Never look back. I could be free from the pain. It’s why I ran away. I wouldn’t have to rush home on the account of being broke. It could be fate. It seemed very possible.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s do it.” Adrenaline rushed through me, and I felt more alive than ever before.
Tucker leaned forward and kissed me. It was just a kiss to seal the deal. It wasn’t a heart-stopping, breath-stealing kiss, but it was the precursor to a new future.
The night became blurrier by the minute, but I remember acquiring a marriage license, and the words from the Elvis impersonator:“I now pronounce you, husband and wife.” Tucker didn’t even ask me to sign a prenuptial agreement. There’s a chance he didn’t know what one was because I didn’t know much about it either.
We woke up in a king-size bed surrounded by floor to ceiling windows that offered a view of the orange and red sunrise over the Vegas strip. There was a ring on my finger, and I was not wearing any clothes, informing me we consummated our marriage.
I thought … now what?
Regret was my second thought.
He had morning breath, and it was blowing in my face.
What did I do?
I went through the motions of acting as if everything was normal and fantastic. We walked along the strip, stopped at a massive breakfast buffet at one of the bordering hotels and came up with plans to spend large amounts of money on ridiculous things. But the void I had been running from was catching up to me.
“You look like you feel sick. Are you hungover?” Tucker asked.
Being hungover would be a nice feeling compared to the way I was feeling at that moment.
“What’s my last name?” It was a question a woman should ask before marrying a man.
“Milan,” he responded.
“I like it.” It was probably the best part of the marriage so far. The money wasn’t giving me a feeling of excitement like it had been the night before.
“Where should we go first? Paris, Rome?” Tucker gushed.
I sipped on my cup of coffee, thinking about his question. “Can we fly to Vermont first so I can tell my parents I’m alive and not missing?” I made a joke of it, but the guilt was eating away at me, and I needed to check on Adam.
“Absolutely. I can’t wait to meet your parents,” Tucker said. I immediately understood that our rash decision would end badly. “God, I feel like I’m dreaming.”
I felt like I was coming down with the flu, or worse. Whatever was worse—it was definitely that. I stared at the ring on my finger, admiring the beauty of the three carats I never expected to see on my hand. “Yeah, this is all pretty surreal,” I replied.
“Do you like it? The ring?”
“Oh, of course. It’s gorgeous. I love it.” I was lying. I wasn’t a flashy diamond kind of girl.
“Okay, I will book two tickets to Vermont, and we’ll get moving. Does that sound good?” he asked.
All I could think was, how could I warn my parents about what I had done. I owed them a heads-up, at the very least.
“Perfect. Before you do that, I’m just going to go make a quick phone call. I’ll be right back,” I told him with a smile, kissing his cheek on the way by. I didn’t like the way his scruff felt against my lips. His facial hair was too long and fine.
The moment I found a payphone, my stomach churned and twisted into a knot, realizing what I was about to face at home. My hand shook as I dialed the number, and my heart raced as I listened to the two rings before a click.
“Hello?”
“Mom, it’s me,” I said.
“Journey Quinn,” she said, her voice broken and furious. “I am so angry at you. Are you okay? Where are you? Oh my gosh, it’s your birthday. Happy Birthday, sweetie.” Her anger broke for just a second to say Happy Birthday, but I knew that was the only sweetness I would get from her at that moment.
“I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m okay. I’m in Vegas. I—I know what I did was wrong, but I had to get away.”
I heard Mom’s heavy breaths, the sounds she makes when upset. “You’re twenty-one now,” she said with a sniffle. “You could have gone wherever you wanted, but you didn’t have to do so without saying a word. You could have at least brought your phone with you. We’ve been worried sick.”
