Page 4 of Hot Shot

She smiles, pulling out my hair tie, and gasping when she shakes out my unruly red hair. “Goddamn, girl. It would cost a grand to get my hair this color. And there’s somuchof it!”

“A blessing and a curse.”

“Alwaysa blessing to have hair like that.”

“Tell that to my mom’s vacuum graveyard.”

She giggles. “And funny too. You’re a catch. Are you nervous?”

I think about it. “Only because we’re doing something so wild. Not because it’s him. I’d marry him a thousand times.”

She sighs, her face all moony. “That’s so sweet, and he’s so hot. Good job, girl.” She hip bumps me as a light flashes over the chapel doors. “Oh! That’s your cue!” When she reaches for the handle, she pauses. “You know, I see a lot of people get married…I don’t think most of them last a day. But I have a good feeling you’re going to be married a long, long time.”

I smile through the pain of my broken heart. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, honey. Now just walk down that aisle and sayI do.”

She opens the doors.

I almost black out.

“I’m A Believer” by The Monkees plays in the hot pink chapel, the caged go-go dancers on either side of the pulpit shimmying. Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, stands at the end of the aisle looking groovy in a purple and pink striped suit. And standing next to him is Wilder.

Something in his face twists up my heart, knots my throat. His dusty brown hair a little mussed, his whiskey colored eyes pinning me, his broad shoulders tight.

“Well, go on, honey—move!” The Fembot nudges me from behind to get me going.

I laugh. Wilder laughs. Austin says, “Yeah, baby!”

And then I’m standing in front of my future husband.

Obviously there wasn’t time to write vows, so we decided to wing it, and as I stand there with my hands in his, my mind blazes with things I want to say, need to say.

But he beats me to it.

His eyes are on our hands, his thumb stroking the back of mine. “I always knew we’d end up here somehow, though I never thought it’d be in Vegas, and I definitely never thought it’d only be for a night. I want you forever. I want you watching me carve a turkey for our family to eat at Thanksgiving. I want you getting onto me for throwing a red in the wash with the whites. I want every birthday, every Christmas, every morning and night. But I’ll take this. I’ll take tonight. I’ll take everything you’ll give me with thanks, because I love you, Cass. And I’ll love you until the day I die.”

A Fembot hands him the ring, and he slides it on my finger. But when Austin turns to me, I can’t speak. I’m too busy blubbering.

Another Fembot hands me a tissue and pats me on the shoulder.

“Thank you,” I squeak, dabbing at my face before glancing around for a trashcan. There isn’t one, of course. The Fembot sighs and sticks out her hand for it.

“Don’t cry,” Wilder says, his voice rough. “Please, don’t cry.”

“I-I’m sorry. I just love you so much and I hate that we have to leave each other. I know we said there’s no way, but there has to be.” I sob, gulp, and continue. “I’ll quit school. I won’t go. I’ll come to Auburn with you and we’ll f-figure it out. I can’t be without you, Wilder. I just can’t. I won’t.”

He takes my face in his hands, kisses the cool tracks of tears on each cheek, then my lips with sweet tenderness while I choke back sobs.

“By the power vested in me by the groovy state of Nevada—”Austin starts.

“No, wait—those weren’t my vows!”

“I now pronounce you man and wife!”

My Fembot nudges my arm with Wilder’s ring, and stunned, I slip it onto his finger.

“Can I get a do-over?” I ask.

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