While I kept my feelings to myself, I could almost always determine what they were. But as I sat in the first-class seat on my flight back to New York, I couldn't figure out what the hell I was feeling. Was I a fucking idiot? I mean, who in reality ended up accidentally married in Vegas? Sure, there were tons of people who got married on a whim and discovered the next day that it was a mistake, but they'd still known they got married. How could I have done it and have no memory of it? The only thing that made any sense to me was either I drank too much or I was drugged and somehow coerced into it. If that was the case, that would mean that Amelia had to be a part of it. But to what end? She hadn't asked me for anything, and in fact, seemed just as eager to get unhitched.
But among those feelings of stupidity and suspicion, there were other feelings. Like guilt for leaving Amelia to fix an issue that I was a part of. Disappointment that I wouldn’t see her again unless, of course, we had to go to court together.
Somewhere over the Mississippi, I realized that it was the feelings of disappointment that were really fucking me up. I really didn't like the idea that I wasn't going to see Amelia again.
By the time I arrived in New York and made it to my apartment, the practical adult side of me had finally won over. My time with Amelia was awesome. I would remember it for a long time to come. But these feelings I had for her, whatever they were, weren't love, and the way we were together wasn't sustainable. It was like going to an amusement park and riding all the best rides. You could do it for a day, but you couldn't live there day after day.
When I went to bed that night, I had finally understood what it meant when they said what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas because that was how I was thinking about Amelia. It was a wild and raucous time that I would never forget, but now I was home and in the real world.
CHAPTERSIX
Amelia
I should have said no to Max's idea of another date yesterday at breakfast. If I had, we wouldn't be in this predicament. Funny how my hesitation at the time was due to the fact that I liked Max a lot but wouldn't be able to commit to anything. As it turned out, my worry should have been accidentally ending up married. But what was done was done. Going back over what I should have done wasn’t going to fix what I did.
I turned my attention back to my computer where I was supposed to be working. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop thinking about my predicament and what Max and I were going to do about it. When I arrived home after he left for his flight, I began the research for the annulment, and while the process was straightforward, it wasn't without its complications.
At first, I thought it would be easy enough when I saw that if the other party didn't show up for the annulment hearing, the judge would automatically grant it. I could file, and if Max didn't come, it would be done. The only problem was that I needed to meet one of the grounds for annulment. The closest was “want of understanding”, which basically meant I didn’t know what I was doing. But I wasn’t sure drunkenness counted. After all, people who got drunk married usually did it because it sounded fun at the time. Clearly, that suggested knowing what was going on.
But I had no clue what happened. The last thing I could remember was sitting in Max's lap in the back of the limo. To have gotten married, we would've had to have gone to the County Clerk's office to get a license, and then to a chapel to get married. Surely, I would've remembered doing either of those two things. While I’d never blacked out before, what else could it have come from except drinking too much? There was no other explanation.
Thinking about it, how did Max and I get from the limo to the bed? Under normal circumstances, I might have thought Max drugged me, but for one, he didn't need to do that to get lucky with me, and he knew it. And two, he seemed as shocked as I was to discover we were married. In fact, he practically accused me of duping him into marriage. So, what the hell happened last night?
Since I didn't think I had the grounds to say I was incapacitated simply from drinking too much, Max would have to be the one to file the papers. He said he had dyslexia, and being drunk would have made it impossible for him to read and understand what he was signing. That gave him better cause to claim a want of understanding than I had. I wasn't sure the judge would accept that, but it was worth a try if Max was willing to file the papers instead of me.
Researching the filing process, it looked like he could obtain and fill out the papers online, but he’d need to be here to file them unless, of course, he got a local lawyer. But Max and I agreed that the fewer people who knew about this, the better. Lawyers were bound by attorney-client privilege, but still, I didn’t think either of us wanted to risk it. God, if James found out, he’d probably laugh his ass off.
Continuing to read through the annulment information, I learned that once the papers were submitted and the other party was served, it was just a matter of waiting for the court date. According to this website, it would be sometime within ninety days. Ninety days? That could put us to February. Getting a marriage annulled on Valentine's Day. How depressing was that?
Thanksgiving and Christmas were coming, and while my family wasn't big on the holidays, we at least got together for dinner. How was I going to face my family with this hanging over my head? My father was a shrewd man who knew how to read people like no one else. I wasn’t sure I had a good enough poker face to keep him from noticing that something was up with me. And of all the people who could never know about this marriage, my father was top of the list. Dammit, I should have said no to the second date.
Unable to continue to work on it, I pushed this marriage and annulment business to the side to focus on my clients.
When I closed up business for the night, I left my home office and headed to the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of white wine. For a minute, I second-guessed whether I should have any wine or alcohol considering what happened last night. It still made no sense to me how I could have blacked out like that. Yes, I'd had several glasses of wine and that Guinness, so I was feeling warm and loose, but I wasn't staggering drunk. Could that one glass of champagne really have tipped me that far over the edge?
"What the hell. I'm home." I poured myself an ample glass of wine and went to sit at my kitchen table to psych myself up for contacting Max. Only then did I realize two things. One, it was after nine o'clock there. Was that too late to call?
The second issue was that I didn't have his number. I'd been the most intimate with a man that one could be, but I didn't have his phone number. What did that say about me?
I pulled out my phone and did a quick search online for his number, but deep down, I knew I wouldn't be able to find it. Someone like Max Clarke didn't have his private number on display for anyone and everyone to call. The only answer was to call him at work tomorrow. He'd probably hate that because the mistake in Las Vegas would be intruding into his work life in New York, but what other choice did I have?
There was a knock on my door, and my heart leapt in my chest as I imagined Max on the other side of it.
Ugh! Why would I think that? It was another reminder that I really should've said no to that second date.
I went to the front door and opened it.
"Hey, little sis." James’s head tilted to look behind me. "Am I interrupting?"
I stepped aside and opened the door. "Nope. I'm here all alone."
He stepped in looking at the wine I still held in my hand. I was clutching it like a lifeline.
"There's something about drinking by yourself that isn't good."
"Well, I'll pour you a glass and then I won't be drinking by myself."
He grinned. "I thought you would never offer."