Married as a Dare? Sorry, It's for Life novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Dare at the Counter
On Valentine's Day Britt and her best friend Bowen file for a marriage license as a lost dare, and Nathan ends the engagement in front of the courthouse. The application is dated three weeks earlier.
On Valentine's Day, Nathan Ellery was at his window in the Marlow County courthouse when his fiancee walked in to buy a marriage license.
Britt had a man with her.
The man was Bowen Sorensen, her best friend since high school.
Nathan had a stack of birth certificates in one hand and a heart-shaped candy in his mouth, a gift from the woman at the next window.
He swallowed the candy.
"Hi, baby," Britt said, with her biggest smile.
She slid her driver's license across the counter.
"Don't be mad. I lost a game of Truth or Dare."
Nathan looked at the license, then at her.
"The penalty is I have to be married to Bowen," Britt said. "For one year. Then we split and it's over."
Behind them, the line of people waiting for passports went quiet.
Nathan waited for the end of the joke.
Britt waited for him to laugh.
"It's paper," she said. "Bowen's practically my brother. We'll do our wedding in June like nothing happened."
Nathan looked at Bowen.
Bowen stood a step behind her in a rumpled white shirt, with his hands in his jacket pockets and his eyes on the counter.
For a year, that same man had come to this window every Thursday to pay a parking fine that never seemed to get paid off.
He bought two coffees each time, one for himself and one for Nathan.
Black for him.
Nathan's had two sugars.
Today he had not looked up once.
"Bowen," Nathan said.
Bowen's jaw moved.
"Don't," Britt said, and laughed. "He's weird when people watch him. He's fine."
She pulled the form out of her bag and set it down.
It was already filled in.
Nathan turned it so he could read it.
Her name was in blue ink and Bowen's name was next to it in black.
"I can't issue this," he said. "I'm not allowed to process my own fiancee."
"Then process me as a stranger," Britt said. "It's literally a dare, Nate."
"You didn't lose a dare to me," he said. "You lost it to the whole county."
He turned in his chair and raised his voice enough to carry.
"Ma'am, can you take the next window? This is a conflict."
His supervisor looked up from her desk and froze.
"Nathan," Britt said, still smiling. "Don't make this weird."
Nathan held out his palm.
"The ring," he said.
Britt stared at him.
Then she twisted it off her finger, annoyed, and dropped it into his hand.
It was a plain gold band with a small stone, and he had paid six thousand dollars for it.
"Our engagement is over," he said. "Starting right now."
Britt's smile slipped for the first time.
"You're being dramatic."
"I'm being clear."
"It's a year!"
"Then you won't need me for it."
A man in the passport line coughed into his hand.
Someone in the back had already taken out a phone.
Nathan looked straight at Britt and said, "You don't get to marry another man in my courthouse, take my last name off the wedding invitations and ask me to wait."
"Bowen," Britt said. "Say something."
Bowen looked up.
For half a second his green eyes met Nathan's, and something in them looked wrecked.
Then he dropped his gaze again.
"Britt told me it'd be fine," Bowen said to the counter.
It was the first thing he had said.
"Nate," he said, to the brass nameplate with Nathan's name on it, in a voice so low it barely reached. "I'm sorry."
Britt waved that away with her whole hand.
"He's just awkward. Are you going to sign or what?"
Bowen picked up the pen.
He signed on the line with his fist clenched so tight the knuckles went white.
Britt signed her own name quickly, with a flourish on the B.
Nathan's supervisor came around the counter, took the form with two fingers and waved the couple to her desk.
Nobody looked at him.
Everyone was looking at him.
He stood, took his lanyard off over his head and set it on the desk.
"I'm taking my lunch," he said.
Nobody in the courthouse said a word as he walked out.
He made it to the stairwell before his hands began to shake.
He had taken a quick photo of the form before his supervisor carried it off, out of reflex, the way he photographed every odd filing.
He opened it and zoomed in on the top corner.
Under Britt's blue ink was a line he had not read at the counter.
It was the date the application was started.
It said January 20.
Three weeks before the dare.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend