TEN

On the twentieth of January, Annaliese got up and went downstairs for breakfast. It was a Friday, so she was planning on going to school. She kissed her mother on the temple as she sat at the table munching on a bagel.

“What are your plans for the weekend, dear?” her mother asked, her voice sensitive and kind.

“I’ve been waiting to ask you because I was too shy, but I was wondering if you’d let me go skiing with Trip,” she asked, matching her mother’s tone and cadence. “You know, as a present for my eighteenth birthday.”

“Skiing with Trip?” It sounded so respectable when her mother said it. “Of course, you can.” She whipped open her purse and handed Annaliese a gorgeous gold credit card. “Get your own room at the lodge and charge it to that.”

“I think Trip might have paid for the rooms already,” Annaliese answered weakly.

“Then shop, pay for ski rentals, or whatever you want. It’s your birthday and your teacher called me and told me all about the improvement in your grades. Have a good time!”

Annaliese took the card and thanked her mother with tears in her eyes.

“Why must you look so sad?”

“I’ve just been feeling worn down lately.” The reason why was because she’d gone on birth control pills and they were playing havoc with her body, but she didn’t tell her mother that. She only said how grateful she was to go skiing and how she was sure she’d have a lovely time.

“Trip is such a good boy,” her mother continued. “When it comes time for you to date, I hope he’s still around.”

It was on the tip of Annaliese’s tongue to say, ‘Why wait? You could come to our wedding this afternoon!’ But even in her head, it went badly. Even lesser versions of the truth went badly.

Instead, she reverted to her old repertoire, and said, “I can’t get together with Trip. It would ruin a perfectly good friendship.”

“Atta girl,” her mother said pleasantly.

Suddenly, Annaliese got strangely giddy. “Will you let me skip school today? I’d like to go shopping and Trip won’t be leaving until three.”

“Go ahead, dear. I’ll call the school.”

Instead of going to school, she went to the mall and tried on dresses. She thought she could claim to have found the perfect grad dress. Otherwise, there was no reason for her to come home with a formal dress. However, if there was one thing she wanted (other than to marry Trip), it was to get married in a pretty dress.

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The one she chose was pure magic and she was happy to throw it on her mother’s credit card. It was champagne gold sequins that broke at her knee to a tulle mermaid with a stripe of gold at the bottom, but the tulle bottom was optional. Annaliese stuffed it in the bag and wore the dress out with a black overcoat over top when she left the house that afternoon.

She met Trip at the courthouse. It was ridiculous. They both wore hats and sunglasses. They felt it was necessary since Annaliese did not know if her mother would be in court that day and Trip didn’t know if Uncle Clement would be there either. They snuck up to the third floor where weddings took place and got married more quietly than anyone had ever gotten married before.

They felt weird, trying to celebrate a wedding in the dark.

Annaliese wore a black overcoat and sunglasses, but for the actual wedding, she stripped the coat and the glasses and looked like she was made of more gold than Cleopatra. It would have been a spectacular display except that Annaliese had been eighteen for one day and because of her nerves, she looked three years younger.

Trip was just as bad. He opted to wear a black turtleneck to the wedding, but he was so ragged from nerves that he looked ten years older when he took off his sunglasses.

They both kept shushing the justice to keep his voice down, so no one would hear him.

It was the first time that Annaliese heard Trip referred to as Christopher. She knew that was his name because that was his father's and grandfather’s name. Most people didn’t realize that Trip was short for triple because he was the third.

They signed the papers, kissed, and received odd looks from everyone who saw them. They would have stood out more, except a lot of couples popped into the courthouse to get married suddenly, so the staff smiled and wished them well and no one realized who Annaliese and Trip were. After all, it was his uncle who was the grand lawyer and not his father. No one would mistake Trip for his uncle’s son. His uncle was a famous womanizer who ‘apparently’ had no children.

The newlyweds made it to the car. Annaliese told Trip that she had permission to go skiing with him that weekend. He hooted. He had permission too. Had they really fooled everyone into believing that they could never be anything but friends?

Trip drove to Courtenay where they could ski on mountains with ocean views. He parked at the resort he’d made reservations at.

Annaliese was nervous as Trip got their key and handled their luggage. Everything about the place intimidated her and she felt a sick feeling spiraling from her gut.

“Feeling okay?” he asked her as he unlocked the door to their room.

“Nope. I feel gross. How are you feeling?”

“Like all of this should have been harder. Your mother gave you a credit card and told you to go nuts? I played the birthday card too and my father gave me a whack of cash and told me to have a wild time. I don’t know exactly what he thinks I plan to do, but his reckless abandon has me worried. If I don’t come back with a scar, a tattoo, and a cocaine addiction, I think he’ll be disappointed in me.”

Inside the hotel room, Annaliese walked to the window. The curtains were tied and she looked out onto the slopes where the chairlifts were still taking skiers up the mountainside. Trip left the lights of their room out and came up behind her, encircling her waist with his arms. He kissed the place behind her ear. Normally, he didn’t get much further before he had to stop.

Not this time.

He didn’t stop kissing her.

They were alone at last. He’d give her everything he had in exchange for this night, this life, this moment, and the one after that.

No matter how many times he said he loved her, wrote that he loved her, and showed her that he loved her, it was all leading up to this moment for him.

For the first time, Annaliese gave him everything.