Chapter 5
Rosa
I paced the hotel room with the phone pressed to my ear. “Answer, damn you! Answer!”
It was only my second time trying to call Noah since I’d woken up this morning. But still. He should be answering. Hell, he shouldn’t have left in the first place.
“Okay, calm down,” Hazel said, still sitting cross-legged on my hotel room bed… or rather, Noah’s. Cheeky, her little rescue dog gave a quick yip in agreement.
I mashed my finger into the end call button and tossed the phone aside. “And you’re sure you two saw us leaving the chapel together? It wasn’t just two people who looked like us?”
Reid and Hazel exchanged a quick look before answering.
Hazel cleared her throat. “Even if we weren’t sure it was you two, that’s definitely a real marriage certificate sitting there.”
“And those are definitely yours and Noah’s signatures on it,” Reid added.
Shit. Shit, crap, mother fu–
“The good news is,” Reid said, interrupting my expletive train of thought. “These Atlantic City weddings are usually pretty easy to get annulled. Especially if you two didn’t consummate.”
Hazel’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t consummate, did you?”
“No!” I shouted, then paused to look down at the Flaming Lips t-shirt I’d woken up in. It wasn’t my t-shirt. And my dress was discarded on a chair near the desk. “At least, I don’t think so…”
If we had …. had… you know… wouldn’t I be naked right now? Well not right now. But wouldn’t I have woken up naked?
A heavy thrum of a headache was blooming behind my eyes. I pinched the bridge of my nose and sank into a chair in the corner of the room. Think, Rosa. Think.
“Okay,” I said, “How quick are annulments, usually? Like, can we get this thing dissolved by Monday?”
Reid pressed his lips together. “I don’t think they’re that fast. But trust me, they’re not hard. Especially since Hazel and I can prove as eyewitnesses that you two were intoxicated at the time of marriage.”
Hazel nodded, eyes wide with hope.
But dammit, my best friend was one hell of an actress. That hope could be completely faked right now and even I would hardly know it.
“Okay,” I sighed. “So what’s next?”
Reid already had his nose buried in his phone, typing away with both thumbs. “I’m contacting my lawyer for you.”
I winced. I had all of three hundred bucks to my name. That probably didn’t even cover one hour of his lawyer’s time. “Reid, I can’t afford your lawyer?—”
“But Noah can,” he said, looking up from beneath a thick web of black lashes.
I looked down at my phone, still clutched in my manicured fingers. “Yeah. If he would answer his damn phone.”
With a huff, Hazel launched to her feet. “I’ll try calling him.”
“You really think he’ll answer your call instead of mine?”
Hazel snorted as she stomped to the door of the hotel room. “He will if he knows what’s good for him.”
“Where are you going?”
Clutching the handle, she yanked the door open. “Oh, I need to step out in the hallway for this call.”
“Babe, just don’t wake up the whole hotel,” Reid said, the slightest smile splayed on his lips and an adoring look in his eyes that made me want to barf right there on the expensive carpet.
Compared to my hotel room that I’d booked for the night, this was like a palace. Sure, it was in the same hotel, but my room next door was the size of a shoebox and had a bathroom that barely fit me and my makeup all at once.
Noah’s suite was sprawling with high end fixtures, a jacuzzi bathtub, fully adorned with towels folded into swans.
He got towel swans, dammit.
I wanted towel swans. I wanted them with a paycheck I earned myself. Because the truth was, I grew up in this sort of lavish lifestyle. With a Senator for a father, we were never lacking in the amenities.
But they came at a price. A steep price.
A severe lack of privacy.
Our lives were never quite our own. And even this stupid drunken marriage, I couldn’t help the gnawing ache in my belly.
What if the press finds out? Will they come knocking on our doors? Will it ruin my father’s chances of getting reelected?
Despite the strain it put on our family, Apa did amazing work. I was proud of him and I wanted him to be able to continue his work.
But I had also worked damn hard to escape that life and get out of the spotlight, which was why I moved to New York from California. Once I got out of our home state, what I did in my free time seemed to matter less to constituents.
So the question was, could I manage to annul this stupid drunken marriage without anyone being the wiser?
If it wasn’t a marriage to television’s current hottest heartthrob, I might stand a chance. But as it was? I wasn’t so sure.
The slam of the door caused me to jump and Hazel stood there, phone in hand and fuming. “He didn’t answer my call, either.”
My brows lifted as I looked at Reid. I loved my bestie, but holy hell she was a force to be reckoned with. And I was sort of relieved that it wasn’t all on me to tame her anymore.
“Well, I’m sure you left him a perfectly polite message,” Reid joked in that dry sense of humor of his as he picked Cheeky up from the floor, placing her in his lap.
A message dinged on Reid’s phone and he held up a finger to get my attention.
“Okay, okay. Good news. My lawyer said he can get the annulment started for you as soon as he hears from both you and Noah. But until there’s confirmation from each of you, his hands are tied.
And with tomorrow being Sunday, you’re stuck until Monday if he can’t hit the ground running on this asap. ”
Shit. “Does his letter count?” I grabbed the scribbled note from the table he had left me and held it up. “It says he promises to annul. Even has his signature at the bottom.”
Reid took the letter from me, examining it. “It might work? At least to draw up initial paperwork. Let me text it over and see.”
I stood up, hands on my hips and paced once more. Noah’s side of the bed was still rumpled and there was an indentation on his pillow. I could practically still smell his crisp scent clinging to the sheets.
Why would he do this? Why would he just leave when there was clearly so much to figure out?
The corner of heavy cardstock peeked out of the trashcan next to his side of the bed. Its swirled sapphire blue and rose gold emblem glistened, catching my eye and I bent down to retrieve it.
We cordially invite you to the wedding of Veronica Marie Tripp to Alexander Remington Bailey…
Wait. The date listed. That was today. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to conjure up some memories of last night. Didn’t he say he had to go home to Maple Grove for a wedding?
Hope sparked behind my ribs. That had to be it. He wouldn’t just leave because he’s an asshole. He had to leave. For his sister’s wedding.
It didn’t explain why he didn’t wake me up… but then again, I slept like the dead.
It didn’t exactly excuse his behavior, but at least it made more sense.
With a quick glance at my phone, I noted the time. If I left now, I might make it to Maple Grove before the wedding started.
I rushed to the door that adjoined our two rooms and threw it open, rifling through the clothes I’d bought.
Thank God I’d packed several possible dresses for this weekend.
I grabbed a shin-length black dress and rushed for the bathroom to change.
If I was crashing a wedding, the least I could do is dress appropriately.
“Where are you going?” Hazel asked before I could lock myself inside to change.
“To find Noah.”
She stopped the bathroom door, gliding her foot in the way before I could shut it in her face.
“How? You don’t even know where he—” I thrusted the invitation at Hazel.
“Oh, right,” she said as she read it. “I forgot about Ronnie’s wedding, but … oh. Oh, no. Rosa, you can’t crash Ronnie’s wedding. Have you ever met his sister? She makes me look like a kitten. She’ll break you right in half if you ruin her big day.”
Giving up on trying to shut her out, I set the dress to the side and yanked my toothbrush from my cosmetic bag. “I’m not going to ruin anything!”
“That’s literally what everyone says… right before they ruin something!”
I scowl over my shoulder at Hazel as I run my toothbrush under water. “I promise you, I won’t mess up anyone’s wedding. I’m the daughter of a senator. I know how to do understated drama. Trust me.”
I punctuated the last two words by shoving my toothbrush into my mouth and scrubbing my teeth.
Hazel slumped against the doorframe of the bathroom. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?”
I shook my head, toothpaste foaming around my mouth.
With a sigh, she turned around and started rummaging through my suitcase. “If I can’t talk you out of it, then at least go dressed properly. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb in that cocktail dress.”
I bent over the sink and spat. “So, what… more like a backyard wedding?”
“That’s exactly what it is. But that doesn’t mean you should show up in jeans.” She pulled free a sweet a-line strapless dress that was covered in blue pastel flowers. “Here. Wear this instead.”
I caught the dress as she flung it across the room toward me. “You get dressed,” Hazel said. “I’ll pack up your bag for you. And don’t forget to change your underwear.” She tossed me a pair of panties from my luggage as well.
I smiled warmly at my best friend, hugging the dress to my chest. “Thank you.”
She rolled her eyes and waved me away, already elbow deep in my bag, folding my clothes. “Hurry. You don’t have a lot of time.”
I kicked the bathroom door shut while yanking the Flaming Lips t-shirt overhead.
Dammit, Noah. This weekend was supposed to be a celebration of Hazel and Reid’s marriage… and his sister’s marriage. Instead, I was stuck hunting down my husband on a quest for a divorce.
I froze, the summer dress halfway up my hips.
Husband.
Divorce.
My hands turned clammy and cold instantly. I had sworn to myself I would never end up in a loveless marriage like so many of my father’s colleagues.
And now here I was.
But there was still time. I had to find Noah today and begin the annulment.