The Marriage Dare

Very gently, I lift my arm out from underneath her, and replace it with the pillow. I make sure that she is cradled with pillows and blankets before I leave the bed. Monica’s breath is deep and even, and I am extremely satisfied that I can make her pass out so thoroughly. I hope that I can fuck her to sleep like that every night of our lives.

After she had already drifted off to asleep, I told her that I loved her. I know that I’m a coward for not saying it to her face, but I wanted to hear how it sounded out loud first. I like saying it. I like the way it feels.

Pulling on some sweatpants, I noticed my wedding ring. I don’t normally wear rings, and this is going to take some getting used to. But I’ll gladly do it.

I retrieve my suit jacket from the floor in the living room, and get my cell phone out of the pocket. I also get our signed marriage license out of it so that I can give it to my lawyer. As predicted, my phone has half a dozen calls and just as many texts from Rose. I pour myself a drink before I dial her number, and sit on the couch. I could easily go for a nap just like Monica, but this needs to be dealt with. The media never sleeps.

Rose speaks as soon as the line connects. “What in the ever-loving fuck did you do, Daniel?”

“I thought I paid you enough money not to swear at me.”

“I will swear at you as much as I damn well please when you do something like this to me.”

I cringe. “How bad is it?”

“Let me summarize it for you, shall I? He was spotted this morning going into a diamond store with the daughter of one of America’s most infamous white-collar criminals. Not even an hour later you were seen getting into a fight with this woman’s ex-boyfriend, son of one of America’s most powerful industry tycoons. And when you reached the hotel, the pictures show you with the same woman, but now you’re both wearing wedding rings. How bad would you say that is?”

“The fight is bad,” I say. “I don’t see a problem with the rest of it. So I got married? Who cares.”

“A lot of people fucking care, Daniel. You are one of the country’s youngest, best looking entrepreneurs. Oh, and you happen to be a billionaire. You don’t think people are going to freak out a little bit about you marrying the daughter of someone who swindled thousands of people out of their livelihoods and savings?”

“She had nothing to do with it. I don’t see how that matters.”

Rose sighs, and I can practically see her rubbing the bridge of her nose. “If you had perhaps called me first? We could’ve gotten out of this. We could have implemented the plan that would’ve turned public opinion. Had something like a big wedding, repackaged her into America’s sweetheart. The wronged bride finally has her happy ending.”

I take a sip of my drink and look out over the city. “We’re going to have a wedding. It’s going to be beautiful, and I’m sure the pictures will recover some of that damage. But we are not going to repackage her as anything. Monica is who she is, and she spent her entire life being packaged to suit other people’s palettes. I’m not going to do that to her.”

Rose doesn’t speak for a moment, and when she does her voice is soft. “Is this for real, Daniel? Like, is this the real thing? If it is, you know that I’ll do whatever I can to help you. But if this is some drunken mistake that’s going to end up in a divorce that will rival Charles and Diana, tell me now.”

“It’s the real thing,” I say. “Monica and I knew each other when we were younger. We reconnected and we decided to get married. It’s as simple as that.” I leave out the rest of it, because winning someone’s hand in marriage in hand of poker isn’t good PR. Plus, it’s nobody’s business how or why we reconnected.

She sighs. “Fuck. Okay, the video of you sucker punching that guy is already all over the Internet. People were filming.”

“Of course they were,” I say, taking another sip of my drink. “It’s Las Vegas. They probably thought it was some kind of show until later.”

“It doesn’t matter what they thought,” she says. “All that matters is that that video will be all over the news tonight, if we don’t have something to combat it with. What the hell did he say to you to make you hit him?”

I tell her. Every single word. It’ll be burned in my brain for a long time. But I think I can actually hear Rose smiling. “Well, shit. I can definitely work with that. That’s an easy spin into defending her honor, and it will lay some of the groundwork for the rest of it. And you guys are already married?”