“So it was an opposites attract situation?” Shepherd asks.
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“I just mean that Millie is fun, outgoing, adventurous, and kind. And you’re serious, responsible, and well…a bit boring.” Shepherd smiles when he calls me boring, knowing that I’m going to punch him for that later.
“I just mean your life is so routined, and hers isn’t. How does that work?”
I realize that I know practically nothing about Millie’s life. I don’t know what she does for a living. I don’t even know if she lives in Santa Barbara with me so that my meet-cute story could be true or not. And I sure didn’t take Millie for adventurous and spontaneous. To me, she’s just sweet, kind, adorably sexy, Millie.
“Ooh, show us the ring!” Oaklee squeals.
Millie holds out her hand, and all the bridesmaids swarm. Oohing and awing over the ring I must have bought her. I don’t know how much it cost me, but it doesn’t matter. I have more money than I know what to do with.
“When did you propose?” Oaklee asks.
“Weeks ago. We just didn’t want to overshadow your big day.”
“That’s so romantic.”
“Why’d you get married so fast?” Val asks.
“Well, we were in Vegas and thought, what the heck? All our friends were here to celebrate with. And we just knew now was the time. We didn’t want to wait,” I say.
One of the bridesmaids rubs her tummy as if to ask if Millie is pregnant.
I glare at her. “No, that’s not what this is. We are in love. We didn’t want to wait,” I say to her sternly through a tightened jaw.
She drops it.
Just then, brunch arrives. Everyone turns their attention to the food, so the conversation turns away from us.
Oaklee takes this moment to move to our table, though, leaving us no room for alone time.
Just a little bit longer, I think. Once this meal is over, everyone will go their separate ways, leaving Millie and I time to get our marriage annulled quietly and spread rumors that we decided to be just friends. And more importantly, give me time to win our bet. I may not fuck women more than once, but with Millie, I’d like to make an exception since neither of us can remember our first time.
“Where’s Boden?” Millie asks Oaklee.
I frown at Millie. It’s not really the most important question to be asking Oaklee when we have her all alone to ourselves right now. The questions we should be asking are what happened last night and how in the world did we end up married.
Oaklee sighs. “He’s gone.”
“Gone? How could that be? Last we saw you two you were making out and—“ Millie says.
“And then we had an epic fight and decided to break up for good.” A tear escapes Oaklee’s eyes, and Millie grabs her and pulls her into a tight hug.
“Oh, Oaklee, I’m so sorry. What do you need? What can I do to make this better for you? Do we need to go up to the room and order gallons of ice cream?”
“No, nothing like that. Just keep being the center of attention. No one asks about Boden when they are focused on the surprise wedding of the century.”
“Oaklee, about that…”
“We will keep all the focus on us, don’t worry,” I wink at Oaklee, and she smiles back.
“I knew you two would make the perfect match for each other. I just didn’t realize you were dating. You were so mean to each other,” Oaklee says, giving Millie a sly smile.
Millie exchanges a glance with me. “Yea, well, we were trying to keep our relationship on the down-low.”
“I’m glad you aren’t doing that anymore. I told everyone Boden is in our room sick with the same bug that I had and that we will reschedule or have a smaller wedding later. But it isn’t true. He’s probably at a strip club and already found another woman he’s fucking by now.”