He shrugged his shoulders. The fact that he still thought it was no big deal, was rather astounding. It made me wonder if the women would have been the witnesses if I hadn’t interrupted whatever was supposed to have gone down last night. I swallowed hard, and took a moment to get my shit together, because no matter what, this was the life I was signing up for. Nothing was real, and my feelings would never matter.

“Are you ready?” He asked as he returned his hand to the same spot on my lower back.

“I guess so,” I whispered without bothering to look up at him. Instead, I put one foot forward and then the next until I was standing in front of an older gentleman, and next to Tucker, whom I had refused to look at thus far, beyond the glimpses I’d gotten of his backside on the way down the aisle.

“We are gathered here today,” the officiant started, and I basically tuned out the rest until a throat clearing made me glance up from where my eyes had been trained on my feet the whole time.

“Sorry, I’m just so excited I completely blanked,” I offered up the fake apology quietly and gave a quick, shy smile to the man. He chuckled, as if my words were true and he’d seen the reaction before.

“That’s okay,” he winked. “This is the part where you say, ‘I do’,” he instructed.

I nodded my head. “I do,” I repeated robotically while still avoiding Tucker. It was the first time the officiant actually appeared a little uncomfortable as he then turned to Tucker and read through the vows we were supposedly swearing to. I wondered what the man would think if he knew the two women who were acting as witnesses to this farce were the ones my husband had picked up last night for a quick fuck.

“Do you have rings?” The man asked.

“No,” I answered quickly at the same time Tucker said, “Yes, of course.” It was the first time I glanced his way throughout the entire ceremony. He looked amazing in his tux, as if there had ever been any doubt that he would. There was a reason I refrained from looking at him this whole time, after all. It wasn’t like I was going to get the hot, sweaty wedding night to go with the ceremony. Nope, that honor would probably go to one of our witnesses. I glanced back at them seeing pity on one of their faces. She was the one to whisper in my ear the night before about her sister. The other was too busy eye-fucking Tucker to even notice.

A warm hand took hold of mine and pulled it forward, placing a ring there on my left finger. I didn’t bother to look at it. Instead, I felt the other ring – the one that belonged to him – as it was placed in my palm. I took it and with mechanical movements, placed it on his finger. I didn’t get to ignore his ring, since I had to see what I was doing to get it on him. The unexpectedly heavy ring was actually kind of stunning. The band was black, with what appeared to be silver etchings throughout and a smaller, offset band of color that oddly enough matched the dress I’d worn. As the light hit it with movement, the color blazed greener in one instant and bluer in another. I was mesmerized momentarily by its beauty.