The driver was a gentleman. He got out to open the door for me, and that’s when I noticed that he was tall, had tousled dark hair, a scruffy five o’clock shadow that suited him, and warm brown eyes that almost made me forget the disaster I’d just come from.
“Need a ride or just looking to escape something?” he asked with a lazy grin.
I chuckled. “Bit of both.”
His name, at least according to his license, was Adam.
The small talk was easy at first. His voice was smooth, low, kind of like a jazz radio host. When he asked what I did for a living, I don’t know what came over me. I just unloaded everything!
From Jonathan’s betrayal to Lisa’s lies to the fact that I had a wedding dress hanging in my closet with nowhere to go.
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At a red light, Adam glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “So what’re you gonna do with the dress?”
I laughed bitterly. We were somewhere between the second and third red light. “You know what would drive him crazy? If I got married tomorrow to someone completely unexpected.”
He raised an eyebrow at me in the rearview mirror, half-smiling. “You serious?”
I leaned forward, meeting his eyes in the mirror. “Why not? What’s stopping me from making one insane decision just for me?”
The light turned green. He didn’t say anything right away, just drove in silence for a few blocks. Then, as we pulled up to my street and building, he parked and turned back to face me.
At that point, I was delirious with the desire for revenge.
“If you’re game,” I said, “call me in the morning.”
My heart was racing from the absurdity of it all as I scribbled my number on the back of my dinner receipt and handed it to him.
He called at 8 a.m. sharp!
That afternoon, we met outside a notary’s office. I brought my white dress. He showed up in a sleek navy suit that made him look like a movie star in a magazine spread. We signed a prenup I’d insisted on that basically said neither of us would touch a cent of the other’s money or assets.
It was a joke, really; I assumed he had none.
I mean, this was essentially a sham marriage, and I knew nothing about my soon-to-be husband except the name that had popped up on my phone screen when I called the taxi.
When we arrived at city hall, it was quiet, except for a couple arguing about parking tickets. Adam took my hand, squeezed it gently, and we said our short vows to a bored-looking clerk with glasses that kept sliding down her nose.
My two closest friends, Mia and Clara, stood as witnesses. Clara whispered, “Are you sure?” at least three times, but I smiled through it. Mia just kept snapping photos.
I immediately posted the image Mia took right after the ceremony to Instagram, but with no caption. Just me in the white dress I planned to marry Jonathan in, with a man no one recognized.
