The Arrangement

Vegas

Why did my head hurt so much? I opened my eyes and saw the sun streaming in through hotel curtains. I felt a wave of nausea hit me and I ran for the bathroom and lost last night’s dinner. I rubbed my eyes and poked my eye on something. That’s when I noticed it. There was a ring on my left hand. On that finger. Shit.

I started looking around and realized I was only wearing a t-shirt, one that was way too big for me, so it obviously wasn’t mine. Sixty-four thousand dollar question was whose it was. I poked my head back into the main room and took in my surroundings. I was in a suite, an expensive one by the look of it. I took a deep breath and walked into the bedroom. What happened last night? I started searching for my clothes and managed to find my bra and jeans and pulled them on, I was about to leave when I heard a voice.

“Is my wife walking out on me after only night?”

I stood straight up and turned slowly to see an attractive man wearing only boxers leaning up against the door frame. His arms were crossed over his well sculpted chest and he had a smirk across his lips and one eyebrow raised.

“What did you just say?”

“I asked if my wife was walking out after only one night? Did you have fun last night?”

“Wait? What happened last night? Di-did you say wife?”

“Didn’t you notice that rock on your finger?”

I looked down. Surely that wasn’t a real diamond? It had to be cubic zirconium, it covered my entire bottom third of my finger.

His smirk wilted. “You really don’t remember?”

“What happened last night? Did we . . . you know?”

He let out a throaty chuckle, the one all men can make. The one that seems to say silly woman. “We are married.”

“Look, I don’t know what happened last night, but I need to fix it.”

“What do you mean fix it? It’s not like anything is broken.”

“Where are we?”

“My father’s hotel.”

“Your father?”

“Yes,”

“I need a minute.”

“We have a lifetime.” he teased.

“Stop saying things like that!” I snapped. My head was pounding. What was the last thing I remembered. Katie had just turned twenty-one . . . so we came out to Vegas . . . and we’d been playing black jack, I’d ordered an iced tea . . . Katie had begged to play truth or dare . . . oh god. I started to look around like a madwoman for my cell phone.

“What are you looking for, dear?”

“I’m not your dear, and my cell phone.”

“I’m afraid that fell in the fountain last night.”

“I dropped my phone in a fountain?”

“No, you went swimming, darling.”

“I’m not your darling,” I snapped. “Do you have a phone I could borrow?”

He chuckled and went over to the night stand and handed me his phone. I quickly dialed Nikki’s number from memory.

“Who is this?”

“Nikki?”

“Mikaela?”

“Yeah,”

“Where are you ?”

“I’m with,” I looked over at him and realized I didn’t even know his name. “I think I might have gotten married to someone last night.”

“WHAT? How? Who? Talk to me! Is he hot? How big is his,”

“STOP IT! Don’t ask that! I don’t know,”

“You mean you two haven’t consummated it yet?”

“I don’t remember consummating so it doesn’t count.” I snapped heatedly, feeling my cheeks heat up and watch whoever he was try to stifle a chuckle.

“Oooh la la, well where are you?”

“I’m not entirely sure.”

“Where’s your phone?”

“Dead. I killed it last night in some fountain.”

“So is this your hubby’s phone?”

“Don’t call him that!”

I heard Nikki laughing, I’m glad someone thought this was funny. I hadn’t even wanted to go to Vegas, now look what had happened. “Alright, don’t get your panties in a twist, ooh, are you even wearing any?”

“Stop it!” I felt my cheeks heat up again. I’m sure my face was bright red. “Look, if I can figure out where I am can you come get me?”

“Sure, figure it out and call me back. Don’t be afraid to get a quickie before we come get you!”

“Nikki!”

“What? Get some girl! Jump on that,”

“Goodbye Nikki!” I hung up. She did not need to finish that sentence. “Um, can you tell me where we are?”

“I told you my father’s hotel,”

“Look, it’s cool that your daddy bought you a hotel room, but which hotel are we in. My friends are going to come pick me up.”

“Two things, first of all, this isn’t just a room ‘my daddy bought me.’ I live here. This is my suite. Well, our suite, now, and this is my father’s hotel. As in he is the owner.”

“What? You must still be drunk?”

“No, I assure you, I’m quite sober.”

“Are you on drugs?”

“No, I most certainly am not,” he laughed.

“Who are you?”

“Your husband,”

“Stop that! What is your name?”

“Trent Ralston of the Ralston Resorts hotel chain.”

“You’re joking.”

Trent walked over and pulled out a copy of People and there was his face. The headline was Top 20 Most Eligible Bachelors and guess who was ranked number one.

“That only proves you’re an ego maniac.” I snorted.

Trent laughed. “You weren’t saying that last night,”

“Shut up, last night never happened. I don’t even remember it!”

“You seemed to enjoy yourself.”

“Stop it! Let’s go get this stupid thing annulled and then we can both move on with our lives and go our separate ways.”

“No can do, darling,” Trent sighed as he fell backwards onto his bed.

“Excuse me?”

“That would look bad for business.”

“Business?”

“I’m the heir to one of the largest hotel chains in the world. I can’t appear like some party boy. I have an image to maintain.”

“So, you won’t divorce me?”

“I’ll make you a deal, give it some time, and if you still feel that way after that time, I will happily sign the divorce papers.”

“How long?”

“A year,”

“A YEAR!”

“One year, yes,”

“No, that’s too long, how about a month,”

“Five years,”

“What?”

“One year or five, you decide.”

It felt like the walls were closing in around me. My breathing was shallow and too fast, realized I was hyperventilating, but I couldn’t stop it. It was all I could do to keep repeating ‘oh god’ over and over again.

“Darling, you don’t look so good. Calm down, it’s okay,”

I felt myself fading and the room was spinning and it went black.