Page 4 of Yours, Forever

Leon was smart enough not to comment on the fact I had also forgotten what my wife looked like. "Sure. I'm emailing it to you. Give me a sec."

I dropped my head on the back of my seat, and I covered my mouth with my free hand. The phone on speaker, I navigated to my inbox and refreshed it insistently, until Leon's email made it through.

"Come on, come on." I scrolled down the message, ignoring words I wouldn't be able to make sense of anyway.

The picture struck me in ten different ways; a full force hit to the jaw that left me breathless all over again.

The picture, as spontaneous looking as I'd ever seen, seemed taken on a phone— nothing professional about it. Maybe Chris's doing. It was a close up of me kissing her cheek…

Eva's face.

My overnight friend.

Wearing the same dress she'd woken up in that morning, me in my blue charcoal suit. She held a bouquet of flowers and grinned spectacularly, eyes squinting in her humor. Or was it joy? In any case, somethingglorious.

Eva Medina. My mystery overnight friend. My bride.

"Max? Did you get the picture? Chris took it. It's the kiss you gave her when the officiant announced you as husband and wife."

I had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep myself grounded. "Okay, Leon. Talk to me."

It took us the rest of the drive to go over the details, and how it all impacted the situation with my dad.

Now all I needed to do was figure out how on Earth I was going to reach out to Eva and let her know she was legally my wife.

Max and his best friends

Three Amigos + Jake Group Chat

Max: congratulations are in order, my friends. I'm a married man

Jake: what the absolute fuck. When? How?

Gabe: you found a bride? Finally!

Max: finally? I barely made it in time.

Gabe: who is she? We need to meet her

Javier: So are things secure? Is your dad off your back?

Max: As secure as they can be right now

Gabe: Lina says that we really need to meet your wife. For all the reasons you can imagine

Max: tell Lina that I adore her but no

Javier: we all pressured Gabe to introduce us to Lina

Jake: it's only fair if you introduce us to your wife. You're the first of us to get married! It's exciting stuff, even under the circumstances

Max: let's not discuss the circumstances over text

Gabe: but when are we meeting her?

Max: let me get to know her first

Jake: you don't know her?