As a way to cheer herself up on a day that should have been her happiest. Rose had dressed from head to toe in red. A slanted red hat, red shoes with a dark bottom, and form fitting red dress. Even her lipstick was blood red. She looked like the femme fatale in an action movie, rather than what she actually was.
A bride that would never be.
Upon walking into the office and finding so many people, she'd nearly walked back out. But then she'd realized that all their attention was on someone up front. A man, talking loudly and cheerfully to another man. It had sounded like a pleasant conversation, but something in his tone had seemed off, the words were sweet, but somehow…bitter. Standing on her tip toes, Rose had finally caught sight of a familiar face, his eyes wide, lost, and so-so desperate.
It was then that Rose had realized what she had not liked about the other man's voice. His words were a threat. He obviously knew some of what had happened with Melanie's ex and was there to gloat. A cat playing with its prey, and Rose felt her temper rear its head.
She'd had people laughing at her all week. Being just as passive aggressive about it as the sleazebag with the strippers. She would not just stand back and let the same thing happen to someone else. The fact the someone had been on the same painful side of being cheated on, gave her more incentive. Squeezing her way to the front and elbowing people away, she made her way to tall man's side.
Bad move! Bad move! Her voice of reason (which sounded a lot like Lili) was swiftly ignored. It was only once she took the man's hand in hers that she had calmed down. And without her rage to carry her through, Rose had frozen. Not having had any other plan other than getting to the man and preventing him from being humiliated.
Luckily, her interruption seemed to have helped the man gather himself, and she felt his hand on her lower back, his lips against her brow, before he pulled back and steered her away from the crowd.
Good, at least one of them had a plan, Rose thought as she let herself be guided. An office door opened and they were led in as the majority of the people in the hallway were guided out. The mouthy scumbag leaving with them despite all the noise he'd been making. His face looking like he'd swallowed a lemon. Rose really wanted to kick him in the nuts, never had she hated someone so much on sight.
Once in the office, they stared at each other, dumbfounded, But they could not longer speak. The woman in the office, was better suited for a drill sergeant, than her current job. She barked orders and they both rushed to obey. Handing over documents and swearing oaths on command.
"Sign," She said, placing a piece of paper before them, and they jumped to follow her instruction. Next they had their finger prints scanned and watched quietly as she used an official looking stamp.
"Pick up your marriage certificate in the next room," She said, and the two of them left without a word, both wide eyed.
They left the government office side by side, holding onto each other, not out of love or affection. But for literal support, the two of them not quite processing what they had just done. For Rose, who had come in a taxi, it didn't even occur to her to hail another one. Getting in on the passenger side of the man, Nathaniel Kiriakis car. They rode in silence for a few blocks, neither of them looking at the other, or acknowledging their presence in anyway. Then the car pulled over on the side of the road and the man, her husband, Nathaniel Kiriakis(that was the name on the certificate ) turned to her and spoke, his voice hesitant like even he was struggling to believe himself.
"We…back there…we just got…" He tried and failed several times, his mind failing to come up with a word to sum up their situation. Rose's mind was having no such problems.
"Married," She finished for him, voice low, but her inner voice was screaming.
Married! Married! Who gets married to a guy they'd only met once and for a few seconds. Was she insane? She'd heard of one night stands, but what on earth was this? A shotgun wedding? But she wasn't pregnant, and again she didn't know him. What if this was a thing he did? Getting married to strange women and then robbing them. But she wasn't rich, what he sold her for money? Oh, oh no, this was so bad.
"You don't have to worry about me selling you for money, plus this is my first marriage too," Schooling her face into something calm, Rose turned to him.
"You heard that?" She asked and he smiled at her. A small genuine thing that had a canine tooth peeking out adorably.
"You were thinking out loud," He said, shrugging like he had no worries, and Rose found his sudden calmness contagious.
"How are you so relaxed about this?" She asked, and he turned his upper body to her.
"Seeing you panic was like having someone else do all the things I wanted to do to relive my stress," He said, and there was that smile again, it did things to her, twisting her stomach in knots. When his words registered Rose instantly took offence.
"Hey!" She stuck her tongue out at him before she could think better of it. Instantly pulling her tongue back in, her cheeks pink.
"We're really married aren't we?" At her statement the mood in the car instantly shifted, all the lightheartedness gone.
He huffed out a breath.
"That we are,"
Outside the world moved on, the earth continued to spin. But for the two people in the car, time itself had stopped. Both of them quiet once more, lost in their thoughts, the outside world nothing but background noise.
It was the man who moved first, turning to his female companion, brow furrowed in worry.
"I know that you and I don't really know each other, and I have no right to ask this of you but-" He paused, fingers drumming against the steering wheel.
"Will you be my wife?" Rose startled at the question. By now she had been expecting them to be discussing their divorce, yet the man she'd just married was asking her to be his wife.
"What?" Maybe she hadn't heard correctly, he met her gaze and held it.
"Let's stay married," He said, and Rose could not find any signs of a lie in him.
Once upon a time, Rose had had a plan for the perfect wedding. She'd even thought she'd found the perfect man. But that dream had gone up in flames, and though she hadn't told anyone, she'd decided to stay single forever rather than risk her heart again.
But here was this man, her husband, asking to stay married. It hadn't been the wedding she'd spent decades planning. She barely knew the man in front of her. But clearly she was still suffering from the madness that had gotten her married. Instead of saying no, Rose found herself nodding along.
"Alright," She said, saying goodbye to childish dreams and embracing her reality.