Dumped at the Courthouse, Married by Noon novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: An Hour and Eleven Minutes

Jean sets her terms, the strangers marry before a judge, and Emmett's grandmother signs as witness just as the arranged bride's father walks in.

I did not say yes.

I said, "That's insane."

"It is," Emmett said. "I'm not going to pretend otherwise."

"You don't know me."

"I know you walked up to a clerk in a wedding dress and cancelled your own wedding without crying."

"I cried in the elevator on the way up. Just a little."

"Then you're ahead of me."

I looked at the trash can, where my bouquet lay on top of my ring.

I thought about my apartment, which Cody's name was still on, half of it.

I thought about a text that said "Don't look for me."

I thought about walking down three flights of stairs in front of two waiting couples with nothing in my hands.

"What happens to you if you don't?" I asked.

"My grandfather's shares stay locked in the trust. My grandmother votes them. The man who holds my brewery's debt calls it in, and we sell."

"The brewery that's been yours how long?"

"Since 1887. My great-great-grandfather started it. I've worked the brew floor since I was sixteen."

He said it plainly, with no speech.

That was what decided me, I think.

He was not selling me a dream.

He was telling me what it cost.

"I have terms," I said.

"Good."

"I'm not marrying you for money. I won't take any. Not a dollar."

"Understood."

"I mean it. If you try to pay me, I'll walk out."

"I wouldn't insult you."

"I have a bad ex and a worse bank account. I'm going to want a lawyer's name from you, and I'll pay the lawyer myself."

"I'll text you three."

"And I stay myself. I keep my job, my apartment, my friends, my last name."

"Of course."

"And you don't touch me unless I ask."

He did not blink.

"That one's easy," he said.

I let out a breath.

"Then I'll do it for a year," I said.

"A year."

"Then I walk away, no hard feelings, no money."

"A year," he said again, as if testing the weight of it. "Agreed."

"This is a terrible idea."

"The worst one I've had all day," he said. "It's a short list."

I laughed, a real one, which startled me.

Then we ran.

He took my elbow, and I let him, because I could not run in the dress otherwise.

The license counter was down the hall, and the line was three people deep.

Emmett walked past the line to the clerk I had just cancelled on.

"Ma'am," he said, "I need a marriage license, for two people who are standing here, in under ten minutes."

She stared at us over her glasses.

"You're the second slot," she said to him. "The groom."

"I am."

"And you're slot nine," she said to me. "The bride who threw her ring in my trash."

"Yes."

"You two know each other?"

"As of four minutes ago," I said.

She looked at the clock, then at Emmett, then at me.

She was quiet for a long moment.

Then she reached under the counter and pulled out a different set of forms.

"I've been doing this twenty-six years," she said. "The waiting period can be waived by a judge for good cause. A deadline in a family trust is good cause. Fill these out. Don't talk."

We filled them out.

His handwriting was small and square.

Mine shook only on the line that said "Date of birth of Applicant 2."

A judge in a grey cardigan signed a paper in her chambers in under two minutes.

She asked me one question.

"Are you doing this of your own free will?"

"Yes," I said.

It was true.

I was angrier than I had ever been in my life, and I was doing it of my own free will.

We needed a witness.

My friend was still on the freeway.

Emmett checked his phone and made a small sound.

"My grandmother's downstairs," he said. "She came to see me do the other thing."

"The other thing?"

"The wedding I was supposed to have. She was parking."

Two minutes later the elevator opened, and a very small woman came out holding a cane with a brass duck head.

She had a white bob, red lipstick and a good wool coat.

A basset hound waddled beside her on a leash, ears dragging on the marble.

She looked at me, at my dress and at the red stripe on my ring finger.

She did not look surprised.

I noticed that and then forgot it, because the clock read 11:27.

"Emmett," she said, "who is this?"

"Jean," he said. "She's marrying me in four minutes. Please witness."

"Where is the Voigt girl?"

"Not here."

"Well," she said, and tapped her cane once on the floor. "That is a pity."

She did not sound sorry at all.

The dog sat on my foot.

We stood in front of the judge in the small wood-paneled room.

The judge read the words in a bored, steady voice.

Emmett said his part without looking at the paper.

His hands were steady, and the scars across his knuckles were pale in the window light.

I said mine.

My voice came out thin, but it came out.

He slid a plain steel ring onto my finger, one he had pulled from his own pocket.

"It was supposed to be for the other one," he said quietly.

"It fits," I whispered.

"Good."

The judge said, "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife."

The door behind us banged open.

A man in a camel overcoat stood in the doorway with a silver crew cut and a gold tie pin.

He looked at the judge, at Emmett's hand around mine, and at the old woman with the cane.

Then he looked at me.

"Who," said Lyle Voigt, "is this?"

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

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