316. Blessed

"Mom?" I asked, trying to keep the drunk out of my voice. "How mad would you be if Cayden and I got married while we were here?"

I wasn't sure what I was expecting her to say. Maybe I expected her to talk me out of it. Maybe I was expecting her to yell at me for wasting money on a long-distance phone call to ask such a ridiculous question. But I definitely wasn't expecting this:

"Not mad at all! We want him here as badly as you do. Do whatever you have to do to make that happen."

I almost squealed into the phone. I nodded to Cayden and gave him a thumbs up.

It was just after the sunset snorkel cruise that we decided we had to get married. We were standing on the dock, watching the sun set between the storm clouds. A group of girls walked by behind us singing "Love letters! Love letters to Kellie!" Turns out, it wasn't just Vicky who'd heard me on the radio.

"So what exactly do you have to do to make that happen?" Mom asked.

"I actually don't have a clue. We're going to ask around and see what all we need. I don't know if we need our birth certificates or if we can just throw back some shots and find a fake Elvis to marry us like they do in Vegas."

Surely I could find a fake Elvis in Cozumel. A fake Mexican Elvis. Si. Si, senior.

"Well, you have our blessing." I heard Dad give a "woo-hoo" in the background and I could almost picture him doing a fist pump. My parents rock.

Cayden kissed me before I could hang up the phone. I'd been on a high for a full three days. Cayden was feeling the same way I was. I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his carefree laugh. I started to wonder if that's how I'd feel every day when Cayden and I could finally live together. Or maybe it was the effects of the romantic setting mixed with various alcoholic beverages that was making me feel that way.

--

"So... we want to get married. How can we make that happen?"

We were sitting across from the hotel's wedding planner in the lobby before dinner. A surprised look crossed her face before she opened her binder and ruffled through some papers.

"How long are you staying?" she asked.

"We leave in 5 days," Cayden answered, squeezing my hand in excitement.

"Let me call the judge and see what I can do," the wedding planner said. "It used to be that you could get married on a whim here, like people do in Vegas, but the marriage laws here changed recently and it could take up to a month to get a marriage certificate."

My heart dropped. I needed another margarita, STAT. Cayden sighed and patted my leg.

"But like I said, let me call the judge and then I'll call your room and tell you what he said."

All that night, through dinner with our favorite new friends and a night of dancing to 90s music at the beach-side bar, I couldn't wait to get back to our room to check our messages.

But that was going to have to wait until we had sex on the pier under the stars.