I looked up at him. His eyes were deep-set, and right now they held no hint of a joke, only a desperate, scorched-earth resolve.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I’m done with this too.”
He pulled at the corner of his mouth in something that wasn’t a smile.
“Third time. Always a last-minute thing. Always her job being more important. I canceled three meetings to be here today, waiting like an idiot all afternoon.”
His words struck a nerve. We had suffered the exact same humiliation. The pregnancy test in my bag suddenly felt impossibly heavy. If Alex knew I was pregnant, would he still have done this? And if he knew and did it anyway, what did that make me? What did that make our baby? The thought made my stomach churn.
“Chloe Miller, twenty-nine,” I said, getting to my feet. My legs were stiff. “I’m a creative director at an ad agency. Parents are divorced. I live with my mom. I have a mortgage and a cat.”
Leo nodded.
“So, are we doing this?”
“Yes.”
Brenda’s eyes widened.
“Are you two crazy? This is a marriage, not buying groceries.”
“Even with groceries, you don’t pick the rotten ones, do you?” I said, looking at Leo. “Brenda, please. We both have our paperwork.”
Leo pulled his driver’s license and birth certificate from his jacket. I pulled mine from the tote bag. We were both fully prepared for partners who never showed. Brenda looked at us, then at the clock, and took a deep breath.
“All right. Get in here. You kids are going to be the death of me.”
We sat in front of the plain blue backdrop for the license photo. The young photographer looked from me to Leo, his mouth half open as if to say something, then thought better of it. Just as the flash was about to go off, Leo whispered,
“Last chance to back out.”
“No regrets,” I said, forcing a smile for the camera.
In the photo, there was a fist’s width of space between our shoulders. Our expressions were as stiff as masks, but it was a picture of us together. Filling out forms, signing our names, giving our thumbprints. The whole thing took less than twenty minutes. When the embossed seal pressed down on the two official copies of the marriage certificate, my hand trembled. Leo was shaking too, but his signature was firm.
“Congratulations. You’re legally married,” Brenda said, handing us the documents with a complicated expression. “Kids, marriage isn’t a game of chicken.”
“We know,” Leo said, taking the papers.
He turned to me.
“Where to now?”
My mind was a blank. Where could I go? Home to face my mother’s fury and tears. To Alex’s office to throw this certificate in his face. My phone buzzed again. It was Alex.
“You should take it,” Leo said. “You need closure.”
I answered. Alex’s voice, breezy and casual, came through.
“Hey, babe. You must have been waiting forever. I just wrapped up. I’ll come pick you up. We’ll get dinner. My treat.”
“Alex,” I cut him off, “I’m still at city hall.”
“You’re still there? They haven’t closed?”
“They’re closed,” I said, looking at the crisp certificate in my hand. “But I got married.”
Silence, then a disbelieving laugh.
“Chloe, stop it. I know you’re mad, but that’s not a funny joke.”
“I’m not joking. Want me to send you a picture of the certificate?”
My voice was unnervingly calm.
“Oh, and I was going to tell you today I’m pregnant. Six weeks. But that’s not your problem anymore. I’ll handle it.”
The line went dead quiet. A few seconds later, his voice came back, frantic.
“Chloe, are you insane? You’re pregnant with my child and you married someone else. You wait right there. I’m coming over. Where are you?”
“Don’t bother.”
I hung up and turned off my phone. Then I looked at Leo.
“Do you have somewhere to go? I don’t really want to go home right now.”
Leo looked at me. There was surprise in his eyes, confusion, but it all melted into a kind of weary shared understanding.
“Yeah. I have a condo near my office I use when I work late. You can stay there.”
We walked out of city hall, one behind the other. The sky was completely dark. Streetlights cast long, distorted shadows on the pavement. Leo went to get his car while I waited by the curb, clutching the new marriage certificate. Married to a man I’d known for less than an hour. I placed a hand on my stomach. It was still flat, but a new life was growing inside, Alex’s child, and I had just married another man. The realization made my knees weak. I grabbed a nearby light pole to steady myself, taking deep breaths. A black SUV pulled up in front of me. Leo rolled down the window.
“Get in.”
I opened the door and slid inside. The car was clean and smelled of the same cedar scent he wore. He didn’t start the engine right away. Instead, he handed me an unopened bottle of water.
“Thanks.”
I twisted it open and took a sip. The cold water soothed my raw throat and cleared my head a little.
“About what I heard you say on the phone…” he started.
My heart pounded.
“I’m pregnant with my ex’s child.”
