Page 153 of Vegas Duology

“I don’t think there’s another that would be more perfect.”

“What can I sign you two up for?”A woman who might very well have been the oldest woman I’d ever laid eyes on appeared from the back room.A cigarette dangled from her lips, and she shuffled painfully slowly down the aisle toward us.“You look like a True Love package couple.”She hacked a phlegmy cough and took another pull on her cigarette before she continued.

“True Love package?”I smiled and clutched Leo’s hand.It was definitely true love.It had always been true love with us.“I think that—”

“Or...maybe the Cherish the Moment package.”The woman eyed us up and down.Leo and I froze, letting her assess us.It felt like the right thing to do.Her eyes landed on me.“Yup.Definitely a Cherish the Moment package.”

She turned her back to us and shuffled back down the aisle.Leo and I glanced at each other, but he only shrugged and started to laugh, so it was me who stopped her.

“So,” I said a little cautiously, and glanced back to Leo.“What do we do now?”

The woman turned, took the cigarette from her mouth and exhaled in a cloud.“Honey, now you get married.”She grinned, a toothless, gaping grin that was both endearing and slightly scary at the same time.“Come with me.I’ll get you ready.”She pointed her cigarette, the ash dangling dangerously off the tip, at Leo.“You’ll go with Burt.Burt!”She hollered out in no general direction.The effort of hollering caused another coughing fit to start deep in her lungs.I wasn’t sure whether I should go slap her on the back or find her a glass of water, but before I could make up my mind either way, an overweight elderly man dressed in a white Elvis suit emerged from the back room and made his way only moderately faster down the aisle than his female counterpart had.

“Edna, what’s all the hollering about?”He slapped her on the back and then rubbed his palm in a soothing circle where he’d just hit.The action was both aggressive and sweet, and despite the harsh tone he addressed her with, it was easy to see the love between them.I looked up at Leo, who watched the scene with the same look on his face that I must have had.I nodded and smiled.Yes, these two were perfect.

“These kids are ready to tie the knot.”Edna waved her hand in our direction and took another drag of her cigarette.“Take the boy and get him ready.”

“Kids?Boy?”Leo mouthed the words, and I could tell he was seconds away from bursting into laughter.

Burt straightened and looked us up and down the same way his wife had done.“Cherish the Moment package, huh?”

Edna nodded and hooked her finger at me.“Come on then.We don’t have all night.Let’s get you hitched.”

A shot of nerves flew through my stomach, and as if he sensed it—or maybe he felt it, too—Leo squeezed my hand before he lifted it to his lips and pressed a kiss there.“I’ll see you soon.”I blinked back sudden and totally ridiculous tears and nodded.It was all I could manage.“I love you, Lex.”

“Come on, come on,” Edna croaked.

I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips before I released Leo’s hand and followed Edna down the aisle into a back room.

The room was jam-packed with everything one would ever need to get married.Silk flower arrangements in an array of colors and designs, many dating back at least thirty years, filled one whole shelf.There was even a rack of dresses and what appeared to be costumes.“You’ll need a dress.”Edna rifled through the rack and pulled out a yellow floor-length frock that looked like it might have been the height of fashion for a prom dress—in 1973.“This is about your size.It’ll hide the—”

“I’m good.What I’m wearing will be just fine.”

She gave me a once-over and pursed her lips together.“If you’re sure.”She crammed the dress back onto the rack.“Your package includes clothes or costumes.Maybe you’d prefer to go with a theme wedding.We have jungle, disco, show girl—”

“I’m good.”I smiled and wrapped my arms around my waist.“But what else does the package cover?And what exactly is the Cherish the Moment package?”

Edna pressed her cigarette into a nearby ashtray.“It’s the package we give to all our expecting brides.”She pulled a fresh smoke out of the package but I couldn’t focus on the fact that she shouldn’t be smoking so close to me because my brain was still desperately trying to process what she’d just said.“It’s the all-inclusive, get it done package.”

“Get it done?”I repeated numbly.

“When’s the little one due?”

“Pardon?”It was my turn to choke.It took me a few minutes to regulate my breathing and recompose myself, but as soon as I did, I stared openmouthed at the woman who didn’t look remotely fazed by the bombshell she’d just dropped on me.

Edna nodded and coughed, but notably didn’t light the cigarette between her lips.“Typically the bride wants to get married as quickly as possible, mostly before the groom finds out.Unless your man...nah.He doesn’t know anything.”

I shook my head, trying to process the fact that she was more or less calling me a sneaky, conniving man trapper as well as the fact that this woman knew within five minutes of meeting me that I was pregnant.“He does...I mean...wait.How did you know?”My hands flew to my stomach and the life, as fragile as it was, that was nestled in there.I’d managed to not obsess about it, or think about how the pregnancy would play out, for at least the last few hours.But within seconds, all of those fears flew back.My lighthearted mood—gone.

“Honey, it’s written all over you.Anyone who’s looking can see it.”She reached over to the shelf beside her and grabbed an oversized bouquet.“And your man, he’s obviously not looking.Here.”She thrust the bouquet at me.“This will cover the bump.”

I looked down at my stomach, which besides being a little thicker than it had been a few years ago, looked exactly the same.I was definitely not showing yet.Or was I?

“I...I don’t...I...Maybe this isn’t the best idea.”

“To get married before he knows about the babe?”She shrugged.“To each their own, but let me tell you, I’ve been part of hundreds, maybe thousands of weddings, a good deal of them women just like you.It don’t make any difference at all if you tell him now or later; point is he made a babe with you and he needs to take responsibility for it.As the mama, you gotta do what’s best.”

“It’s not like that with Leo.We already have a child and...”I drifted off.I wasn’t about to stand here and explain myself to this woman when I didn’t owe her any type of explanation at all.