Mina: I’m fine. Taking a couple days to hang out away from the family. Will let you know when I’m back.

“Okay, so where to?” I asked once we managed to get his checked luggage from baggage claim. It was weird that the man was the one with the suitcase and carryon while I was the light packer.

“I booked us a suite at the Venetian.”

“Great, let’s go, I’m starving.”

“We can stop somewhere, if you’d like.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I can grab something there and then we can do whatever is necessary to get everything taken care of.”

“I feel like I need to ask this again,” Tucker told me as we got into an Uber headed to the hotel. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

I stopped fiddling with my backpack long enough to turn and really look at him. “Do you want me to back out?”

“No, of course not. There’s too much riding on this happening.”

“Then stop asking.”

“Okay then.”

“Okay then,” I repeated. I was getting moodier as the day wore on. “Sorry if I’m cranky. I get mean when I’m hungry.”

“Noted.” The rest of our ride and check in at the gorgeous Venetian was done in relative quiet. When Tucker had mentioned a suite, I honestly had no idea what he meant. I’d stayed in hotels before, and my family was obviously wealthy, but this went above and beyond even what I’d experienced in my life. The suite was huge and ridiculously opulent. I wandered around the whole place, noting that the two bedrooms were on opposite ends. One contained a king size bed while the other had two queen beds in it. I figured that I would take that room since I wasn’t the one who paid for the place.

I set my bag down on one of the beds and moved to glance out the window when Tucker finally found me. “I meant for you to take the other bedroom,” he offered.

“This is fine. Your money, you should get the better room.”

He seemed a bit nervous as he spoke. “This one is closer to the door, so I won’t disturb you when I come and go,” he admitted. Suddenly, I wondered if my honeymoon would be spent having to deal with him bringing other women back to the same hotel suite that he shared with me. That would be just a little bit awful and disrespectful, no matter what our arrangement and understanding was.

“So that you can come and go?”

“I know you said that you just wanted strangers as witnesses, but honestly, that won’t fly for my family so Wesley, my lawyer and best friend, will be coming too. He had to take a later flight out because of work, but he and I will take this room since there are two beds.”

I turned to give him my full attention, ready to argue the absurdity of us getting married and staying in the same suite with his best friend. Then I thought better of it. What did it really matter in the big scheme of things? We would be married in name only.