Waking up in Vegas

Cassie and I met at Gianni’s Italian restaurant for our weekly date night. We made a pact to always get together at least once a week no matter what was going on in our lives for some girl time. We had decided to do it when we were in high school when Cassie joined the cheerleading squad and I started working. We got so busy that we went weeks without seeing each other out of school and it just wasn’t okay for either of us.

Now I had been busy with John and trying to get the stupid Vegas marriage annulled and I had kind of blown off my friends. And I felt like a major bitch about it. So that night at Gianni’s was the first time I had seen Cassie in a week. Usually we didn’t go more than two days without seeing each other.

I greeted her with a hug before we made our way inside. We sat down and looked at the menus while we waited for our waiter to take our order.

“Long time, no see stranger,” Cassie said with a smile when we got settled in.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry. But it’s good to see you.”

We ordered our food and made small talk and caught up with what we had missed in the last week. We finally got our food and ate and talked some more. She told me about going out with Jayla and the hot guys they had met at the bar and I told her about going rollerblading with John.

We were both laughing and having a good time until I mentioned John, and Cassie rolled her eyes.

“Dude, it’s been what? A month? Since John came back to Arizona. Why are you still married?”

“Why do you care so much?” I snapped before I could help it.

“Whoa, calm down there. I’m just asking a question, no need to bite my head off.”

“I’m sorry Cass.” I sighed. “It’s not like I haven’t been trying. But every time I go to talk to John about it we end up talking about something else or doing something else. And then by the time we’re done neither one of us wants to talk about the marriage thing anymore.”

“You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with him.”

“Yeah because I’m trying to get this thing annulled,” I said, almost trying to convince myself more than her. There had maybe definitely become some other motives. But I didn’t think Cassie had any room to talk. “This is your fault anyways! You’re the one who made me go to Vegas! You’re the one who made me do things I regret! You’re the one who chose him for me to make out with and got me drunk enough to do it! And none of this would have ever happened if it weren’t for you!”

“Seriously, Kendall, calm down! I’m sorry okay? I just don’t want you to get hurt by getting too attached to this guy and then having it end badly. I think it would be better to get it over and done with like you had planned originally.”

“Well, maybe I think you should mind your own business for once.” I grabbed my stuff and stormed out the door.

As pissed as I was for Cassie trying to butt into something that didn’t really concern her, her words had really gotten to me. Had it really been a month? This thing was supposed to be taken care of in a day, two tops. And now a month had passed and I had somehow forgotten all about it. I knew that I just needed to get it over and done with before it was too late. So I made up my mind and got into my car, heading off to John’s house to get this marriage annulled once and for all.

“Hey Kendall! What’s up?” John greeted me with a smile after I knocked on the door. I walked into his apartment with a frown on my face and went straight to the couch, sitting down and motioning for John to do the same.

“John we really need to talk about this. Do you realize how long it’s been since you’ve been back in Arizona?” It looked like the gears were turning in his head and he finally nodded. “So why are we still married?”

He was silent for a few minutes and it looked like he was really thinking.

“I don’t know,” he finally said and it seemed like he had more to say. So I waited for him to elaborate but he left it at that.

“John this is getting ridiculous!” I hadn’t meant to yell at him but I was still pissed off over mine and Cassie’s confrontation. I hated fighting with her and I hated it even more this time because I knew that everything she said made complete sense, but I was just mad that she was trying to tell me what to do. I knew it was dumb that John and I were still married. And he had to know it too, but he just seemed so god damned oblivious.

I lowered my voice and continued. “I looked some things up online and we just need to go to the courthouse and fill out some papers. And I think we might have to mail them to Vegas since that’s where it happened but that shouldn’t be too difficult. Do you wanna go to the library to print them out?”

I looked at John expectantly but he didn’t answer. He just stared at me silently for a couple minutes. I was about to start yelling again when he finally spoke up.

“Do you just wanna stay married?”

“What?!” I couldn’t help but shout that time. Now John was just being crazy.

“I mean like we could date. Be like boyfriend and girlfriend. We have fun together and I really like hanging out with you and talking to you. We could just wait to annul it and pretend like we’re just dating each other and see how things go. I know it seems backwards but every time we've gotten together to talk about it we somehow always end up talking about something else and it never happens. And it’s been a month Kendall! You just said so yourself! Maybe that's a sign!”

“Are you high?” I really just couldn’t think of anything else to say. I didn’t understand what other reason there could be for him saying something so absolutely crazy like that.

He laughed and his smile was kind of maybe starting to make me think it wasn’t all that crazy.

“I'm not high. I'm just saying. It's an idea.”

I sat silently thinking about it. Everything he had said was true and I really enjoyed my time I spent with him. I knew it was crazy because we had gotten married when we were complete strangers, and not to mention completely blackout drunk. But I couldn't deny there was some sort of chemistry between us.

“John, this isn’t something we should just go into carelessly! This is marriage!”

“I’m not going into this carelessly Kendall. I’m not a careless person. I never go into anything I’m not sure of. Trust me, I’ve thought about this. Look, I like you okay? I’m afraid that if we do get this thing annulled, then we won’t ever talk to each other again. I don’t want to stop spending time with you.”

“We can still be friends. We don’t have to be married to spend time together.”

“Do you honestly think that you’re going to want to spend time with your ex-husband?”

“Come on, like it’s really the same thing,” I said and rolled my eyes.

“Oh, it will be the same thing. We’ll start to resent each other because you get to keep the house and I have to pay alimony and I only get to see the kids every other weekend but only if it’s supervised by you and you’ll just hover the whole time and it will never be the same.”

“Really?” I asked, rolling my eyes again.

“Come on Kendall! Let’s do it! Let’s stay married! Please,” he added with a pouty face and puppy dog eyes and honestly, how could I say no to that face.

“Ok,” I said simply and that was that. We were going to stay married for the time being but we were going to act like we were dating.

John broke out into a huge grin, grabbed my face in his hands, and pressed his lips against mine. It was the first sober kiss we had had and it was definitely the best.

“Mmm, I could get used to that,” I said with a grin of my own when we pulled away.

“And you shall.” He kissed me again and I was thinking that this staying married thing might just be the best idea John had ever had.