Chapter 12
For the remainder of their trip, Sydney and Michael were practically inseparable. They spent their days hanging out at the pool, they ate together, and then they would spend their evening curled up together in their bed. On their last night, though, Michael convinced Sydney to go down to the casino with him to do some betting, having a feeling she would regret it if she had done no more than pull the handle of a slot machine a few times. He even gave her twenty dollars worth of his own money so even if she lost she wasn’t losing her money.
After a few minutes on one machine, Sydney was about ready to give up. She had lost half of the twenty dollars already and felt it was stupid to lose even more. Michael convinced her to try once more though, and she did, reluctantly. On that pull, she won five thousand dollars and promptly screamed out, “Holy felgercarb!”
Michael could hardly believe it; all he could do was stare at the ticket that printed out and read $5,000. Meanwhile, Sydney was giddy, jumping around, clapping her hands and kissing him as a thank you for encouraging her to pull that one last time.
After receiving her prize money and tucking it safely away in her suitcase, she and Michael met up with the rest of their group, who seemed to be equally shocked Sydney won such a sum of money. They immediately began encouraging her to splurge on fancy items, but Sydney refused; that money was going towards rent and car repairs when she got home. Naturally, the group did not accept this very easily, but Sydney didn’t care; it was her money and she was going to spend it the way she chose.
It was not until the group of six was boarding their flight back to Virginia that Steve and Tammy pointed out that Sydney and Michael were still legally married. They were not sure if any annulment was in the works, either, since Michael and Sydney had spent the majority of the later part of their vacation away from the rest of the group. When the newlyweds informed the rest of their crew that they were not going to annul their marriage, at least not yet, this news was naturally met with shock and many jeers. Sydney and Michael didn’t care though; they were happy with the decision they made.
“So I guess we have to decide what we’re gonna tell our parents. I mean, do we tell them we’re together but not tell them we’re married…or do we keep the whole thing a secret for a ltitle while? What?” Sydney asked about half way through their flight home.
“Well we’re gonna be like… going out on dates and stuff right?” he questioned. Sydney nodded. “Right and sine we’re living at home odds are at least one of our parents will notice that…”
“Good point…but we don’t have to tell them right away, right? I mean, we can wait a little while…”
“Why are you so against them finding out?” Michael asked with a slight laugh. Sydney never had been particularly secretive in any respect and he was under the impression she did not go out of the way to hide things from her parents, especially from her mother, as she seemed to be doing with their relationship.
“It’s just… you know how protective my dad can be. He freaks out when I have any sort of boyfriend and I just… I dunno,” she sighed.
“Sydney I’m seriously not afraid of your father,” he told her with a laugh.
“No, I know I just… I didn’t want him to be hovering – which he will hover. I’m hoping to start looking for apartments or townhouses – you know, using my winnings,” she grinned. “You can help me if you want.”
“You want my help?” he asked with a smile.
“Well yeah I figure if this goes well…we’ll be moving in together since, obviously, we’re married so you should have a say in what kinda housing we’re living in,” she told him.
“Moving in together… I like that,” he grinned, slipping an arm around her shoulders.
“Slow down buddy – that’s not gonna be for a little while,” she reminded him.
He shrugged slightly. “Eventually is good enough; I’m not in a hurry.
~*~
After a very long flight, Michael and Sydney said goodbye to Steve, Tammy, Andrew and Jas, which really was not all that sad; they were glad to get away. Then, Michael drove Sydney home, where they said their own goodbyes, which was a lot sadder.
“How about we go on our first date tonight?” Michael offered with an enticing grin.
“That sounds nice but I think the jet lag is really gonna get me by then…how about tomorrow?” she offered. Michael agreed and kissed her quickly before helping her carry her luggage back into the house. Since it was a Friday afternoon no one was home at the Bristow residence; Sydney’s parents were at work and while her younger sister, Nadia, was off from school, she, apparently, was out somewhere. Because they were all alone, their kisses goodbye became a little heated until Sydney realized that Michael had them both sprawled out on her bed, at which point she put an end to their activities and made him leave, despite the fact that he was making sad faces at her.
Once he was gone, Sydney set to work on putting all her dirty clothes into the laundry and putting away the clean, unworn ones. As she was doing this, her younger sister arrived home and immediately asked, “What’d ya bring me?”
“Well I’ve got some hotel stationary you can have,” Sydney smiled at her.
The nineteen-year-old looked supremely offended. “You didn’t bring me anything?!”
“If it helps I didn’t buy myself anything either,” Sydney told her with a slight laugh.
Nadia grumbled. “What did you do out there?”
“Well…I drank, gambled – oh and I got married,” she told her very seriously.
Nadia snorted with laughter. “Yeah that’s a good one Syd. Who’d ya marry? Michael?”
“Maybe I did,” she said simply. She knew that her sister would never believe her, especially with the ‘drinking and gambling’ lie she fed her. Of course, she had gambled, but just because she happened to win five thousand dollars after a few pulls of a slot machine arm did not mean she gambled.
“Yeah, sure, okay,” Nadia rolled her eyes before leaving her sister’s bedroom. After this Sydney could not help but laugh softly. When her family finally did find out that she and Michael did elope in Vegas, they were all going to have heart attacks and it was going to be hysterical.