Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHARLIE
“Did we get married?” Athena whispered, staring down at a wedding ring on her finger.
I looked at it, too, in awe—because, damn, I had good taste in jewelry, even when drunk. But also, of course, in complete and utter shock. This couldn’t be real, right? There wasn’t any place we could get married, at least none that I remembered. And definitely not that late last night.
When I had checked the time before our last drink, it had been twelve in the morning.
Eyes shifting from Athena’s hand to mine, I spotted a thick black band around my ring finger. I drew the pad of my thumb across it, my heart racing inside my chest.
How could I marry her and not remember a single thing?! What a fool I am.
Athena grabbed my hand to examine it. “We got married.”
While I was usually good at reading Athena, I couldn’t right now. And that scared the shit out of me. It was soon—really soon—after we had started dating. Hell, last night, we had somehow had our first real date and gotten married, all in one.
My stomach twisted into knots. What if she regrets it?
I had to make sure, however she reacted … I didn’t scare her away.
“We went to that silly little chapel,” Athie said. “It’s not real, right?”
Ouch, that hurts. That fucking stings.
“You said you wanted to be my wife,” I said, trying to play off her comment.
The words must’ve come out harsher than I’d expected them to because Athie turned toward me, grabbed my left hand with hers, and intertwined our fingers. “I do, but I wanted it to be special.”
Warmth exploded through me, and I tugged Athena into my lap. “I’d say getting married in a casino chapel, drunk off our asses, in the middle of California, is pretty special. Most people plan their weddings.”
Athie’s unreadable expression suddenly dropped. She slapped my chest, her fingers curling against it, and then she giggled as strands of red hair fell into her face. “I wonder how embarrassing we were. You think we got tacos after?”
“Oh, no doubt. Wouldn’t be surprised if you ate one off my ass.”
Nose scrunched up, she threw her head back. “Ew! Why would you not be surprised?!”
I curled my fingers into her sides, tickling her right underneath the ribs. She squirmed on top of me and burst out into another fit of giggles. My lips found the base of her neck.
“You’re always surprising me with the new kinks you have. Taco kink would be a fine addition.”
“I don’t know where your ass has been,” she said through laughs. “I’m not going near it.”
“Wow,” I murmured, kissing below her ear and sliding my hands from her waist to her ass. “You’re my wife now. You should do anything for me.”
“You should do anything for me.”
“If you asked me to eat tacos off your ass”—I squeezed it in my hands—“I would.”
After wiping the happy tears from her cheeks, she set her forearms on my shoulders and stared softly at me for the longest time, her lips curled into a smile. She shyly turned away, letting her hair fall into her face. “What do you think it was like?”
“Our wedding?” I chuckled. “I totally wore the veil.”
“I bet,” she said. “You’d look good in one.”
“I know.” My lips curled into a smirk. “You know, that food is probably getting cold.”
Athena crawled off me and was about to head for the food before I gently tugged her back down so she could rest. I wasn’t going to let her start off the first day as Mrs. Easton by lifting a finger for us.
“No, no, no,” I murmured. “Stay in bed, my queen.”
After setting down a platter of chocolate chip pancakes with eggs in front of her, I grabbed a plate for myself and plopped down beside her in the bed. My shoulders slumped forward, and I stuffed a forkful of fruit into my mouth.
“So, what about that video?”
“Video?” I asked, eyes widened.
Oh shit. I forgot about that. I was so caught up in her being my wife. My wife!
“Eh, it doesn’t matter,” I said, shrugging. “Let’s look at pictures.”
“Charlie!” Athie exclaimed. “I can’t find it anywhere on social media.”
I shoveled food into my mouth. “Then don’t worry about it. It’s not like everyone hasn’t already seen both of us naked on my stream.”
“My friends haven’t!”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.”
After shooting me a glare, Athena took a bite of her eggs. “Thought you’d want to see our wedding night.”
“Wedding night? I want to see the goddamn wedding first!” I murmured. “It’s more important to me than seeing you naked.” I wiggled my brows at her. “I can do that anytime I want. Now we have to have pictures, right? We didn’t get married and not take any pictures.”
“We got married in a dirty casino chapel.” She giggled. “I doubt we have anything.”
I leaned back against the headboard and opened my phone’s gallery. Inside, there were a handful of blurry pictures from the club, after we must’ve both blacked out. I leaned toward her, showing her my screen.
She rested her forehead against my shoulder and took a bite of her chocolate chip pancakes. “Nuh-uh. We actually took some?” She buried her face into my arm, hiding behind it. “I’m scared.”
“Scared, huh?” I hummed, scrolling through to the next set of pictures, where we were in the chapel.
Someone must’ve taken my phone because we were up at the altar, getting married by a half-naked priest in a sombrero.
“Look at us.” I chuckled. “And you said it wasn’t special.”
“You’re right. Not everyone gets married next to a Mexican restaurant.”
My lips curled into a smirk, and I let Athie take my phone and start scrolling herself. She drew her lips into a small smile, the sunlight flooding into our hotel room and hitting her pretty eyes, making them a sea of color.
She was so beautiful, and I couldn’t believe that she was mine.
Truly mine.
My gaze dropped to our fingers, and warmth spread through my body. We were married.
Married in our early twenties to each other. To my best friend.
Two weeks ago, I would’ve never guessed that something like this would ever happen. I would’ve never had the courage to ask her to be mine, to kiss her, to show the love that I’d had for the past few years of my life.
Most of all, I was glad that she was taking this so … lightheartedly.
“What is this?!” she exclaimed, eyes popping out of her head as she scrolled to the next picture. She grasped her stomach and burst out into a fit of laughter. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
“I told you that you ate tacos off my ass.”
She hid her giggles behind her hand. “At least it wasn’t your bare ass.”
“What’s wrong with my bare ass?”
Instead of responding, she scrolled to the next one, where a drunk Athena and Charlie posed in front of the camera, hugging each other tightly, our hazy eyes half open, and drunken smiles on each of our faces.
“You know,” she whispered, dragging her fingers across my jaw, “even if we don’t remember it, I’m ecstatic to be married to my best friend in the entire world for the rest of my life, to be Mrs. Easton.”