Like a Best Friend | ✓

chapter twenty-seven

"Kitty." I step back so I can see her properly, my hands on her elbows. "Did you just propose?"

"Yes. Sorry, it wasn't very romantic," she says with a laugh. She spreads her hands out and says, "Look where we are, Fliss. I love you. You love me. We're in the wedding capital of the world and we've been in love with each other for way longer than most marriages last anyway. We just didn't realize it."

Maybe it's crazy but I'm just tipsy enough that she's making perfect sense. My smile spreads so wide it hurts my cheeks. "When in Vegas, right?" I look down and say, "We're already dressed for a wedding." When I look up, my eyes lock on Kitty's and I ask, "Is that why you were so keen for me to buy a white dress?"

She presses her lips together. I can see she's trying not to break out in a beam. This girl.

"Kitty!"

"Best to be prepared, right?" she says.

"But it's Saturday. We can't get married on Shabbat."

Kitty gestures to the night sky. "Fliss, the sun went down hours ago. We can do whatever we want."

"Oh my god. Have you been planning this?"

She gives me a coy shrug and says, "I figured it's best to be prepared, right? It's our last night here. We wanted to go out with a bang. We've been pretending to be married for the last couple weeks and I've loved every second. Well, except for the times I convinced myself you weren't into me."

"I can't believe you," I say, laughing. "God, I love you." I hold her face in both hands and kiss her soft lips. "How do we even get married?"

"I didn't plan that far ahead," she says, "but it's Vegas. Everyone gets married in Vegas. How hard can it be?"

Within twenty minutes of Kitty's off the cuff proposal, we're at the Clark County Marriage License Bureau. My heart has turned into a butterfly, flapping in my chest as we fill out the application. As Kitty fills it out, rather. She has a steadier hand. I'm shaking with nerves and anticipation, and I've had more to drink than she has. Not so much that my judgment is incapacitated, but I don't want to misspell my name.

"Campbell-Cohen?" Kitty asks, pen hovering over the page.

"Hmm?"

She taps the section that offers us the choice of a new name to be known as after we're married and says, "Campbell-Cohen, right? We decided that flows better."

"We're really going to be the Campbell-Cohens," I say, an excited laugh bubbling out of me. "This is really real."

"It really is." Kitty writes our names in her neat print. This isn't so crazy for her. She should've been married thirteen days ago; she was already planning to come home as someone's wife. Before this trip, marriage had hardly crossed my mind.

"Kitty and Felicity Campbell-Cohen," I say, trying out the name out loud. "We sound amazing."

It all takes less than an hour. When we leave the bureau at ten p.m. once Kitty's paid the fees, we have one year to get married in the city before it expires. We don't need a year. We don't even need an hour.

"There's a chapel at our hotel," Kitty says, swinging my hand. There's a skip in her step, like she's been filled with helium. I spin her around in the middle of the sidewalk, unable to contain my excitement. "Should we go there?"

"No!" I cry out. "They think we're already married!"

Kitty cackles, her messy curls flying around her head as she twirls. "Oh my god, imagine. We'd be exposed as frauds!"