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11:43 p.m.

"This place is a shithole," Jasper assessed a mere ten seconds after walking in to Roxy's Lounge.

The place wasn't that bad. Then again, he'd always been a judgmental motherfucker when it came to... well, everything.

But, I mean, the bar was located in a hotel in a sketchy part of town twenty minutes from where we were staying. And yeah, we had to make our way through a cheesy gambling hall to actually find Roxy's Lounge, which was basically just a closed off section of the casino, with dimmer lighting and a lower ceiling.

"It's not that bad," Bella offered, trying to appear enthusiastic.

"No, he's right. It's a shithole," Kate agreed loudly.

"This place is cramping my style. I'm gonna go do some gambling," Jasper announced, turning in the opposite direction.

I wasn't gonna try to stop him. And I wouldn't mind if he took Kate with him, too.

"You wanna go gamble?" I asked Kate, nodding in Jasper's direction as he walked away. Who gave a fuck if I was trying to get rid of her? Some alone time with Bella would've been nice.

"No way. I haven't even seen Ben yet," she complained, walking to stand next to Bella at the bar. "I'll have a—"

Bella clamped a hand over Kate's mouth, ordering her a glass of water, and a beer for us. Kate whined, but the fact that she had left her purse in the hotel meant she had no money to binge drink, which was some sort of miracle in disguise.

There weren't many people here—not that I expected there to be because this place really was a shithole—so we chose to stand close to the stage, just to really fuck with Ben.

"Did Ben mention when he joined the band?" Bella asked as a few shady looking people scattered in from the casino.

"I have no idea," I admitted, feeling somewhat sympathetic about the shitty turn out. "I swear I didn't even know he possessed any musical talent."

"Just because he's in a band, doesn't mean he has any talent," Bella pointed out. "Look at Nickelback."

I cringed. "And Creed."

She dropped her head, shaking it in dismay. "The mere mention of Creed makes me feel angry inside."

I snaked a hand around her waist, pulling her against my side. "I feel your pain."

We stood around and waited, joking about shitty music until the one light shining on the stage turned on. Two guys, one decked out in a sleeveless plaid shirt and the other in a teal corduroy jacket, appeared on stage and began setting up. A few minutes later, Ben came out, wearing a tie-dye shirt, suspenders, and... the tie I lent him the night before he left Austin. Fucker.

He spotted us immediately, but only acknowledged us by offering a small nod in our direction. I nodded back, Bella gave him a thumbs up, and Kate's eyes stayed glued to her phone.

"Look, it's your boy," I teased Kate, nudging her with my elbow.

"I'm trying to play it cool." She grudgingly sipped her water. "But if he wants to go to a chapel after the show and let an Elvis impersonator marry us, I wouldn't say no."

"You've got to be kidding me," I mumbled, swigging my beer.

Bella laughed. "She's not kidding."

"But you never fucking talk to him," I felt the need to point out.

"That doesn't mean we aren't meant for each other," Kate insisted, then stared at Bella expectantly. "I need to pee."

"You're a big girl," Bella insisted. "You can go to the bathroom yourself."

I fought back a smile as Kate headed in the direction of the bathrooms by herself.

Barely a minute later, the dude in the corduroy jacket took his place on stage, tapping the mic.

"Hey, everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight," Corduroy said into the microphone in an overly raspy voice. "We're The Hipsters," he introduced, using air quotes around the word hipsters.

Bella's head jerked in my direction, and she mouthed what the fuck?

Corduroy picked up a guitar, the guy in plaid walked over to sit behind the drums, and Ben took his place, standing behind a keyboard synthesizer.

And then they began playing, singing a song about grilled cheese sandwiches. I think.

"This is so, so sad, and somehow better than anything I could've imagined," Bella whispered, holding back her laughter.

"Unbelievable," I whispered back, watching Ben pound away on the keyboard.

"They're not even trying to be ironic," she said in awe.

"I know."

On the third song, we migrated towards the bar and swiveled our stools to face the stage. I ordered us each a shot of whiskey and two more beers.

"Should you go check on Kate?" I asked after a minute. "She's been in there for a while."

"Nah. If she's puking, I'd rather not be in there."

I turned to face her, locking her knees between mine. "Good point."

"You know, you're kind of amazing," she murmured, staring down into her beer.

I tugged on a strand of her hair, grinning. "You're not already drunk, are you?"

She looked up, rolling her eyes. "I have to be drunk to tell you that you're amazing?" I shrugged, still smiling. "It's just... with Kate, I don't know. She's a handful, and kind of insane, but she's my friend, and you've been really tolerant of her this past year. So... thanks."

I softened my gaze. "You don't have to thank me, Bella."

"I know, I know. I just feel bad because I know you were excited about coming here, and things have been kind of stressful so far."

With a sigh, I leaned closer, pressing my lips against hers. "I only put up with her because I love you."

She fisted the front of my shirt, pulling me closer as she kissed me back. "I love you, too. Really. So much. Like, I'd marry you right now because I'm that impressed with how you're handling all of this."

I raised my eyebrows suggestively. "What about bathroom sex?"

"I don't love you thatmuch," she teased.

The band only played three more songs before they thanked everyone—meaning the ten people in the room—for coming out, then began packing up all their shit.

"We should wait here and say hi to Ben," I suggested, finishing my beer.

Bella nodded in agreement. "And then what do you want to do?"

"Uh... I don't know. We could gamble."

"We could. Or... we could go to one of those chapels," she offered, eyes wide and sparkling, even in the dim bar.

I stared at her and narrowed my eyes, trying to gauge her smile. "Why are you suggesting that? Are you getting religious on me?"

Her eyes became squinty from grinning so wide, and I fucking loved seeing her smile like that.

"No, not religious. But I might be getting matrimonial on you."

Laughing loudly, I placed my hand on her knee and leaned over, kissing her cheek. "You wanna go to one of those cheesy ass chapels and let an Elvis impersonator marry us? You stole Kate's idea."

"And everyone else's who came to Vegas in love," she quipped.

I laughed again, telling her to shut up.

Her face fell. "Why are you laughing? You don't want to marry me?"

I gave her a look. "Come on. I never said that."

"But you're laughing."

"Because it's kind of insane."

"Marrying me is insane?"

It was my turn to frown. "No. Of course I want to marry you, but... Vegas?"

"Why not? It's not like we'd have some huge, elaborate wedding, anyway. That's not us."

"And Vegas is?"

She shrugged. "It could be."

"Are you serious right now?" I asked, both in shock and amusement.

"Of course I am. Why would I joke about marriage?"

"Why would you not? The first night we met, we convinced people we were engaged to be married."

"Good point," she agreed. "But I'm being serious now. I think we should get married tonight."

A few people came over to the bar, standing next to us as they ordered drinks. So, I slid off the stool and grabbed Bella's hand, pulling her away so we could have a little more privacy.

"Dude," Bella uttered once we were standing alone in the dark corner of the bar, near the bathrooms, because that was the best place to have a serious conversation.

"Don't dude me," I scolded with a small smile, searching her face in the dim light.

"I'm going to have to convince you to marry me, aren't I?"

I didn't need her to convince me, because of course I wanted to fucking marry her. I probably thought about it more often than I'd like to admit. But I had a feeling whatever she was going to say to convince me would be amusing. So instead of telling her all of that and risking sounding like a pussy, I just smiled affectionately, fueling her annoyance.

"Fine." She folded her arms across her chest and began listing off reasons why we should get married. "One, we already live together. Two, I'm in love with you."

"Number two should be more important than number one."

"Well, yeah. But I'm not listing these in order of importance because I didn't prepare for this, Edward," she explained, sighing in exasperation. "I didn't think I'd have to come up with reasons to convince you to marry me."

"Okay. Continue."

"No, that was it."

"You only gave me two reasons."

"Don't be greedy."

"We don't have any married friends," I pointed out.

"Why does that matter?"

"It doesn't. I'm just trying to figure out what brought this on."

"Other than the fact that I love you?" she asked dryly.

"Yes."

With a huff she asked, "Why are you questioning me? Don't question this."

"I'm not questioning you," I laughed, grabbing her hip and giving her a small shake. "I have yet to ask you a single question."

"You're doing the whole questioning thing without asking any questions. It's tricky and infuriating and makes me want to marry you more than I already did."

"And you're doing the whole answering my questions with a question thing," I countered teasingly.

Bella cracked a smile. "Why don't you just put me out of my misery and marry me?"

"As far as proposals go, I think that one takes the cake."

"That would've been funnier if you said that one takes the wedding cake," she suggested, planting a small kiss on my chin. "But that's okay. I want to marry you more for your looks, not your wit."

"Are you sure you're doing this for the right reasons? Looks fade," I reminded her.

"So will my eyesight. It's okay."

I chuckled, uttering, "You really want to do this, Bella?"

"Yes."

"And you don't care if our parents get upset that we're not having a wedding?"

"No."

"Alright, then. I guess we're getting married tonight."

"Yeah?" Her lips curled into a smile, and I couldn't help but grin in return. I didn't exactly want to get married in Vegas, but if she wanted to, I would. I'd do anything she wanted if she just kept smiling at me like that.

I wrapped my arms around her waist, and pulled her against me, burying my face in her neck. She shivered, wrapping her arms around my neck, pulling my head down for a kiss.

"I don't have a ring," I realized, pulling back.

"I don't need one."

"Yes you do," I argued, because she needed a ring. "I liked it, so I wanna put a ring on it."

"Did you just quote Beyoncé?"

"Yeah. I did."

"Oddly enough, I still want to marry you."

"It's all part of my charm."

Thanks for reading, even though Kate is super obnoxious.

You're probably thinking that Ben's band's name isn't very original, but get this: Roxy's Lounge is a real place in Vegas, and when I was checking out the site, there was a band who had an upcoming show, and guess what their name was? The Hipsters. So, obviously, I had to steal the name. Duh.