"Stop playing around," I chastised him. This was something serious, something very serious, and my heart would not take him jerking me around. "I don't even know you! Where are you from? What do you do for a living? Why me? You just broke up with one girl; now you want to jump in on the next one? "I snorted.
"I know enough about you to know you're a good person. You're hot as heck, and from the moment I laid eyes on you, you're all I see. We can make anything work if we work hard at it, and I want to do that with you," he pressed on. "There is no such thing as love at first sight. There's hard work that eventually develops into love; all I'm saying is let's skip the middle part and grab the bull by the horns and get married. This is Vegas; people do it all the time knowing a lot less about each other. Why can't we?"
I was too scared to look at him, and I really wanted to say yes. He could take the loneliness away; he could ease the pain I felt going home to an empty house. I felt it last night when we talked; it was effortless and amazing. I felt it when he held me as I let go and laid to rest a lot of the pain I buried. I felt it this morning when we talked, his focus completely on me, listening to and hanging on to every word I said, showing me how important I was and making me feel wanted. I couldn't bring myself to say yes, though. What if I said yes and gave myself to him, only to have it all fall apart and have a divorce contract placed in front of me?
"I can't be your scapegoat, Matt. I feel like you're trying to run away from something, and I'm the easy out. I can't be that; it needs to mean more than that to me. I need to mean more than that." I blinked back tears because I knew I was attracted to him, and he was right. Love at first sight was not something I bought into. Sure, he made my heart race whenever he looked at me, and I had come to realize the butterflies swarming in my stomach every time we touched were growing bigger. As it was, I had started to fear saying goodbye to him.
"You're not an easy out." He stared me down, gently lifting my chin so that I would look him in the eyes. "Honestly, if we did this, it would be like throwing a flame onto a hornet's nest. Not only will my dad probably disown me, he will probably try to block my trust fund, which I really don't care about. I have enough of my own money. Chelsea's parents will run to my dad and try to get him to force me for a divorce or threaten to cancel all business collaborations going forward with my dad's company; I don't care! My grandpa may be the easiest; after all, I would be following in his footsteps. "I now looked at him quizzically as he smiled. He couldn't just start something like that and leave it hanging.
"Gramps met gran while on a business trip in Vegas for an auction. He said he knew the minute he saw her that she was the one. Back in those days it was a little trickier to get her alone. He said she always had someone following her around as a chaperone. They met at a Frank Sinatra show, and he just knew she was it; no one could hold a candle to her. They were married for 50 years before she passed on. I never saw two people more in love than them." He looked at me with so much hope in his eyes. So don't you see we can make this work, and it can be good?" He stared at me, hope shining in his eyes, and I almost said, "Let's do this." Almost…
The bedroom door burst open, and Nikki came in cursing up a storm. "I screwed up!" She charged in like a bull in a china shop only to come to a complete halt and start disbelievingly, "Shit! Fudge! Dammit!" She threw her hands over her eyes quickly, and I noticed a band on her left hand that had definitely not been there yesterday. She tried to shield her eyes while at the same time peeking through her fingers, her inquisitive nature getting the best of her.
"Oh crap! Your hand, Nikki! What the heck did you do?" She looked at her hand and looked back at us, mouth half agape. "There's nothing to see here, Nikki. Your V-card is still intact, but your parents are going to kill you and me because I brought you here. They are going to hate me. Where's Nate and what the heck happened to you two except the obvious?" She opened her eyes and saw I was still fully clothed, although Matt sat up shirtless, and she looked at me to make sure her eyes had not deceived her and pants were still definitely on with both parties.
"See, it's a normal consequence of Vegas, so why fight it?" Matt took the opportunity and threw it out to me again: "Marry me?"
Nikki looked between us, not knowing what was going on but still panicked about her own predicament. "Sit down and start from the beginning." I calmly asked her and took her hand as she crawled in next to me. She looked at Matt pointedly and said in a clear, crisp voice, "You may want to go wake Nate up and see where his head is at," strongly hinting that he should leave the room.
Matt looked back at her. "I'm good where I am, thanks. Your husband's not a morning person and usually is a little grizzly before his 3rd cup of coffee after a hard night out. He likes 3 sugars and creamer in case you haven't gotten to that part of 'knowing you better' yet. I didn't hear much of what was said last night; I really didn't hear very many words at all, to be honest.” He laughed as she aimed a pillow in his general direction, which he easily caught and propped up behind him to sit up more comfortably. I think I drooled a little while staring at him. He had a dark tan going on and slight highlights in his hair, they looked natural, almost like he spent most of his time in the sun. His happy trail led down beneath his boxers with the same light brown hair color on his head; my mouth felt dry, and it felt as if the heat had been turned up a notch.
I turned to look at Nikki to get my brain out of the gutter and my libido under control. Nikki's face only got paler at Matt's comment. "Shit, why did you let me out of your sight? I remember flashes after you sat down and we started shots. Why did you let me drink so much?" She looked at me for an answer
"Hey, you ran off with a lover boy, not me. I still sat there waiting for you an hour after you left with no word. You said you were going dancing and vanished. Plus, I don't remember holding you down and force-feeding you shots; you're a big girl, and you're older than me, so you should be making better choices," I retorted.
"I am so screwed! Do you think these kinds of things are really legit? Like ‘till death do us part,' or is it just a gag thing? We get a good laugh out of this and go our separate ways, never to hear from each other again, and it was all good fun.” She looked at me to be the voice of logic and hope.
"I remember Nate saying, 'Let's get married.' For some reason my brain went fuzzy after that, and I told him, 'Why not?' I remember us looking for a chapel; you know, there really are tons here, like almost one on every corner. I remember Dolly officiating, you know how I am about Dolly, and I remember the 'I do's.' I remember Nate kissing me, and we somehow got back here, and then I remembered..." She blushed bright red at that, redder than a firework on the 4th of July. "Oh sweet Jesus, you all heard that. Kill me now and bury me in the desert; tell my parents I loved them and went out in a ball of flames." She couldn't look us in the eye or even in our general direction at whatever she remembered.
Matt took the opportunity to butt in. "I feel offended; I should have at least been the best man. Or we could have at least made it a double wedding!" He exclaimed. "I heard a lot worse in college, so don't stress; these walls were at least a lot thicker than the house we rented."
Nikki looked at him open-mouthed, then looked at my hands for a ring. "Noooo!" I rushed out. "Nothing like that happened with us, although Matt here believes it's meant to be, and I think I'm on the third count on him asking me now." I laughed out loud.
"Well, you really aren't making it easy on me with this whole romantic gesture of mine." He smiled next to me. "I keep telling you that you're the one I want, and you keep dropping me like my love means nothing. "I gave him a small tap on the arm.
"This is serious, Matt. Nikki's parents really are going to freak the heck out. Her dad is a sheriff and can shoot a gun and take out a needle from 100 feet, and her mom is a judge, so you know he can claim temporary insanity and get away with it." I looked at him sternly.
"I don't think it works that way, sweetheart. Usually, they get a different judge in for the trial due to a conflict of interest. Plus, Nate is surprisingly a good catch; he has a good degree, a great job, is hardworking, and has strong family values. You could have done a lot worse than him." We both just stared at him; there were no words.
Next door, through the wall to Nikki's room, we heard loud cursing. "Shit! Fuck! Dammit!" The sound of someone hitting the floor, really hard, and a few more curses.
"You had better go check on your husband! I think he broke something." Matt laughed as Nikki rushed back to her room.
"You know, if we tied the knot today, we could share an anniversary with them." He said, in all seriousness under his breath