They walked to their table and slipped back into their seats.
“How much time do we have, chef?” Elliot asked the man who was tossing an egg in the air between two spatulas.
“Seven minutes,” he responded, cracking the egg over the cooktop with one hand.
“Can you give us the abridged version, then?” Lainey asked. “We don’t need all the ‘Love is patient, love is kind’ business.”
Isaac looked up from his plate. “And would you mind getting a little fried rice going for me while you’re doing their thing?”
Chef Nemoto, consummate professional, spilled a bowl of rice and mirepoix onto the hibachi table. “We are gathered here today for the union of…”
Steam hissed off the grill as he waited patiently for the bride and groom to fill in the blanks.
“Elliot Mervin Hodges,” her partner-in-fraud completed.
Mervin. She’d file that away for later.
“And Elaine Colette Davis,” Lainey offered.
Do we stand?she mouthed to Elliot, who answered by pulling out her chair for her.
They stood in front of the man chopping rice on a blazing cooktop.
“…in marriage. For richer, for poorer. For—”
“We’re good on this part, too,” Elliot interrupted. “Can you get to the…” He twirled his fingers in a wrap-it-up gesture.
“Do you at least have rings?” Chef Nemoto asked with detectable irritation. Evidently, they were messing with his matrimonial flow.
“Oh. Yes.” Elliot pulled a Styrofoam take-out container out of his bag. He opened it to reveal two gold rings lying in the box like a pair of lonesome french fries.
Her eyes bugged out. “Where did you even—?”
“There’s a jewelry store that also has pretty good Greek food next to the bed and breakfast,” he explained, describing what could only be Kostas’ Gyros and Fine Jewelry. “I tried to guess your size, but we can always get it refitted if it doesn’t…”
He slipped the thin gold band onto her finger. A perfect fit.
“You’re supposed to wait until—” Their chef/officiant looked to the ceiling and sighed. He plopped an onion onto the cooktop. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Do you, Helen—?”
“Elaine,” Lainey and Elliot corrected in unison.
“Do you, Elaine, take Elliot to be your lawful wedded spouse, from this day forward, for as long as you both shall live?” Something dropped in her stomach. Sure, this wasn’t a lifelong commitment, but that didn’t make hearing those words coming from the hibachi chef any less terrifying.
She looked at Elliot, whose face seemed just as shaken by the idea of forever as hers. Something about that comforted her. She wasn’t alone. The knowledge that she was holding her panic with another person gave her the courage to reply, “I do.”
He asked Elliot the same question. Before answering, Elliot stepped forward, his eyes traveling all across her face, his hands reaching out to hold her waist as if all of this meant something to him. As ifshemeant something to him.
Blood pulsed in her ears as he replied, “I do.”
Chef cleared his throat. “Then, by the power vested in me by Fast Officiants, LLC, you are now married. You may kiss the—”
The wordkisssent a low, anticipatory hum through her body. It wasn’t excitement or even desire, or at least that’s what she told herself. No, as Chef Nemoto’s lips formed the word, two distinct emotions gripped her body in rapid succession.
The first was relief. Relief that perhaps she’d finally stopwondering. Fantasizing. Imagining their first kiss the way she had ever since it didn’t happen beside her car in the rain or in the woods by her house or in the pharmacy or in his dimly lit hotel room or even at a freaking Pottery Barn. She’d stop dreaming, because she’dfinallyknow.
The second was anguish. Because she’d finallyknowwhat Elliot Hodges felt like. His touch, his taste, would become a certainty. She wouldn’t dream of it anymore, and there were so few things Lainey allowed herself to dream about. She almost couldn’t bear the thought of losing another one.
But there was only time for a millisecond of this anticipatory relief/anguish before Elliot cut in with a loud throat-clearing sound that, for reasons she could not explain, felt like a personal attack.
