by Ellie Hall
1
Zach
“Now hold on. Are you telling me I came here for nothing?” I asked, wondering why I was standing in my brother’s living room discussing his escape plan from his email-order bride.
Yes, you heard that right.
My brother went online and ordered himself a bride in the twenty-first century. And she wasn’t coming from a foreign country. Apparently, there were people in the US who were desperate enough to find love that he didn’t even need to import.
My brother was quick to defend himself. “Not nothing. The mission is just different now.”
I lifted my eyebrow skeptically. “How?”
“Instead of being my best man, I need you to go to the airport and break things off with her.”
“Wait, why do I have to be the one to break off your wedding?” I asked.
“You know how I am. If I go to the airport, I’ll probably just marry her anyway.”
“Isn’t that what you committed to do in the first place?” I asked, wondering how I was being roped into this. Brandon was the one who had gotten himself into this. He needed to get himself out.
“I can’t, she’s going to look all sad and pathetic and I’ll feel sorry for her and marry her anyway.”
“The computer said you were compatible so what’s your problem?” I tried to coax him into going through with it even though I didn’t agree with how he went about getting a bride.
“I want to give myself one more chance to find a wife on my own.”
I scratched my head, trying to find the logic in his thinking. “You’re thirty years old. Why are you so worried about not finding a wife?”
He placed his hand palm up and karate chopped it with his other hand for emphasis. “Because I’ve always wanted to get married. I should have at least three kids by now according to my plan.”
“Haven’t you ever heard that life doesn’t always go as planned?” I asked, still trying to make sense of this situation. It wasn’t working.
“Yes, but if I let life continue to go the way it’s going then I won’t ever get married.”
I wasn’t going to argue with him anymore. “What time am I supposed to pick her up?” I asked.
“Her flight comes in at eight tomorrow morning. We were going to go straight to the justice of the peace and get married from there, then come back to my house and start our life together.”
“Sounds like you had it all planned out,” I said sarcastically. I couldn’t help it. His plan was ridiculous.
“I’m just glad I haven’t told mom and dad about it yet.”
I was sure that if he had told our mom, she would have come out here and stopped the wedding before they’d even had a chance to start. Not that it mattered now anyway.
“So, what am I supposed to do once I tell her you’re not marrying her?” I asked. “She’s going to be in a city that she doesn’t know, with nowhere to stay.”
“I’ll book her hotel and a flight back to Florida. It’ll just be one of her choices that didn’t work out.”
“I think you should be the one to break things off,” I said, trying to back out of this.
I had agreed to take my vacation time to be his best man. Not be the messenger that was probably going to ruin some young girl’s life and send her into a fit of tears. Brandon was right to push this on me. I wasn’t looking forward to it now that I thought about it.
“So, she’s from Florida huh?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“And why didn’t you go to Florida to live with her? You could have been closer to me.”
“I’m not going to quit my job. You know how much I love it here.”
So he was making his bride pack up her life and move for his benefit. She was either really sweet, or really pathetic. Some things shouldn’t be done for love. Every which way I thought of it, my brother was being the dumb one.
“You still have the ocean in Florida,” I said, not really knowing why I was arguing this out with him. It didn’t matter if I thought he was a jerk for every single decision he’d made in the last two weeks. I was his best man, and this was part of the job description.
“Not the same,” he said without missing a beat. He’d likely had it all planned out on paper with diagrams and charts.
I looked out the window of my brother’s seaside condo. He was right on the water with dark clouds swirling the sky making the ocean look ominous. And he was correct. The Pacific Northwest was a completely different ocean than the one I was used to in Florida. It was still beautiful, just different.
“Okay. I’ll call you when the deed is done,” I said, finally relenting.
“Thanks man. I knew I could count on you.”
I smiled, trying to make myself look comfortable, even though inside I was anything but. I had a feeling this was going to backfire big time.
I felt like I was in a movie, standing in the middle of the airport holding a sign that read Emma Carter. All I needed was a chauffeur’s hat and a dark suit and I’d fit the role perfectly. I shuffled on my feet, trying to force myself to feel comfortable. It wasn’t working. If I was standing in an airport I was familiar with, it might have helped the situation.
I looked at the incoming flight board, double checking to see if it was on time. It had landed ten minutes ago. I was about ready to ditch the sign when passengers started to shuffle through the gate.
It would have been nice if my brother had given me a picture of what his almost wife looked like. I studied the passengers as they passed, checking to see if anyone recognized me. I wasn’t my brother, but we looked enough alike that we had been confused on more than one occasion for one another. It might come in handy now.
I forced a smile on my face, trying to look approachable. When a woman who looked familiar came into view, I focused on her, studying her features as my heart rate began to pick up. I turned the sign over looking at the name again. Emma Carter. That name sounded so familiar when I’d heard it and now I knew why. I hadn’t thought of her for so long. Memories from my awkward teenage years assailed me. But Emma hadn’t changed one bit. She was still stunning. The carefree smile that lifted her features made her look like she was still in high school.
I cleared my throat, straightening as she walked closer, her smile growing bigger as she focused on me. Did she recognize me? There was no way. She never even gave me a second glance in high school even though I had tried on many occasions to get her to notice me. Now, seven years later, she only had eyes for me. It was ironic really, the fact that she thought I was my brother.
Just as I was about ready to drop the cardboard sign, she skipped towards me, wrapping her arms around my neck in an awkward hug, the sign still sandwiched in between our bodies.
She chuckled, pulling away as I dropped the sign. I tried my best not to look flustered.
“You must be Brandon,” she said, grinning from ear to ear now.
I nodded absentmindedly.
“Sorry about that.” She looked at the crumpled sign on the ground.
“It’s not a problem.”
“Have you been waiting long?” she asked.
“Not very,” I said back, still in a daze over what was happening.
She stepped back slightly. “I promise not to be so excited again. I’ve just been looking forward to meeting you since we were matched.”
“You look very familiar,” I said, trying to get her to make the connection that I wasn’t, in fact, Brandon.
“Well, you did see my picture.” She smiled.
“You look a little different from your picture?” I said, trying to keep the question out of my voice. I didn’t think it was working.
She started to look worried now. “I’ve never gotten that before. Are you disappointed?”
I shook my head quickly. “No, not at all.”
What was I doing? I needed to tell her I wasn’t Brandon, and that she wasn’t going to be getting married today.
“So did you want to grab my lu
ggage?” she asked.
I nodded dumbly. It only took one minute to turn myself back into the bumbling gangly teenager that I had tried to get away from. Brandon should have been the one to pick Emma up. He thought he was going to be the one to mess this up? It turns out, I was a thousand times worse than he would have been.
“Where is the luggage claim?” she asked, looking around.
I studied the airport with her, searching for a sign that would lead us to the baggage area. Brandon should know this. Thankfully a sign was in sight.
“It’s this way,” I said, pointing towards the luggage claim, hoping that it was the right one.
The Portland airport was smaller than the one in Orlando but not by much.
Emma stepped next to me as I walked towards the baggage claim. “So, are we going to get married right away, or wait a little bit to get to know each other?”
“I thought we would get married right away and then go to my apartment,” I said, thinking back to the list Brandon had made.
I shook my head trying to correct myself, but when I looked her in the eyes I couldn’t say it. That bright smile was back, blinding me just like it had in high school. What in the world was I thinking?
Okay, new plan. I’d get her luggage and then tell her in the car on the way to the hotel. I breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm my nerves. I needed to get myself under control. I had left high school far behind me. I’d joined a gym and went to college. I did not have a problem with girls noticing me anymore.
I shifted my eyes towards Emma. She was the one who had started me on that course. I had imagined this day so many times before in my head as I was working out to fill my physique. I would say just the right things and wear just the right clothes to turn her head.
It had been years since I’d thought about her. But apparently my mind was back in high school upon the sight of her. I pushed thoughts of my awkward high school days away, focusing on the present as we stepped up to the luggage carousel.
“Do you see your luggage?” I asked, looking at the bags spinning around on the circle.
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“What color is it?” I asked.
“Fluorescent pink.”
I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it.
She gave me a sheepish grin.
“You like pink huh?” I asked, teasing her a little.
“I do like pink, but I didn’t purchase fluorescent pink bags just because I like the color.”
“Why did you do it then?” I asked curiously, trying to peel back the layers that were Emma, but also giving myself a chance to ask these questions that I didn’t get to ask in high school.
“Have you ever flown before?” she asked.
“Of course I have.” I didn’t tell her that I had flown here from Florida just like her.
“Well, I got sick of not being able to find my luggage quickly. I find that having a fluorescent bag isn’t as common as you would think. See.” She pointed to her luggage as it came through the trolly.
She was right. She didn’t need a neon sign for that thing. It was the neon sign. Everyone had their eyes focused on her luggage as it traveled the distance around the belt to us. I smiled, thinking that Brandon was definitely missing out by not keeping this one as his bride. I pushed that thought aside because I couldn’t picture my older brother marrying the woman that had changed the course of my life.
As the bright bag meandered past us, I stepped up to the carousel and plucked it off the belt. The simple action brought smiles to most of her fellow passengers’ faces. I ignored them, placing the bag on the ground and pulling out the handle. Emma tried to grab it from me, but I shook my head.
“I’ve got it,” I said, pulling it behind me as I walked away.
She followed, stepping next to me. “You just passed my first test.”
“Oh great, I’m being tested now?”
“Not really. I trust the algorithms. But it is nice to see that you’re a gentleman.”
“Thanks?” I said, the question back in my voice.
She just smiled at me again. “Are you parked close by?”
“It’s not far.”
Luckily Brandon had lent me his car, so I didn’t have to pick her up in my rental. That might have given her too many questions that I wasn’t prepared to answer.
“It’s just over here,” I said as we walked through the parking garage to Brandon’s flashy convertible. He lived in Portland, Oregon where it rained a good portion of the year, but he still had to buy the most inconvenient car because it looked good on him. I thought of myself making air quotes as I remembered him saying those exact words. And he wondered why he was still single? He professed to be a family man, but he did almost everything a family man wouldn’t do unless he was looking for an expensive wife.
I opened Emma’s door for her, and she slid in smoothly. Okay, I had to admit she did go well with the car.
I looked at her outfit, trying to analyze her. I didn’t follow fashion. Although her clothing looked good, it didn’t seem expensive. That didn’t mean it wasn’t. She was wearing simple earrings and no necklace or bracelet that I could see. She didn’t seem like a flashy diva, at least not the kind I pictured. I shook my head, jogging around my side and getting in the car.
I didn’t need to look up where her hotel was. I had memorized it before I left Brandon’s house so I could skip over as much awkwardness as possible.
I pulled out of the parking spot and glided out onto the street.
“How far away is the courthouse?” she asked.
“Not far,” I said, thinking about how close the hotel was.
I needed to tell her now. “Listen, Emma—” I started to say, but she interrupted me.
“It’s so cloudy here. Does it ever stop raining?”
“It does. The clouds bouncing off the water gives the ocean a different look than the one you’re used to,” I said, trying to explain the difference.
“I’m sure it does,” she said, looking at the sky again.
“What do you prefer, sun or clouds?” I asked, trying to gauge how good of a fit Portland was really going to be for her.
“Honestly I prefer sunny but I’m up for an adventure. Don’t worry, I’m not going to regret my decision in moving here to be with you. And like you said in your email, your job is in Oregon. Although I had to quit my job, I’m sure I will be able to find something quickly.”
I thought about how much money Brandon made. He was more well off than I was, that was for sure.
“You don’t have to get a job if you don’t want to,” I said before instantly regretting my words, realizing that she might have to do a job search back in Florida if her employer didn’t give her old job back.
“I know, but until we get to know each other better I think it might be a little awkward for me to stay home and not do anything while you’re at work.”
I lifted an eyebrow. Was she planning on making this a real marriage? Because if so, I knew Brandon’s plan was to have a baby fairly quickly. I didn’t know anything about babies, but it seemed to me that would take up a lot of her time.
As I was trying to think of a way to break the news to her, she suddenly became silent. The smile that had graced her face the instant she walked off the airplane was gone.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked, slipping my eyes to her, then back to the road.
She breathed in and out before answering. “Do you regret it?”
Yes, I thought to myself, Brandon desperately regretted it. “Do you regret it?” I asked, thinking this might be my window to tell her the truth.
“Not at all,” she said. “It was scary filling out the application on the website. But as soon as your profile matched up with mine, I felt at peace. I didn’t expect that.” She smiled at me again.
“And that feeling of peace has never gone away?” I asked.
“No. I just wanted to see if you’re on the same page as me.”
/> I gulped. “Anyone would have to be crazy not to jump at the chance of marrying you,” I said honestly.
And that was when I knew I was in trouble. Instead of pulling into the hotel parking lot, I drove past it, heading into downtown. “Do you want to look up the courthouse for me?”
“You don’t know where it is?”
“I don’t have it memorized. I want to make sure we’re not circling the city,” I said honestly.
“Okay.” She pulled out her phone and did a search for the Portland courthouse.
I don’t think I made a conscious decision, but I didn’t have any time for regrets. I was going to marry Emma myself.
2
Emma
I don’t know how I got so lucky, but Brandon looked ten times better in person than he did in his picture. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that the man next to me was somebody completely different altogether. And he was going to be mine in about two minutes.
“There’s something I need to tell you before we go through with this,” Brandon said, looking at me seriously now. “I go by Zach.”
I knit my eyebrows together. “Then why did it say Brandon on the match letter? You’ve also been signing your emails as Brandon.”
“My father’s name is Brandon so I use my middle name,” he said, clearing it up.
“Then why did you send your emails as Brandon?” I asked.
“It’s easier to discuss this in person,” he said, as if that would explain everything.
“So your name is Brandon Zach Wells, but you go by Zach?” I asked.
Apparently, there were a lot more things I needed to get to know about my future husband.
“Zachary, but yes, I go by Zach,” he clarified.
“Okay,” I said somewhat confused. It wasn’t a big deal, but something in the back of my mind was giving me a warning. It made me nervous.