Page 5 of One Vow

Well, of course, there was more. Why wouldn’t there be? Otherwise, he could’ve handled this news with an invitation, or an announcement sent through the US Postal Service. “Okay.”

One-word answers in a squeaky tone were about all I could manage.

“Our divorce is…apparently, we’re still married. After I signed them and sent them back, did you file the papers?”

My mouth dropped open. He was accusing me? Making this my fault? “Of course, I filed the papers.”

The ones he’d mailed back to me. I’d opened them and a bottle of tequila at the same time, but I clearly remembered waking up early, rolling out of bed, throwing up…everything else was a blur but I would’ve never hung onto them considering how badly I wanted him to know I wanted to be free of him. I had to have filed them. And no way in hell did I burn those papers in the fireplace. That part had been a dream. A weird little drunken dream.

Oh shit.

“So, we’re still married?”

He ran his hands through his hair.

“I’m supposed to get married on Christmas Eve.” But if I had to give my opinion under oath in a court, I would have had to say he didn’t look so happy or excited about it. “I’m supposed to be spending Christmas in Hawaii. With my wife.”

“Awesome. I just got a new swimsuit, it was on clearance online…” And my laughter might have been inappropriate considering this was probably, I was willing to admit to about ninety-four percent certain, my fault.

“Oh relax. You can still marry her. It just won’t be official yet.” He shot me a glare, and I rolled my eyes in response. “Don’t worry. Your little St. Nick is still gonna get his jolly in Paradise. We just have to go to the courthouse tomorrow. We’ll talk to the judge and I’ll explain. They’re very sympathetic around here to stupid mistakes. Remember?”

Okay. That part was just nasty. “We’ll get divorced in time for your wedding. Don’t worry.”

“It’s going to be that easy, huh?” He cocked one eyebrow over the eyes I’d never gotten over and I could’ve swooned.

But didn’t. “It was that easy to get married, right?”

One Decade Ago

Most days I felt lucky that I answered the ad Sofia Marks hung in the student union for a roommate. Today was not one of those days. She was on her kick again. The Felicity had no life kick. No friends besides her kick. No fun little one-night stands with fraternity boys kick.

I couldn’t argue because I didn’t drink or smoke, and I was always home on school nights tucked into bed at a very respectable 11:30. And as chancellor of Glouster University, my dad couldn’t have been prouder, but Sofia made fun of these attributes like they were afflictions. And today I was with her. Today, I wanted the college experience. I wanted to act out. Sow a wild oat, for once in my life.

Sofia Marks was a vlog goddess with hundreds of thousands of followers who stuck around to find out her opinions and to see what pranks and stunts she might pull at any given time. She didn’t follow a schedule, didn’t have a category of topics she followed, and didn’t have any sort of filter as far as what opinions she expressed. But people loved her. Funny. Pretty. Intelligent. All the best adjectives fit her. Plus, she was blonde, built like a stripper, and had no lack of nightlife or party life or life in general. Our friendship and the fact we’d become so close defied all logic.

“I’m just saying,” and she’d been saying it for the last hour and a half, “that you spend so much time studying and trying to please your daddy that you have missed out on one of the great college experiences. It’s our senior year, Felicity, live a little, for once.”

I hardly thought of hooking up with a frat boy as one of the great college experiences, but what did I know? And today, she was preaching to the very bored, very enthusiastic choir. “All right, then. Let’s do this.”

“Ah, grasshopper. Nothing is as simple as I make it seem.” She’d already dressed me in jeans tight enough the world could see…my thoughts, and a shirt short enough my sheer lace bra threatened to play peek-a-boo if I so much as lifted my arm to my shoulder, and boots with a heel that could be used as a lethal weapon.

“We need to finesse this situation.” She held her phone out in front of her as if she was selfie-ing. “And today’s Kiss cam feature is my beautiful, and oh-so-charming best friend.”

She angled the phone toward me. “World, this is Felicity. Felicity, say hi to the world.”

I waved. “Hello, world.”

My enthusiasm, however, hit the skids and began to fade as it misted into a fine vapor. But I pasted on my best smile and crinkled my fingers at her camera like I was all in. Because if I didn’t, we’d end up reshooting this scene a couple hundred times until I cooperated. Until the butterflies in my belly turned to rabid bats and I passed out from the stress of this whole thing. How she got me to agree to this, I would never know.

“And the unsuspecting subject of today’s segment is…,” She let the camera pan the area then turned to me and smiled. “Oh, girl. Are you ever in luck today?”

She pinched the screen to zoom in on her target. “A genius with a jockstrap. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Today’s subject is the much sought-after Finn Makenzie. Tall, handsome, born to delight the ladies with his adorable smile, his uber-sexy charm, and his super big…”

The pause was intentional and suggestive. She certainly knew how to lead her audience on. “…brain.”

She smiled that come-hither smile, and I knew the masses hithered.

“Ordinarily, I would have my bestie making the day of a Dungeons and Dragons half-vampire, but this is a woman who has denied herself the joys of college, the frat parties, the frat guys.” She winked big and exaggerated.