Wes and Tucker met me near the exit of the casino, each coming up on opposite sides of me, as if to block me in. Not that it mattered. My night was done. “I’m going back to the suite, feel free to do whatever you had planned for the night. I won’t stop you.” I pulled ahead of them both, which was a feat, considering how short I was. Still, it made me thankful for those heelless sandals I was wearing.

Once I hopped into the elevator, I thought I would be free and clear of them, but no, they managed to slide on just before the door closed. I rolled my eyes and took the elevator up to our floor in silence. The quick jaunt into the suite, and all the way to my room, remained just as quiet. I had forgotten about the petty wedding dress I’d had sent up to the room earlier, until I heard Wes ask, “What’s this?” Then his laughter filled the entire suite before Tucker came barreling into my room with the opened garment bag in his hands.

“Please, tell me this is not what I think it is?”

I smiled at him as I sat on the edge of the bed and removed my sandals one at a time. “Well, I guess that depends on what you think it is,” I responded slowly. “Don’t worry, it’s not for you to wear. It’s for me,” I teased, as if he might have thought I bought it for him.

“You can’t wear a black dress and veil to our wedding,” he demanded.

I stood, my newly freed toes sinking into the lush carpet. “And why not?”

“It’s a wedding, not a damn funeral, Mina. People have to believe that I’d actually marry you!” All playful antics fell aside as he shouted those words at me. Even though I knew our wedding was never going to be real, those words sliced right through my thick skin and did some serious damage.

“You know what? No one believes that you would marry me. They certainly don’t believe that I would willingly marry you either. I was offered a half million dollars tonight in order to help escape you because it was obvious to a complete stranger that we shouldn’t be married. A total stranger was worried for me,” I reiterated.

Then I laughed at our situation. “We can’t even fool someone we don’t know because you’re too busy out picking up women and I don’t even remotely resemble a woman who is about to get married tomorrow.” I held up my empty left hand to him, the one that should have a ring on it considering I was supposedly engaged. “But you know what? I’m super fucking sick of hearing about how I’m not good enough for the super esteemed slut-bag of a man standing in front of me. I may not be the most beautiful woman in the world, but I’m also not the most disloyal, despicable, cocksucker that I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting,” I shouted at him.