Well Hung Over in Vegas: A Standalone Romantic Comedy

by Kimberly Fox

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “This company will be mine very soon,” he says with a smirk, “so it is my business.”

  “Well, if you must know,” I say, leaning back in my chair. “Dahlia is coming over to get approval to set up the Alabama legal office. Remember? That’s the proposal that you totally fucked up and she nailed.”

  “The only thing she nailed was the last nail in your coffin when we walked in on you while you were doing your Fifty Shades of Grey impression. Do you really think that Mack is going to give you the company after that embarrassing spectacle?”

  “I’m sure he’d rather give it to me than to someone who’s stealing from the company.”

  “This thing again?” he asks, rolling his eyes as he slides his sleeve over the new Rolex watch on his wrist. “You have no proof.”

  “Not yet.”

  “And what are you hiding?” he asks, eying me with a suspicious look. “Mr. Playboy for life shows up with a wife out of the blue that he’s been dating for two years? I don’t buy it. Something is up.”

  “I’m in love.” That’s the truth now.

  “The timing is convenient,” he says, staring me down with interrogating eyes. “Mack wanted you to settle down before you got the company, and you just show up with a ready-made wife? Sounds like you picked her out of a catalog or something.”

  “Sounds like you’ve lost your mind. A fake wife? Who would stoop so low as to do something like that?” I say confidently, but I’m cringing on the inside.

  “Somebody has to know something,” he says, eying me coldly as he gets up. “And I’m going to find out what it is.”

  My heart starts pounding as he walks to the door. Isn’t he dating that girl from Hospitech? Emily? I wonder if she knows anything.

  “Are you tapping my phone lines?” I ask.

  He turns with a raised eyebrow. “Tapping your phone lines?” he repeats with a laugh. “Now who sounds like they’ve lost their mind?”

  I lean back in my chair and take a deep breath after he’s gone. Tapped phone lines, constant competition, angry fathers. I close my eyes and dream that I’m back in Summerland with Dahlia where life is nice and simple.

  I could get used to nice and simple.

  25

  Dahlia

  “Fuck,” I cry out as Tyler thrusts into me. We only made it two steps into his condo, and I’m already on the floor lying on my back as he slides his hard cock deep into me.

  “I’ve been dreaming of this tight little pussy every second since I left,” he whispers into my ear as his thick shaft stretches me wide. He groans as he buries his cock in all the way to the hilt.

  This was definitely worth the plane ride over. I jumped on the first plane leaving for Vegas after his phone call this morning, and now I’m really glad I did.

  I wrap my arms around him as he starts to fuck me hard and deep. Our clothes are still on. We were in too much of a hurry to take them off, just taking enough time to fumble with our belt buckles and slide our pants down to only get the necessities out.

  I cry out loud as he starts to fuck me hard and deep. There will be time for slow, romantic sex later tonight when we can take our time and properly enjoy each other’s bodies. But right now, I just need to feel him inside me.

  It’s not long before our groans become louder and our cries more incoherent. He ramps up the pace, and before long my body gives in and I’m crying out as my pussy pulses in orgasm around him. His body tightens as he gives me one last hard thrust, holds himself deep within me, and comes.

  “Welcome back,” he says when we’re both lying on our backs after, looking up at the ridiculously high ceiling while trying to catch our breaths.

  “Thanks,” I say with a laugh. “If the foyer is this good, I can’t wait to see the rest of your place.”

  “You’ll see it all,” he says, reaching for my hand. He threads his fingers through mine, making me even happier that I made the trip back here. “And don’t worry, we’ll have sex in every room before you leave.”

  I’m not thrilled to face my angry boss after what happened, but it’s still worth it to see Tyler. Especially if I get fucked in every room of his beautiful penthouse condo.

  After a few minutes, we get up, get dressed, and he gives me a tour of his sick condo. He has almost no outer walls, mainly just windows from the floor to the ceiling, and since it’s a top floor of a high-rise building overlooking the Las Vegas strip, to say the view is spectacular is a massive understatement.

  “Wow,” I gasp as I marvel at all of the bright shiny lights down below. It’s beautiful.

  “It’s a fun city,” he says, walking up behind me and taking me in his arms. We melt into each other as we watch all of the action down below. “But it gets old after a while. I think I’d like a small town like Summerland better.”

  I turn in his arms until we’re face to face, both smiling at each other. I can’t tell if he’s being serious or if he’s teasing me.

  “Sure, you might have some of the best chefs in the world here,” I say, grinning at him, “but can you get a submarine as good as Lou’s?”

  He shakes his head.

  “And sure, you can watch Cirque du Soleil or listen to Celine Dion live, but can you rent The Notebook on DVD? Can you leave your bike on the street without a lock or get food poisoning from the only Chinese takeout place?”

  Tyler smiles as he holds me tight. “That’s why Summerland wins, but you haven’t even mentioned the best part.”

  “Which is?”

  “You,” he says, giving me a soft kiss on the lips. “Any place with you in it is the best place in the world.”

  We finish the tour of his condo, and I’m stunned at how nice it is—a huge flat-screen TV over the fireplace, a kitchen that would make Gordon Ramsay weep in envy, and walk-in closets that you can park a car in.

  I’m admiring the nineteen jet shower when my phone rings. It’s Emily.

  It’s really late at night back home and it could be an emergency, so I answer it even though I just want to let it go to voicemail.

  “Hey, Em,” I say, sitting on the ledge of the bathtub as I answer it. “Everything okay?”

  She’s crying.

  “What happened?” I ask, straightening up as a worried feeling digs deep in my stomach. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m sorry, Dahlia,” she says between sniffs. “I didn’t mean to get you into trouble. You’ve been such a good friend to me.”

  I can feel the color draining from my face. “What happened?”

  “Nick,” she says as a new wave of sobs hits her. “He broke up with me.”

  I take a breath of relief. Thank God.

  “It’s probably for the best,” I say in a soft tone. “You can do a lot better than him.”

  “I don’t deserve better,” she says in a shaky voice. “I fucked up.”

  I swallow hard, waiting for it.

  “He tricked me into telling him what happened.”

  “What happened with what?” I ask, but I already know the answer.

  “Between you and Tyler. How you guys got drunk and got married by accident.”

  I drop my head as the air is knocked out of my lungs.

  “Oh, Emily,” I say, shaking my head in disbelief. “You didn’t?”

  “I’m so sorry, Dahlia. I thought he liked me, and I was just telling him a funny story. I didn’t think he would do anything bad with the information. He’s Tyler’s cousin.”

  My stomach flutters as I think it over. He doesn’t have any proof, and we can just deny it. It might not be as bad as it seems.

  But with everything that has happened lately, Mack is probably going to believe Nick.

  “If Mack asks you what happened, please deny everything,” I say, suddenly feeling nauseous. She says she will. “Just try to get some sleep, Emily. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  She apologizes a dozen more times before I hang up the phone with shaking hands.
r />   “Tyler,” I call out as I walk into the bedroom. “Something happened.”

  He looks even worse than I feel. He’s on the phone with someone, looking anxious as he paces around the room.

  “Of course we’re in love, Mom,” he says as he runs his hand through his hair. I cringe as he nearly yanks out a fistful of his hair. “What was on the video?”

  The video? My legs weaken as I listen. It must be our wedding video.

  “Yes, the marriage is real,” he says, looking panicked as he walks in circles. “It’s okay, Mom. Stop crying. You’re going to get your gra—”

  Tyler lowers the phone and stares at me in shock.

  “She hung up on me.”

  I gulp. “What video was she talking about?”

  He drops onto the bed and puts his hands on his head. “Our wedding video. They got it in the mail.”

  “Oh, shit,” I say, dropping onto the bed beside him. All of a sudden my legs can’t support my weight anymore. “I can’t imagine what’s on there.”

  “Wait a second,” he says, going through his phone. “I should have checked my email about this before.” After a tense minute, he perks up and then quickly slumps down onto the bed. “I found a receipt from the Pineapple Chapel in my email.”

  “And?”

  “And it looks like we ordered five wedding videos and sent them to our family and friends.”

  I close my eyes and pretend that this is not happening. “That can’t be good,” I whisper to nobody in particular.

  Tyler is looking shell-shocked, like he just walked in on his parents having sex.

  “There goes the company.”

  I want to cry. “There goes the factory.”

  I look at Tyler and wonder if something this big is going to break us. I sigh.

  There goes my marriage. It was fun while it lasted.

  26

  Dahlia

  A deep flush creeps across my cheeks as Tyler pops our wedding video into the DVD player.

  Kirsten and Mack are sitting on the couch to my left watching the TV with bitter faces. They’ve already seen what’s about to play, and they don’t look very excited about witnessing it again.

  “Should we make popcorn?” Tyler asks, trying to lighten up the mood.

  His parents stare forward, not even cracking a smile. If the mood got any heavier in here, we’d collapse through the floor.

  “I didn’t want to believe your cousin Nick when he told me that your marriage was a sham,” Mack says, staring forward with his arms crossed over his chest. “I didn’t believe it until I saw this video.” He shakes his head, refusing to even look at us.

  My chin dips down and my stomach hardens as Tyler sits beside me. “We can explain everything,” he says as the DVD starts.

  Oh, no. I cover my face with my hands to escape the humiliating version of me on the screen. There’s no explaining that.

  The video starts with Tyler and me in The Pineapple Chapel, swaying on our feet as Drunken Asian Elvis chugs scotch straight from the bottle. My hair is a hot mess like I styled it by sticking my finger into an electrical socket, and my face looks like I took makeup lessons from a raccoon. I’m wearing a white plastic dress with the pineapple bra, only it’s not doing its job because I have a tit hanging out in plain view.

  Tyler doesn’t look any better. His suit is a ripped-up mess as he stands there, scratching his balls while Drunken Asian Elvis takes another long chug from his bottle. Tyler seems to have an attention span of a nano-second because he gets bored and wanders over to the pineapple-shaped podium and begins humping it.

  My neck, face, and ears feel impossibly hot as I glance over at my in-laws who are watching with clenched jaws and flared nostrils.

  “Oh, my God,” Tyler groans beside me. “This is so humiliating.” And this is coming from a guy who has an N’Sync poster on his wall. I mean, what’s more humiliating than that?

  Drunken Asian Elvis tries to sing Suspicious Minds but forgets most of the words, which would normally be bad, but of course, Tyler and I top him, forgetting each other’s names later on in the short ceremony.

  “I, Tyler, take… what’s your name again?” he asks, slurring every single word as he stares at me with half closed eyes.

  I curl my hands around my middle as I watch with nausea creeping up my throat. This is the most unromantic wedding I have ever seen.

  “Rainbow Solstice the First,” I answer. At least I can remember my own name. “But you can call me your Cum Dumpster from now on.”

  “Classy,” Tyler whispers beside me. I slap his thigh. He shouldn’t talk.

  We watch the rest of the painful marriage ceremony, and I’m exhausted and more embarrassed than I’ve ever been in my life when it finally shuts off.

  “So, that’s our wedding video,” Tyler says, turning off the TV when it’s done. “We wanted something classy yet simple.”

  “How could you?” Kirsten asks, turning to her son with hurt and disappointment written all over her face. “You lied about all of this? Are you two even dating?”

  We look at each other, but neither of us answer. Are we dating?

  “Great,” Kirsten says, throwing her hands in the air. “I guess I have my answer.”

  “We’re dating,” Tyler says firmly. Despite the horrible circumstance I’m in, I let out a smile. It’s the first time either of us said that we’re a real couple.

  “I just don’t understand why you would lie about something like this?” Kirsten says, looking like she’s on the verge of tears. “We threw you that lovely party and you made us look like fools in return. Your Aunt Margaret called me and was deeply disturbed by your video.”

  “Aunt Margaret got a copy?” Tyler asks with a wince.

  Mack sits up. “I’ll tell you why he would lie about something like this. So that I would give him the company. Isn’t that right?” he asks Tyler, turning to my husband with an accusing look on his face.

  Tyler’s eyes fall to his lap.

  “Actually,” Mack says as he stands up. “I don’t want to hear any more of your lies. You are officially out of the running for the top position at McMillan Worldwide Inc.” He takes a deep breath as he stands up straight with his chest puffed out. “Nicholas will be getting the company. My decision is final.”

  “Dad!” Tyler says, leaping to his feet. “You can’t be serious. Over this? I’ve worked my ass off every day at that company for the past six years. This is my birthright!”

  “It was,” Mack says softly. He looks crushed as he turns to his only son with old, tired eyes. “And I really wanted to give it to you, but I can’t. Not after this.”

  “Dad!” Tyler calls out as Mack leaves the room with his head down. “We can talk about this. We were just having a little bit of fun.”

  “A little bit of fun?” Kirsten repeats, looking heartbroken. “What is fun about deceiving your entire family with a sham of a marriage? I thought I was going to get grandkids,” she says with her chin trembling. She covers her mouth with her hand and runs out of the room so we can’t see her cry.

  “Fuck,” Tyler says, collapsing back down on the couch. He runs his hand through his hair as he stares at the floor, shaking his head in disbelief.

  I feel like I’m going to be sick as I collapse down beside him. Nick is getting the company, which means that the factory in Summerland will surely be closed. Everyone in town will lose their job, and Tyler and I will be right there with them, getting pink slips of our very own.

  I was right all along. You can’t have a career and love. I should have stuck to my gut instead of following my heart. If I did, none of this would be happening.

  “What now?” I whisper to the crushed man beside me.

  He takes a deep breath, staring at the floor as he answers. “What does it matter? We’ve lost everything.”

  “Maybe we should get that annulment,” I say, wanting to take back the words the second they pass through my lips.

  I’m hoping he’
ll say no. I’m hoping he’ll tell me he loves me and that he’s willing to fight for us. I’m hoping he does the right thing and takes me in his arms and shows me how much he loves me with a passionate kiss.

  But he just slumps down in the couch and sighs. “Maybe.”

  It’s one word, but it’s enough to break me. “Okay,” I say, feeling my heartbeat slow to a stop. I have to get out of here before I start crying.

  We shuffle back to the car, not saying a word as we get in. Tyler is the first to speak when we’re on the highway back to his place.

  “The thirty-day deadline for the annulment is next week,” he says, gripping the steering wheel hard as he coasts down the dark highway.

  “I’ll take a flight in for it,” I say, feeling like I’m going to throw up. “The whole getting married thing was a mistake. It’s the right thing to do.”

  He nods and doesn’t say a word for the rest of the drive back to his place.

  I sit there trying to convince myself that it is the right thing to do, but more than anything, I keep wondering why it feels so wrong.

  27

  Tyler

  I stand in the corner of the conference room, eating the cardboard-tasting cake as everyone congratulates my father and congratulates Nick.

  After fifty-two years of hard work, my father has finally announced his retirement. And he named Nick as his successor.

  It shouldn’t come as a surprise after last week when Dahlia and I were forced to watch our wedding video in front of my parents. It was the final straw that broke my father’s back, and he decided that the future of the company will not be with me at the head of it, but instead, it will be in Nick’s cold corrupt hands.

  Everyone turns their attention to him as he begins to make a speech, thanking my father for his trust in him and saying that he’s going to try his best to live up to the wonderful legacy that my father started all those years ago with McMillan Worldwide Inc.