“You know S,” Hallie tilted her head towards Sienna later that afternoon on the plane ride home. “When I said let loose, have a little fun, I didn’t mean that you should get so belligerent that you abandon me in the club, find a married man, go back to his room and sleep with him.”
“Hal, not now,” Sienna said in irritation, rubbing circles on her temples. The Tylenol that she’d taken earlier hadn’t even touched her headache.
Hallie smirked, flipping aimlessly through the People Magazine on her lap, “Was he at least cute?”
“I don’t honestly remember. I don’t remember anything from last night,” she admitted, a little shamefully.
“But what about this morning?”
“I didn’t see his face,” she shrugged, reaching up to put her long dark hair into a loose ponytail. “He was sleeping on his stomach and he was facing the opposite way. I wasn’t about to go examine him. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Must be rich or something though; the room was massive.”
“Score one for you,” she nudged her lightly.
“Oh hush. I can’t believe I had a one night stand.”
“No, you hush. At least it’s gotten your mind off of things,” Hallie pointed out. “How long has it been since you’ve thought of Devin?”Sienna sent her a glare,
“Well until now, it had been last night. Thanks for mentioning him Hal.”
“Sorry, sorry. You’ll have to deal with him sooner or later, you know. Waterford is a small town,” she pointed out, referring to the small town of Waterford, Connecticut that the two lived in.
“I know and I’m dreading it already.”
“Just stay focused on work, and keep busy. You’re strong. It’ll get better day by day,” Hallie encouraged. “And if you need to break down every once in awhile, you’ve got me.”
Sienna smiled, resting her head on Hallie’s shoulder for a second, “You’re the best Hal.”
Justin had woken up that morning with a giant headache that matched Sienna’s. He remembered going to bed with a woman that wasn’t his girlfriend, but she was mysteriously absent when he’d finally managed to open his eyes. He figured maybe it was best, because although he couldn’t remember the exact details of the previous night, he knew that he’d had a good time. The last thing he needed was to wake up next to a woman he genuinely liked, sleep with her one more time, leading her on, and in turn cheat on his girlfriend again.
He and Jessica had been fighting a lot recently, mostly because Jess was ready to settle down, get married, and start a family, but for some reason, Justin couldn’t bring himself to propose.
That morning, the thought of marriage triggered something and a mental picture flashed through his mind of him and a beautiful female standing at an altar of some sort. Justin felt nauseous for a moment, trying to will himself to look down at his left hand.
‘Oh shit,’ he thought to himself—which seemed to be the consensus for the morning for both Justin and Sienna. He held his hand out in front of him, examining the gold band carefully. Swallowing hard he managed to stand up, looking around the room for any sign of her—his apparent wife, when he noticed something shiny on the ground at the foot of the bed. Slowly ambling over to it, he bent down and picked up the objects—a diamond engagement ring and a glittering diamond wedding band to match. As he held the rings in his hand the memory came to him:
"Justin, this is crazy. We can’t get married silly," Sienna nudged him playfully, a drunk slur to her words.
“Sure we can beautiful. I like you. You like me. You’re funny and gorgeous and nice. So nice. You laughed at all my bad jokes. I like that. We just need rings. You need a pretty diamond ring to match your pretty, pretty face,” Justin told her, slurring his words himself.
“You’re so nice too Justin. You’re jokes weren’t bad! I think you are sooo funny. Okay, let’s get married. Where do we go?” she asked, looking around.
“There’s a jewelry store in my hotel—let’s go there.”
A half hour later
“Which one do you like my Princess?” he cooed to her.
“You have to pick it Jujubean! That’s the way it works!”
He smiled, kissing her lips sloppily looking into the case, “I want that one. Sir, can my soon to be wife try that one on?”
“Of course, Mr. Timberlake,” the salesmen said, pulling the 3-carat asscher-cut platinum-set diamond ring out of the case and handing it to Justin to put on Sienna’s finger. He remembered the ring looked so gorgeous on her tiny hand, but that it was far too big. The salesmen assured them that they could have it resized at the jeweler of their choice.
‘That must be why the rings are on the floor; they'd fallen off. Maybe she didn’t remember…she had been really drunk. And now she has no rings to remind her.’ And then it dawned on him fully. He was married. Not to his girlfriend, but to a beautiful stranger. That was gone. And may have no idea that she’s married. “Oh Shit.”