He Let Her Rip Our License, So I Married Another Man novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Five O'Clock

They file with two minutes to spare and marry in room B while Cade's friends film. Benedict hands her a ring engraved with her name, three years old.

Benedict put his driver's license on the counter and slid it under the glass.

"Two applicants," he said to the clerk. "She has her papers. I have mine."

The clerk looked at the clock above her head, then at him, then at me.

"Both parties present?"

"Yes," Benedict said.

Cade stepped in front of him.

"Hallie, you're not serious," he said. "He's a stranger. You've never even met him."

"I know," I said. "That's the point."

"This is because of a joke," Cade said, louder. "You're going to marry a man you've never met because of a joke?"

I took the pen the clerk offered and filled in the first line.

My hand was shaking, so I pressed harder.

Cade grabbed my wrist.

"Stop it. Put the pen down."

Benedict did not shout.

He put two fingers on the back of Cade's hand and lifted it off my wrist, and he held it there in the air.

"Let go of my wife's arm," he said.

"She's not your wife," Cade said.

"She will be in about thirty minutes."

Cade pulled his hand free and looked around for his friends.

The tall one had already stepped back.

"Cade, man," he whispered. "That's the Chatsworth. My mother sits on his grandmother's committee."

"Mine too," the one in the green jacket said, and put his phone in his pocket.

The other two found something interesting to look at on the floor.

Brooke did not step back.

She held her phone higher.

"I'm sure the internet would love to see this, Mr. Chatsworth," she said.

Benedict turned his head and looked at her for the first time.

"Which one of you tore up his passport?" he asked.

Brooke's smile stayed on her face, but her phone arm came down a little.

"It was a prank."

"Then keep filming," Benedict said. "I'd like it on record that you thought so."

She kept the phone up.

But she stopped talking.

I signed the second line.

Benedict signed beside me in small, square capitals.

The clerk stamped the form and pushed a paper through the slot.

"Four fifty-nine," she said. "You made it. Ceremonies are in room B until five thirty, and the judge likes to go home on time."

Cade stood in the middle of the hall with his arms hanging at his sides.

"Hallie," he said. "Please. Don't do this in front of everyone."

"You did it in front of everyone," I said.

I walked down the hall with Benedict beside me.

He didn't take my arm.

He didn't touch me at all.

His hands stayed in his pockets, and I understood that he was waiting for me to be the one to move first.

Room B had a long table, a flag, and a judge with a coffee cup.

A security guard and the clerk came in to be our witnesses, and then Brooke and the friends crowded in the doorway, still holding up their phones.

The judge looked at them over her glasses.

"Are those people with you?"

"No," I said.

"Then they can film from the hall."

The guard shut the door in their faces.

I heard Cade's voice through the wood, and then I stopped hearing it.

The judge read two lines I will never remember.

Then she asked Benedict whether he took me, and he said, "I do," before she'd finished the question.

She asked me.

I thought about three years of candles going out on tables.

I thought about the tea on the empty seat, and the flight number that didn't exist.

"I do," I said.

"The rings?" the judge asked.

I hadn't thought about rings.

Benedict took a small velvet box out of his inside pocket and opened it.

The ring was old gold with a single plain stone.

He held it out in his open palm and waited.

I picked it up myself and put it on.

It fit.

"You may kiss your bride," the judge said.

Benedict looked at me.

He did not lean in.

He just waited.

I took one step, and put my hand on his chest, and kissed him.

It was short and warm and he kept his hands at his sides the whole time.

When I stepped back, his ears were red.

Through the narrow window in the door, Brooke was still filming.

Cade was beside her, with his hand over his mouth.

The clerk handed me the paper that made it all real.

I looked at my left hand.

On the inside of the band, small letters were cut into the gold.

HALLIE.

Under it was a date.

It was three years old.

"You had this made before I called," I said.

"My grandmother did," Benedict said. "The day after the dinner. She said you would need it someday."

"Why would she say that?"

He took a moment to answer.

"Ask her," he said. "She's waiting for us at home."

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