Chapter 3

Ethan’s POV

We stepped into a fairly filled bar and sat on a aisle close to the bartender, who looked like he’s had a long night. Noticing us as we sat at the aisle he began approaching us, “Evening Sir, Miss, what can I get you both?” He asked. I turned towards Mellisa, “I know just the perfect drink, may I?” It didn’t look like she in any way trusted my judgment. “Just give it a trial, if you don’t finish it you get to dare me to do anything” Upon hearing that her eyes began to sparkle; she smiled then nodded. “Two Ardbeg scotches please,” I told the waiter.

For someone that looked stressed he was quite fast with his services, I watched Mellisa take her first sip and turned to face me, “ Did you mean to serve me sadness in a martini glass.”

I placed my right hand on my heart faking a wounded expression, “That’s a two hundred year old scotch.” “So it’s dead to social and emotional cues?” I couldn’t help myself, I burst into laughter with tears threatening to fall out of my eyes. When I looked back up, she was slowly sipping her drink with a small smile on her face.

“How long are you in Vegas for?” I asked. “Just until my boss is ready to go, the only reason I’ve been allowed out is because he felt like I’ve been doing a lot recently and he didn’t want to be the reason for me breaking down or crashing out, so here I am!” She exclaimed while getting another order of scotch. “Well I can’t say I regretted coming out tonight, and I can see you like the scotch,” I teased. The night progressed with us talking and laughing - can’t remember when last I felt carefree like this, without the weight of the world hanging on my shoulders. I must say, it’s nice feeling.

We kept ordering and exchanging random jokes, she’d say, “You’re so extra, I’m surprised you don’t fit in a carry-on” to which I’d respond, “You’re so sweet, I’m suprised you don’t have bees following you.”

At this point, I was already feeling tipsy but Madison looked like she was drunk or very close to it, “Maybe you should cut down on the alcohol.” I tried advising her only to get a sultry expression as a response. “Dare me to do something” she suggested. “Whatever is on your mind right now, Do it.” I responded. She moved her face closer to mine, I could feel each of her breath intermingling with mine- see the tiny freckles on her cheek, my heart began to race, this must be it!! Then she utterly surprised by bringing out her tongue and slowly licked the side of my face, winked at me and started laughing loudly, I was so surprised that my only response was to laugh along with her and quench the thirst in my suddenly perched throat with the two drinks in front of me.

“My sister got married last year, this dress was bought for the occasion. Do you ever think of getting married?” she asked. That’s the moment the insane idea suddenly came to my head and although I could hear the angels on my shoulder arguing about the pros and cons of my thought, I still found myself saying, “ Let’s get married now!!”

Her face lit up, “ Now? We don’t have rings or anything.” “ You’re in that gorgeous dress, I’m in this suit- we can just get you a veil and pick rings, let’s get married now!” I found myself saying. “Let’s get married!!” she suddenly leapt off her sit almost colliding with me and the floor - in reflex I quickly stood up to assist her, “Yup, totally drunk,” I thought to myself. Hand in hand we stumbled out of the bar in search of a ring store and found one, two stores down, “ How may I help you two love birds?” the store owner asked with a bright dollar winning smile on her face, which I guess was appropriate since we were here to pay dollars.

“My fiancée and I need rings, we’re about to get married,” I said smiling sweetly at Madison. She caught on just like I knew she would. “That’s right, do you have some bougie rings we can pick through, my fiancé likes the sweeter things in life” she said while lovingly patting my chest. “Of course, I have just the right ring, if you’ll just follow me.” That is how we ended up buying two rings for a wedding we had no officiating minister for. The store-owner must have seen the bewilderment on our faces because she suggested calling a minister from a downtown chapel for us, this must have been a regular occurrence for her.

Long story short, next thing we exchanged, ”I dos” kissed-one of the best kisses I’ve ever had, or maybe that was the alcohol speaking, and we were now Mr. and Mrs. Maverick. I could see the exhaustion on Madison’s face and so I offered to get us room to sleep in, Tom got us a cab and off we went. “Wow,” I said perplexed about how the day turned out only to see that Mellisa has fallen asleep, I adjusted her head to rest on my shoulder and removed the soft strand of her on her face, she really was perfect. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought up the suggestion of getting married while she was drunk, but it felt right and somewhere deep inside I knew this was an opportunity I really needed. I’ll deal with any repercussions that might arise tomorrow, but for now, I’m going to enjoy this moment of peace with my wife.