{Kiwi}
"I'm so glad we decided to go through with this." Melly said as she packed her things. "Me too baby. I can't wait, soon you'll be Mrs. Nickolas Carter." Nick smiled as he kissed is soon to be wife. "It does have a nice ring to it." Melly laughed. "It sure does. But we gotta get going before Bri and Val get back." Nick said pulling Melissa out the door.
~Bri and Val~
"We gotta hurry. This feeling is just too intense. They're up to something. I know it." Val said pulling Brian behind her. "Hold on! I'll call a cab!" Brian said reaching for his cell phone. "NO TIME! We gotta get there...NOW!" Val yelled running down the sidewalk. Soon they arrived back at the hotel. "Whattya waiting for?" Brian asked as Val stopped in the lobby. "Just wait a second." Val whispered as she saw Melissa and Nick come out of the elevator with a suitcase. Val then saw Jane and Bette in the restaurant. "I know what's going on here. Melly and Nick are eloping!" Val said astonished.
"How do ya know that?" Brian asked. "Look, they've got a suitcase, Jane and Bette are over there. They probably overwhelmed Nick and Mel with wedding ideas and it got to be too much. I know what they're up to. Come on. I got an idea." Val said sneaking back out the door with Brian following.
"What crazy thing did you come up with this time?" Brian asked as Val looked for a cab. "I overheard what chapel they're planning on going to. We're gonna go there and stop them!" Val said. "You honestly think you can pull this off don't you?" Brian said as they got into the cab. "I don't think, I know." Val said to Brian and then turned to the driver and said, "To No Phoney Matrimony, the chapel on 75th. Quickly please." "No problem miss, I get you there in 5 minutes." The driver said in an Indian accent. "Thank you." Val said sitting back.
~Meanwhile With Nick and Melissa~
"Only a couple more minutes." Nick said smiling as they rode in a cab to the No Phoney Matrimony Chapel. "I'm just as excited. To think, I'll be able to sign my name as Melissa Stanford-Carter." She smiled. "Wait, I thought you decided not to hyphen your name." Nick said. "I still wanted to keep my maiden name. It's a thing that my whole family has done, my mom, aunts, everyone. I really wanted to keep the trend." Melissa said. "But you said Carter, just Carter. Remember when you said that?" Nick asked. "No, when?" Melissa didn't remember. "When we were talking about the formal wedding and the vows and everything. We said that unless we could arrange to talk to the priest ahead of time, we were just going to say Carter. Cause he wouldn't be able to say 'I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Nickolas Gene Carter. He'd have to say Mr. Nickolas Carter and Mrs. Melissa Stanford-Carter. Which
we thought was too confusing." Nick explained their previous conversation. "Oh." Melly simply said. "You don't remember talking about that?" Nick asked. "Not really, I knew we talked about it but it was just a thing, I didn't know it was that important to you that I just use Carter." Melissa said looking out the window. "Well, is it that important to you that you hyphen your name?" Nick asked turning Melly's face back to him. There was tears in her eyes. "What's wrong baby?" Nick asked dropping the other conversation. "Nothing. I have to talk to Valerie." Melly said, "Please stop the cab." Melly said to the driver. "Very well." He responded. Melly tossed him a 20 and the driver said, "Thank you greatly miss." "Yeah yeah." Melly responded jumping out of the car still crying. Leaving Nick to sit in the car. "You still going to chapel?" the driver asked. "Yeah whatever." Nick said disappointed. "Very well sir. We go to chapel." The driver said continuing.
~Brian and Valerie~
They arrived at the chapel right before Nick's cab did. "Hey Nicky boy!" Brian said walking up to him. "Huh?" Nick asked still confused! "What's up? You and Melly gettin married? Where is Melly?" Brian said looking around. "I dunno. We were gonna get married right now but then she started crying and she jumped outta the cab." Nick said burying his face in his hands as he sat on the curb. "Oh shit." Val mumbled. "What?" Nick and Brian both asked at the same time. "OK, remember this morning when Melly and I were talking in the hallway? Well, I think that's what this might be about." Valerie said grabbing her cell phone and dialing Melly's number. "What were you talking about?" Nick demanded an answer. "The engagement, the wedding, the marriage." Val said as she turned away to talk on the phone.
"Melissa Anne!!!!!" Val yelled into the phone as soon as Melly answered. "I'm not going to stop you guys from getting married if you get your little hiney down here right now!" Val said before Melissa could say anything else Val went on with, "I thought we cleared up everything when we talked in the hallway. I thought you were all better?" "I was but..." Melly started to say. "No 'buts' Melissa! You guys are getting married, and you're getting married today!" Valley demanded. "OK." Melissa simply said and continued with, "Meet me in the hotel room in 15 minutes. If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it right." Melly ended. "That's more like it." Val said and hung up.
"Well?" Nick asked. "Well what?" Val responded. "Well? Are we getting married or not?" Nick asked again. "Nicky! I'm surprised at you! Asking your best friend's girl to marry you!" Val joked. "Valerie! You know what I mean!" Nick said. "Yeah I know, I hafta go meet Mel. You guys will be married today....unless........" Val trailed off. "Unless what?" Brian asked. "Unless your mothers interrupt!" Val completed her thought.
~END OF CHAPTER 29~
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Chapter 30