Kayla huffed in good-nature, “Just one? Oh, honey…” She laughed unable to carry the joke any further forward. It was too ridiculous to even really comprehend. She knew he hadn’t meant to for her to his comment, but she did. It brought a small smile to her lips, “It’s the name, and design, of the hotel we’re staying in.”
After that, the two parted, Kayla making her way to the closest stop of the monorail. She took her rider card out of her purse, thankful that she hadn’t managed to misplace her cards as she had her sensibilities. She sat down on the plastic bench seat as soon as the doors closed. The sunlight caught on the gold of her finger when the automated transportation started to move down the track. Married… Shaking hands slid the gold ring off of her finger so she could examine it. She held the band up to her eyes; it was a simply ordinary ring from the outside, but then she turned it and spotted an inscription inside: Forever Together. Oh Goodness. She slipped the ring back on her left ring finger and closed her eyes tight as the metro came to a stop at station after station.
Finally, ten minutes later, the eighteen-year-old reached her stop: the Westgate Resort. She was oddly conscious of the fact that she was wearing yesterday’s wrinkled party dress as she walked from the Turnberry Place station to the Circus Circus hotel. Are all eyes on me or is that just in my imagination? Kayla reached her hotel room and was oddly relieved to find all of her friends gone, but then she felt slightly offended. They were in Vegas for her birthday and yet known of them seemed concerned that Kayla had been gone all night with a stranger. Sure, she’d called them, but still… Shouldn’t they be here?
With a sigh, Kayla set about getting cleaned up. it took about thirty-five minutes to get showered, made up, and redressed. She grabbed her purse again and made her back to the lobby; by the time she reached the front entrance Theo was already waiting and together they hailed a cab together to head to their destination. It was a silent, awkward, ride and she was quick to be the one to pay and tip their driver before Theo could even think about it.
Together the two were passed off from person to person in the wedding facility until, after nearly two hours, a very frustrated old man informed them of a new law. They could get an annulment, erasing their marriage completely, but they’d have live together for a year first. The man said ‘a move to try and keep people from thinking of Vegas like a quickie wedding capital.’ As they left the chapel, Kayla only got a few steps before she had to sit down on the stairs into the building.
“What are we gonna do?” She asked miserably. She couldn’t afford a divorce. All her work money was meant for college, her winnings from this weekend too. Asking her parents was out of the question; they would most definitely send her to seminary school if they knew. Yet, she couldn’t exactly live with Theo. For one thing, it was crystal clear he didn’t even want to know her, much less live with her. She couldn’t blame him, either. She was a stranger to him. Just a mistake he made. Kayla didn’t want to ruin his life, infringe upon him for a year; that just wasn’t the type of woman she was.
