Page 19 of Marry Me, Right Now

I gave her hand a little squeeze, then released it. It was really hard to keep myself from comforting her when she looked distressed.

She nodded. “I realize that I’m a complete hypocrite for saying this, given the current situation, but I’ve always thought of marriage as once and done.”

“I agree completely. Two years ago, my friend got married to the girl he had been dating for about two years, and everything looked perfect. They got divorced one year and one week later, because they had fundamental differences about how to raise children.”

“A year and a week? That’s weirdly specific.”

I chuckled. “Apparently one of those manners experts says that if you divorce within the year you’re supposed to give the gifts back.”

The look on Mia’s face was absolutely hilarious. She looked like she had been slapped. “You must be joking.”

“No, I’m totally serious, unfortunately. They got married, yet never had that conversation about their beliefs on child-rearing.”

“Not to mention, the gifts were so important to them that they stuck it out for another few months or whatever?”

“Apparently. I saw their gift registry, and they definitely raked in well over a million. Their wedding was a gigantic production.”

I could see the shudder rattle down her spine. “Disgusting,” she practically spat.

“Tell me,” I joked, “How do you really feel about this?”

She giggled. “I know. But damn, you must realize that the amount of money being blatantly wasted by people like that is practically criminal.”

“Yeah,” I agreed noncommittally. “It’s weird, and I do mention it occasionally. But it’s going to take a long time to break some people’s habits. Or even make them aware that there is a problem to begin with.”

She took a long slow breath. “This is going to be extremely difficult for me at times, but don’t worry, I will manage to stick with the mission. “

I stopped my hand from reaching out to her this time. “As long as we stick together, and keep joking about our mission, it’s going to be okay.”

“Agreed. All right, so what’s our big excuse for having to get married so quickly?”

We both stared out the window for a minute as if the clouds held the answers, thinking as hard as we could.

“Is there anything to do with your work?” she asked. “Like, are married people taken more seriously, and it would further your career?”

“Good thinking,” I said, “But company has my name. I’m already sort of top of the ladder there.”

“I guess I don’t need an excuse,” she said sadly. “Everyone will just assume that I’m latching onto you because I need the money.”

“We won’t let them think that,” I said gently. “Sure, they might at first, and there’s nothing we can do about that. But we are going to fake our magical love so well that there will be no doubt in their minds.”

She shot me a little sideways glance that made me laugh. “Yes, we are going to become the best actors in the land.” Her voice took on a cheesy bad actor tone, as she over-enunciated each word. “Our love will be that of legend. Tomes shall be written about the exquisite manner in which we met and married in less than a month.”

I cracked up, and she sipped her coffee while I caught my breath. “If nothing else, we’re going to laugh our asses off this year.”

“The year,” she said, staring into space. “And the month.”

“Go on,” I said softly, realizing that she was forming an idea.

She grabbed her phone, opening the calendar. “It’s two thousand and nineteen. In a week and a half, it’s September ninth. The ninth day of the ninth month, in two thousand nineteen.” She wrote down the numbers, staring at them. “My birthday is on September twenty-seventh. Twenty-seven is three times nine, in the ninth month. When is your birthday?”

“March ninth,” I answered, hoping that it was a helpful date.

Her face lit up with delight. “The third month and the ninth day!” she squealed. “So Sept

ember ninth is the perfect date for the two of us numerically!”

“Wow. You’re a genius.” The way she positively beamed was adorable. Then my brain started racing further. “Are you into numerology?”

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