Naa, we got up early, didn’t think you’d be up and didn’t want to disturb you either.”
“Actually,” she says with a grin, “probably best you didn’t.”
“Oh god, Bea - do you have to?” Oliver moans, obviously shaking the image of his sister ‘doing it’ out of his head.
She giggles and continues, “So you joining us? It’d be nice to spend our last meal in Vegas together.”
“Really?” Oliver says, whining, “We’re going to be in a car together for the next four hours or whatever it is - do we really need to…”
I gasp, shocked at his rudeness and by how obvious he’s being. I don’t want Bea to know we’re dashing upstairs to have sex - whether we’re consummating our mad-marriage that no one knows about, or not! “No! I think that would be lovely. Let’s go…” I say, offering him the closest thing to a glare as I can without Bea noticing. I’m not very good at glaring; I probably look like I’ve got something in my eye.
“You alright? Eyelash?” he asks. See.
“I’m fine, let’s go. I could do with something to eat, couldn’t you?”
Bea walks ahead and Oliver bends to whisper in my ear. “Yes, I could. You. I want to…”
I flick my hand sideways into his thigh to subtly berate him.
“A little higher…” he says with a cheeky grin and I can’t help but giggle.
“You’re so naughty,” I whisper, “but you just have to wait, it would have been really obvious if we’d have said ‘no’.”
“What would? I’m pretty certain no one would know we just got hitched because we don’t want to ‘do brunch’.”
I roll my eyes as I look sideways up at his gorgeous face. “You know what I mean - it would have been obvious we were going to make love.”
“Clare, you’re looking too much into it, we both need to pack too, you know! And they think we have sex regularly now anyway.”
“No, they don’t! Just… come on - let’s enjoy brunch. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to… you know…” A breath catches in my throat at the mere thought of his bare naked hips between my legs…
“Oh, I know. I can’t wait. Literally… I’m getting hard right here.”
“Oh god! You’re not?” I ask in another panic.
“Oh Clare - you need to relax. It’s cool. Okay?”
I nod, trying to do as he says and relax. “Okay.”
We all order orange juice and tea or coffee as we peruse the menu and I realise just how starving I really am. We haven’t eaten anything since the sandwich before we went out last night and we’ve had a very busy morning!
“Wotcha having?” Oliver says, leaning into me, sharing my menu - even though he has one of his very own.
“Not sure, I was thinking eggs of some sort…”
“Benedict?” he asks, knowing what I love.
“Yeah, is that on here?” I ask and he nods, pointing to the option on the menu. I nod and suddenly slam my right hand on top of his, on my menu.
“Ouch!” he cries with a slight laugh, “What was that for?”
“Oh…” I giggle, nervously, as I look around the table at the questioning faces. “Fly.” I offer by way of explanation for my violent outburst.
Everyone looks away and continues to read their menus, and as Oliver moves his squashed hand to his knee, I take it - under the table
- and tug at his newly acquired wedding band to explain.
“Oh…” he says, understanding, “holy shit, that was close,” he whispers, amused. Oh my, if he’s going to find all of this so amusing, I’m going to have my work cut out!
I, too, remove my new wedding band and slip it into his fist to take care of. I now realise why a woman always needs a handbag, wherever she goes. You will always need it for one reason or another, like for hiding your secret wedding ring.
Our second close call out of the way, we all order and enjoy a fun, group chat about how we should spend our last few hours of the trip. Bea and Daniel advise us that they’ll be staying on in LA until after the weekend, so it’ll just be Oliver and I flying home tomorrow.
I like that idea. I had really been looking forward to the flight out to LA and having a much-needed catch up with Oliver, until Stacy crashed it. Then, I had to sit in her last minute window seat so that she and Oliver could sit together in the bulkhead seats we had booked previously, and to say we were at opposite ends of the economy cabin would be putting it lightly.
So my entire flight to LAX was spent next to the biggest chatter box I’ve ever met. It seemed, as soon as I started to watch a film, he got the gossip on. I had to hit pause and remove my headphones so frequently, that I ended up having to give up watching TV altogether, to listen all about his job as a Senior Coordinator in a puffed rice factory. He was a big deal. I mean, people ‘knew him’ in that place. How the company will stay afloat while he’s on this trip to the States, I’ll never know.
So, anyway, I’m looking forward to ten hours or so of pure ‘Oliver and Clare’ time. God knows we need it; we have a lot to figure out.
By the time our fun brunch is over, Oliver and I have exactly fourteen minutes to gather our things and check out. Everyone leisurely makes their way towards the lifts together, and I can see him losing his patience. We’re not going to have time for any intimacy now, especially as everyone has agreed to check out and leave straight away, immediately after.