Free The Convenient Wife (A BWWM Steamy Marriage of Convenience Romance) by Imani King

motioning
vaguely toward one of the many lines, this one designated for marriage
licenses.

 
    The queue was longer than I’d have
liked, but my impatience aside, the two of us managed to make it to the front
of the line after what felt like an hour of standing. We stepped up to the
counter together, my heart pounding against my ribcage. God, was I actually
nervous?

 
    “Sit, please,” a middle-aged women
sitting behind the counter, indicating a pair of plastic chairs in front of her
desk.

 
    “Your names, please?”

 
    “Georgia Lynn Deveraux and Dorian
Eugene Lambert,” Gigi said, glancing over at me with a forced smile. Without
warning, her fingers laced together with mine and squeezed tight.

 
    “And you’re filing for your marriage
license?”

 
    “Yes, ma’am.”

 
    “Congratulations,” she said, her
voice sounded anything but excited about our nuptials. “Now, there is a fee
required before—”

 
    “We can pay it now. I have cash,” I
said, my foot thumping nervously. Gigi rubbed her thumb over my knuckles in an
attempt to calm me down, but the anxiety didn’t abate.

 
    “All right,” the clerk said, her
mouth forming a thin. “Then all that’s required is that you take the license
and have the person performing the ceremony return this to the courthouse
within ten days of the wedding.”

 
    “We were actually hoping for a
courthouse ceremony—are those available? We don’t really want to wait.”

 
    Again, the clerk pursed her lips.
She shook her head ever so slightly and turned toward her computer. After a few
clicks and keystrokes, she turned back to the two of us.

 
    “We have an opening for one last
ceremony today, but it’ll be an additional cost for the notary.”

 
    “We’ve got the money,” Gigi said,
turning toward me, her eyebrows raised.

 
    I dug into my pocket and pulled out
my wallet and the cash I’d withdrawn from the ATM moments before I even walked
in the door. I’d been surprisingly forward thinking and actually looked up the
cost of the licensing and the ceremony before I arrived—which was about the
most mature thing I’d done outside of the bedroom in a few years.

 
    “I’ll inform the notary.”

 
    The woman stood up and walked, her
lack of enthusiasm only seeming to grow as she was required to put physical
effort into her job. I couldn’t blame her—government work sounded like the
worst thing ever invented next to genocide and Justin Bieber.

 
    The clerk returned with a wiry man
in tow, dressed in a dark suit with a spindly pair of glasses perched upon his
prominent nose.

 
    “This is them,” the woman said,
motioning vaguely toward me and Gigi.

 
    “The happy couple,” the man said, a
warm smile spreading across his face. “My name is Mr. Holloway. I’m the notary
on duty today.”

 
    Finally, I thought, someone who’s at least pretending to be happy about their job.

 
    “Are we ready to begin?” the man
asked, clasping his hands together. He had a wispy, rasping voice, almost like
he was perpetually hoarse.

 
    When Gigi and I both nodded, his
smile widened and the bid us to follow him behind the desk and toward a door
leading deeper into the courthouse.

 
    “We like to hold the ceremonies
somewhere a bit more private than the front lobby, you understand. Keeps the
spectacle private and cuts down on… incidents.”

 
    “What kind of incidents?” I asked,
curiosity getting the better of me.

 
    “Outside parties interfering with
the ceremony. Why, once we had a young lady stop the proceedings and assault
the bride—quite a debacle. They had to rush her to the emergency room.”

 
    “Jesus,” Gigi said, shaking her
head. “People are crazy.”

 
    “To put it mildly,” the notary said
“especially when love is involved. Here we are.”

 
    We stopped in front of a door off a
long hallway, Mr. Holloway turning a key in the shabby-looking lock before
pushing it