“Shut up.” Kathryn giggles. I don’t hear her giggle like that enough. “If I were going to marry any man in this world, it would be you. Just not right now.”
We kiss, her passion outdoing my own at this ungodly hour of noon. I’m hungry. I’ve got thoughts of lunch swimming in my head. I also have to pay my lawyer for his troubles. Yet it’s hard to care about any of that when I’m sitting here, in the middle of Las Vegas, kissing the only woman who truly matters—after my mother, of course. I know she might be reading this!
“Come on,” Kathryn says, swinging her leg over and standing up from the fountain. “Let’s go do some fun stuff. Without alcohol.”
“Without alcohol? Now that’s crazy.”
She jabs me in the shoulder until I get up too. “You owe me a few things.”
“I owe you?”
“Uh huh. We’ve got shows to go to, and I wanna gamble. No more than a hundred-thousand dollars, though.”
“Oh, well, at least you have a reasonable limit. Especially if there’s no alcohol.”
She runs her tongue across her lips, and I admit, all I can think about is taking her back to our hotel room for some extramarital fun. “Maybe later. When there’s no danger of getting married.”
I take her hand as we walk across the plaza. “Right. If we ever get married one day, I want it to be done correctly. Me in a nice suit...”
“Me in a nice dress...”
“Some hookers and blow...”
“It’s the simple things that make a wedding truly great.”
The last thing she tells me before we cross the street is that I kept thinking she wanted drugs that night we were drunk. I ask her what the fuck brought that up. Something about the hookers and blow comment. All I know is that she’s silly, and now I am really craving some Coke.
Damnit, not that kind, Kathryn!
Kathryn
It’s night in Vegas. For the first time in a week, I am able to appreciate the bright, beautiful, colorful lights twinkling outside the hotel window. Room service has come and gone with the champagne I ordered. Ian will protest, but now that this room is in my name, it’s my credit card getting hit by all the room service I’ve ordered this week. It’s sweet he wants to spoil me with his money. Really. Except I’ve got plenty of my own, and sometimes I like to spoil my boyfriend. Or at least have him let me spoil him.
Men. Do I love the dolts or what?
Ian pops the champagne and we sit on the small balcony outside a pair of French doors. I haven’t had the chance to enjoy it out here yet. It’s cold enough—an airy low 60s, but to be fair, the sun is down—to pull a light blanket around our shoulders as we cuddle and sip our champagne. Tomorrow is our last full day in Vegas. Two days from now we’re hopping a private plane back home. Back to the daily grind of writing grants for charities and helping the Mathers with their expanding business. Because at the end of the day, I’m an honorary member of their family, I guess.
There are worse things in this world. I may not be legally bound to them now, outside of the occasional contract or NDA I have to sign for projects, but I still feel like a part of the family. I don’t know what that makes Ian and me. I’m not even going to think about it.
“Here’s to our annulment,” Ian says, holding up his champagne flute for a toast. “May we have many more... wait...”
I laugh, breathing in some of that fine Las Vegas smog. I don’t care. The air may be clearer back home, especially if I’m at the Mathers’ estate out in the countryside, but there’s a lot to be said for this view right now.
“I hope we never have to get another annulment. I’m afraid of what the judge would say.”
“‘Ms. Alison, Mr. Mathers,’” Ian begins, in a deep voice mocking the judge from this morning. “‘Stop using your rich kid privilege to clean up your messes. There are ignorant people in this world who really don’t know any better and need to be up here more than you two heathens. Blah blah rawr rawr.’” He takes a swig of his champagne, and I hurry to refill it for him. Hey, I’ve got the bottle in my hand. Time to do this.
“Can you believe that guy? I mean, yeah, we used our connections to get a quick hearing... not that we should’ve needed a hearing at all... but so would’ve anyone else. Half the people who had a hearing today probably used connections while the others had to wait because they didn’t have any. It’s almost like that’s life.”
Ian shrugs. “He had a point. We are rich. And we were dumb.”
“Let’s not go there. I want to enjoy this champagne with my ex-husband who legally was never my husband.”