Maya ended up getting a belted navy blue dress that went slightly below her knees. It was sleeveless but had a collar so it was professional enough that she would be able to wear it to work if she ever got hired by an architecture firm again.
She paired it with some silver heels at Vincent's insistence. He claimed she needed new shoes to go with it and she wasn't about to argue. It was nice getting out of her soaked shoe and bloody sock anyway.
While Vincent was in the changing room trying on a suit—it appeared she had been right about him wanting to change clothes as well—she went to the bathroom to try and do some damage control on her face and hair.
Since she woke up late, she didn't have time to put on makeup or do anything other than throw her hair back into a short, sloppy ponytail. Thankfully she kept makeup in her purse for emergencies such as this.
Maya kept it simple. All she really needed was some mascara, eyeshadow, and lipstick. Her skin was having a decent day and she didn't have foundation on her anyway. That was out in the car in one of her suitcases.
As for her hair, it was hopelessly wavy so her best bet was turning the ponytail into a tiny bun and leaving some wavy wisps hanging out in the front so it didn't look so severe. It was her go-to business hairstyle back when she was an architect.
When she finished up and came out of the bathroom, Vincent was leaning against a wall nearby. He was wearing a pearl gray suit with a white shirt and a navy blue tie. Apparently he wanted to match. It was the darkest color she had ever seen him wear.
"Sorry, were you waiting long? I wanted my face to match my dress," Maya tried explaining before inwardly cursing herself at how stupid that had come out. She meant that she didn't like the disparity between her bare face and messy hair and the nice new clothes she was wearing.
He seemed to understand despite how unclear her words were. "Don't worry about it. Do you have everything you need now?"
She nodded. Geez, he was tall. The closer she got to him, the more she had to crane her neck.
"How tall are you?" she blurted.
Vincent seemed nonplussed by her completely random question. "Six feet four inches. Why do you ask?"
Fourteen inches taller than her! No wonder she felt so much tinier than usual next to him. "Because I can't see your face without tilting my head all the way back if you're less than a few feet away from me."
He actually laughed at that. It wasn't the one syllable kind from earlier either. "Your candor is quite refreshing. I knew I was right to choose you."
Maya wasn't sure how to respond to that other than with a confused "thanks" that sounded more like a question than a statement. They headed back out to the car in silence after that, not speaking again until they were in the courthouse and someone was asking questions about the paperwork they needed to fill out.
The woman behind the desk gave them a rather bewildered look when they first approached but quickly regained her professionalism. Well, they were a rather mismatched couple in terms of looks. Vincent was light and tall while she was dark and short.
She was fairly certain they were a mismatch in terms of personality as well but that was only based on what little she had seen of him today when he was actually talking. There wasn't a single thing about them that suited each other so why had she ended up on the top of his candidate list of all people?
The paperwork for the marriage license was filled out easily but they had to wait a little while for someone to be free to marry them. The ceremony itself took approximately ten minutes and Maya was amazed that it didn't take longer.
At the end, the officiant said "you may now kiss the bride" and she had no idea whether or not Vincent would actually do it. He had promised their relationship wouldn't be physical but it would also look really weird if they didn't kiss considering they just got married.
She stood there stewing frantically in her thoughts to the point that she didn't see his kiss on the cheek coming. He had to bend down quite a bit to do it too. Well. That was a nice compromise. Not a traditional kiss but less weird to onlookers than not kissing at all.
Maya was so thrown off guard by it that Vincent had to practically drag her away after thanking the man that performed the ceremony. She struggled to keep up with his pace with her little legs in her stupor.
"My apologies for before. It would have looked strange if I didn't do anything but it appears that you were not expecting it. Rest assured, nothing like that will be happening again," he said once they were back in the car. "Are you hungry?"
She finally snapped out of it once he changed the subject. She hadn't had time to eat anything before going to work and it was nearly 11 AM now.
"Yeah. Are you?"
"No, the danish was filling enough. What would you like to eat?" Vincent asked. "We can stop by a drive-thru or something on the way home."
Home. What would it be like having an actual place to live where she could have some privacy again? She had really missed that. She had no idea what his house would be like or if she would even have her own room but she probably would since they weren't in a physical relationship…right?
"A chicken sandwich sounds pretty good right now," Maya admitted.
"Not a problem," he reassured her.
A few minutes later, they pulled into the drive-thru of a popular chicken chain restaurant. Her mouth watered because she could smell the chicken already. She was hungrier than she thought so she ended up ordering two and a strawberry lemonade.
"Why did you get two sandwiches instead of a sandwich with some sort of side?" Vincent asked in a vaguely curious tone.
She swallowed before answering. "Because it's been ages since I had a chicken sandwich. You don't get a lot of meat at women's shelters because it's expensive. And it wasn't like I could afford it myself before that because of all my debt."
"Not that you could ever put me into debt but are you really that much of a spendthrift? How did you manage to get in so deep?"
This guy really didn't hold back, did he? She supposed that was why he found her candor refreshing. He didn't have much of a filter on his mouth either. Someone who speaks without thinking is less likely to be offended by others doing the same thing.
Maya scowled. "I didn't. My identity got stolen but there wasn't enough proof for the police to do anything about it. I had to call all of the credit card companies personally and get the cards frozen or canceled but that didn't get rid of the debt."
"I see." Vincent's expression didn't change but he gave off the aura of being slightly pleased.
Hang on…did he think she married him solely for the luxurious lifestyle? She was about as far from materialistic as one could possibly get. She needed very little to be comfortable in life and had learned not to expect too much from anyone or anything.
What kind of wackadoodle would purposely marry someone they knew was after their money? Exactly how rich was he? The car hinted at serious money but it wasn't until they arrived in his neighborhood that she realized the full extent of it.
Neighborhood didn't even seem like the right word for this place because all of the houses were so far apart. There was a ton of land surrounding each one and they all had tall security fences around them.
Maya's jaw dropped and she couldn't close it even after she noticed Vincent observing her reaction. This was his house?! This place was the size of a freaking palace! Did he seriously live here alone?
He pulled the car into an underground garage that held six other cars in roughly the same price bracket with room to spare. There were also work tables with half-finished machines lining one wall and more tools than she could possibly name.
"Cassandra, I need someone to take my wife's things to her room," Vincent said aloud despite the fact that they were the only two people here.
"Right away, sir," a cool female voice replied. "And may I congratulate you on your successful acquisition of a wife."
Maya whipped her head around because she couldn't see anybody and it the voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once rather than a single direction. Was Cassandra his personal assistant or something replying through a speaker box somewhere?