A
blur; the perfect word to describe Zach’s life up to date,
the perfect description of how the last twenty four hours
had panned out for both him and Natalya. He wasn’t even
awake yet, as his mind continued to party without him – his
pulse returned to his inner ear sanctuary causing him to
stir and groan as a response to the induced mayhem that had
ensued just a few hours prior to dawn. His eyes burned as he
forced himself awake; his body aching from head to toe, and
without knowing exactly why. The room was dark, the type of
dark where you can barely make out your hand, and thank God
for that, since the pounding in his ears soon shifted to his
head. What had happened last night? The scent of alcohol,
cigarettes and cigars and the mix of both his cologne and
Natalya’s perfume lingered in his sinuses, burned in his
sinuses reminding Zach of the debauchery.
For all he knew, Zach was in his own hotel room, but even he
wasn’t that sure – was he really? He had only seen the hotel
room that he and Natalya got for their stay in Vegas for
mere minutes before taking to the streets, with a question
mark as to when the two would return to its plush safety for
the night. Who was he with? Was he really going to spend the
night with some strange person with Natalya at his side? And
though it was movie-esque type of Segway into the so-called
“perfect” Vegas vacation; the type of secret he could take
back home and either hold onto or brag about to his friends
– with Natalya with him, there would be no way he would find
himself leaving with anyone else but her; not even in a bad
Las Vegas fantasy weekend.
Zach found his way to the bathroom, shutting the door behind
him as he flipped on the light; an audible groan leaving his
lips as he clutched the edge of the sink – he had to still
be drunk, there was no way this was a hangover, and maybe
that was a good thing… He let his hands run through the luke-warm
water as he noticed a ring on his left hand; wetting his
face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes – and yes the ring was
still there. He twisted the ring from his finger, tugging it
from his finger as he brought it eye-level, his eyes
focusing as he tried to put two and two together though the
equation had already been solved. He was married? And in
Vegas… Married, in Vegas…
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 The
minute that Natalya opened her eyes, she knew something was
wrong. The pounding in her head was a very clear indication
that she had drank herself stupid, and the warm body
sleeping next to her was an even bigger sign that she'd done
something she shouldn't have. She couldn't remember the last
time she'd had a one night stand, let alone do so while Zach
was with her. That wasn't something she ever thought she
would be capable of doing. Zach was her best friend, someone
that she loved deeply, and the idea of leaving him alone
while she went off with some random guy was not something
she ever considered.. not that she ever believed he'd have
any problem with being alone in Vegas; he was after all a
very attractive man, capable of having his own fun and
finding someone who would want to share it with him. At the
thought of that, Natalya let out a deep breath, letting her
head fall back against her pillow. As soon as her head
touched the soft pillow under her, she cursed herself
silently, the small movement causing the pounding in her
head to become louder. Yeah, she definitely wasn't thinking
the night before.
She wasn't ready
to deal with any of what was going on. That was supposed to
be Zach's night; a celebration of his birthday. How was she
supposed to face him knowing she'd run off on him, gotten
completely wasted, and done whatever it is she'd done? The
last thing she could clearly remember Zach and her were in
the bar having drinks, and she'd finally gotten him out on
the dance floor, something which she'd been trying to do for
a while. That felt like a million years ago to her, and deep
down she knew that wasn't what she should be remembering.
The feeling of
movement next to her brought Natalya back to the present
time, and she brought her hands up to her face, trying to
clear her mind. She knew she couldn't hide for much longer,
but she was willing to try. She almost held her breath as
she felt the weight of the person next to her shift, before
he was out of the bed and had disappeared into the bathroom.
Natalya knew that would only give her a few minutes to
compose herself, but those were a few minutes that she would
cherish. Sitting up in bed, she reached next to her,
flipping the switch on the lamp. She contemplated sneaking
out of the room, but as soon as the lights went on, the
light glimmer of something that looked like a ring made her
heart drop down to her stomach. "Shit!" She cursed to
herself, knowing things had just become more complicated.
She knew what that ring meant, she'd teased enough of her
friends when they went off to Vegas about doing something of
the sort.. they'd never done anything like it, and now there
she was, the one who had gone out and gotten herself married
in Vegas.
Pushing herself
clear off the bed, she looked around the room, trying to
figure out where she was at. The room looked incredibly
familiar, and what looked like her bags were sitting in the
corner of the room. She'd brought someone back to her room.
That realization made her feel worse about the situation.
Not only had she left her best friend while she was
completely intoxicated, she'd gotten married, and brought a
complete stranger back to her room. Looking down at herself,
she sighed softly, the dress shirt that was clearly not hers
the only thing covering her body. She didn't want to do it;
the pounding in her head told her not to do it, but it was
only a matter of time before reality would come crumbling
down right in front of her. Slowly making her way to the
bathroom, she paused in front of the door, knowing the
person in there was going through the same thing currently
was, before she finally let her hands go to the door,
lightly knocking.
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Zach
stared at the ring, unable to come up with any words to form
any sorts of a thought that could possibly explain what was
going on. Setting the ring on the edge of the sink, after
having to almost pry it from his finger, his hands shaking
the entire time; he again rinsed his face with water, hoping
that each time the cold water made contact with his skin
with would wash away a little more of this weird and fear
and loathing in Las Vegas-esque type of moment he was
having. His head was still spinning, and his pulse was now
rapidly making its way from his toes to his ears, and now
his stomach was beginning to churn and he hoped that it was
just because of the alcohol but really, right now, he
couldn’t tell. How could this have happened? Well, he knew
how it had happened – hell, he practically allowed it to
happen after all this is the city where this type of
“mistake” happens the most, under the influence of alcohol
of course, but how does the average Joe deal with it? His
thoughts began to race into one another and everything
coherent was soon out the window as he now took a seat on
the edge of the tub, his head resting in his hands as he
tried to come up with sort of answer to this chaos.
How was he going to explain this to his family? His friends,
his co-workers – sure he didn’t have to wear the ring, but
there was no sweeping this under the rug forever
so-to-speak. He was sure this would come back to haunt him
eventually, and then how would he deal with it. How was he
going to explain this to Natalya? The one person who had to
practically drag him on this vacation; the predictions of a
punch straight to the face were how Zach was assuming
Natalya was going to deal with it.
The knock on the door snapped Zach back into reality,
panicking with not knowing what to do now, or who was on the
other side of that door, he slowly stood up from his seat on
the edge of the tub, and turned off the water which he had
forgotten and left running. Once, he tried to answer.
Something, anything, his mouth opened and nothing. Nothing
audible, just silence as he looked at the ring sitting on
the edge of the sink in all of its glimmering almost mocking
in the mistake glory, before turning his attention to the
door. “Yeah?” he finally choked out as he reached for the
door , taking one last deep breath before opening the door–
it was now or never, face the music and the face he
apparently married.
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That
voice; there was no way she wouldn't recognize that voice.
Natalya's breath caught in her throat as soon as she heard
the simple word coming from the other side of the door. She
couldn't have; there was no way that the person behind that
door was Zach. Closing her eyes, Natalya let out another
deep breath, letting herself sit back on the bed as soon as
she felt if touch the back of her legs. Bringing her hands
up to her face, she stared down at the floor, not wanting to
see the person who she knew was going to walk out of that
bathroom. Suddenly she no longer wanted to face the truth.
When she heard the door finally open, she couldn't help but
risk a glance in that direction. As soon as she did so, her
entire world came crashing down. She knew she'd crossed a
line, one that she didn't know how to come back from.
"Zach?" she said softly, not sure he would even be able to
hear her, and at the same time hoping that he hadn't.
She was going to be sick, between the pain in her head and
the sick feeling in her stomach, she knew she was going to
be sick. Pushing herself of the bed, she practically bolted
toward the bathroom, pushing the door behind her, leaving it
only slightly ajar. She leaned on the floor, positive that
she was going to empty the contents of her stomach - - which
she was sure consisted of nothing but alcohol, but that
sweet release never came. Instead, the sick feeling got
worse, and the pounding in her head became unbearable.
"Za - - Zach..?" Natalya mumbled risking another glance in
his direction, feeling like she'd just gotten punched in the
stomach at the look on his face, but at the same time sure
that same look was mirrored on hers. "What did we do, Zach?"
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Seeing
Natalya’s face both the blessing and the curse Zach had
asked for; her voice was the comforting tone he needed to
hear knowing he hadn’t left with someone strange in the
middle of the night leaving her to her own devices or even
worse – with someone equally as strange, and that she was
the body behind the knock upon the door. But now, she was
the body standing before him with a ring that matched his
own, a matching distressed look. “I don’t know…” Zach
managed to mumble, a cop out for sure, but not a lie – he
didn’t know what they got themselves into, he didn’t know
what had happened, the only thing he knew at this moment was
that they were still together, no strangers, no leaving with
other people, and that was at least one thing that set
Zach’s mind at ease.
As his first instinct, he reached for Natalya pulling her
into a hug and holding her tight, maybe out of fear of being
apart from her in a city such as Las Vegas, or fear of her
spending the night with someone else which was something he
really didn’t want to think about especially with a sour
stomach… either way Zach wrapped his arms tightly around her
his usual protective nature coming to the surface. “What did
we do?” He mumbled into her hair, though it was clear as to
what they did – the words repeated mostly to himself as he
needed a reminder, what did they do, how did they get to
that point, when in their night did they find time to get
married. Now was it better or worse because it was Natalya
on the other side of the ring? Perhaps Zach would find out
once he had sobered up a little bit more though he was
pretty damned sober at the moment.
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In
her mind Natalya knew that everything that could go wrong,
would very possibly go wrong, but one look at Zach's face,
and the feel of his arms around her, and she almost felt
like things were back to normal. It was almost like she'd
just gotten home from a very bad date and he was letting her
know everything would be okay, and he was there for her. Out
of everything that could possibly go wrong that was what
scared her the most; the possibility that Zach would no
longer be there to comfort her when she needed someone. "How
did this...?" She couldn't finish her sentence, she didn't
want to know how they got there, she simply wanted to know
how to fix it.
"Zach.." She said quietly and mostly to herself as her arms
wrapped tighter around him. She didn't want to let him go;
she knew as soon as she did she would have to face reality.
There was nothing but irrational mumbling coming from her,
she knew that, but she had no idea how to answer his
question. It was very obvious what had happened -- they both
knew what had happened, they just didn't know how they had
let it happen. Under different circumstances, with someone
else, she would have been angry -- at herself, at him.. but
this was Zach. This was someone that she loved and couldn't
lose. "Whatever this is.. however this happened..." She
could feel the knot in her throat coming back, and she was
finding it harder to speak, the tears that she had been
fighting back finally threatening to spill over, "I don't
want to lose us.." She added, her voice cracking, "I can't
lose us.." She wasn't lying, she couldn't lose him; he was
the biggest constant in her life, and she needed him there.
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|
Zach’s
mind was racing and he was still unable to comprehend a
single thought as to what was going on, what had happened,
and what to do next; his head pounded mostly from the booze,
but he was certain that his mind running on overdrive wasn’t
helping. He tightened his grip around Natalya as he listened
to her talk, shaking his head to everything negative she
thought could happen between them, because really regardless
of whatever situation they had landed themselves into, and
regardless of whatever they were going to have to do to fix
it when they got home, there was absolutely nothing that
could ever come between them. “Stop…stop,” Zach mumbled, as
he kissed the top of her head, his attempt to end her
worrisome rant. “This isn’t going to come between us…” he
said, as he pulled back so that he was now looking at her,
brushing the hair from her face and doing his best to
comfort her with his unsure re-assuring words, and his
no-fail works-for-everything-else, kisses to the forehead,
everything he knew he was good at when it came to calming
Natalya down -- and yeah he wasn’t able to describe what
“this” was to her or himself even, but it was now their soon
to be unspoken common bond that they could add to their list
of things the two would go through together. “Nothing has
come between us before, and nothing will start now, okay?”
He said, as he again wrapped his arms tightly around Natalya,
pulling her close. And truthfully, Zach was just as afraid
of losing Natalya as she was of losing him, but at this
moment one of them needed to be in that unsure positive
frame of mind in hopes that this wasn’t going to destroy
their entire friendship that they had spent years perfecting
to a science.
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She
needed to snap out of it; there was absolutely nothing that
she was going to accomplish by freaking out the way that she
was. In the very back of her mind she knew that he was right
-- they had already gone through so much throughout the
years that this shouldn't be any different for them.
Granted, this was a lot bigger than most other things, but
they'd always been strong. "I know... in the back of my mind
I know that.." Giving him a small, but still very sad smile,
Natalya pulled away from him, instantly missing the comfort
that his body offered. "Got more than we bargained for for
your birthday, huh?" She said, trying to lighten the mood,
but still not exactly seeing the humor in it herself.
Making her way back into the bedroom she sat down on the bed
once more. Looking down at herself, she couldn't help but
shake her head; She still couldn't believe what she'd done.
"Could be worse..." She said as she looked up at him,
running her hand through her face. "Could have married a
complete stranger..."
If there was one positive thing about the entire situation,
it was that she really did love Zach. And if she ever
stopped being so chickenshit about it and finally admitted
to it, she could even say she was in love with him. That was
the whole point to marriage, wasn't it? Love? Now if it was
only that simple their mistake really wasn't such a mistake.
"Well... " She added as she laid back on the bed, her eyes
coming closed, almost hoping to block out all reality and
not having to get up again. "At least I can say I do love my
husband.."
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