I was wearing the dress I wore to his grandmother's. A lavender polka dot dress that Lilly loaned me. He wore his dress pants and a dress jacket.

We got to this office and found a man that had advertised that he would marry couples for a low price if the man was going overseas for the war. "How much?" Michael asked, taking out his wallet.

"Forty bucks," the guy replied.

Michael's jaw dropped. He hadn't expected that. He turned to me, "My grandmother gave me some money for Hanukah. But not that much. I'm sorry-"

I sushed him and handed my earrings over to the man. "Those are real diamonds. Crafted in Genovia by the jeweler Nathan Loie. They are worth well over five hundred dollars."

"I ain't got no change."

"Don't care. I just want to be married."

"Mia, you-"

"Michael, be quiet," I hissed. "Let me do this."

"I...Mia, you can't give those away, can you?" he whispered. "I mean, don't they belong to the royal family?"

I gave him a look. "If by royal family you mean me, yes. My grandfather gave them to me when I turned thirteen. My grandmother didn't know they existed."

He opened his mouth to offer another argument. "Unless you don't want to be married," I said in a worried tone.

"No, no. I do. I do. I swear I do-"

"They seem real to me Carl," the guy's assistant said after a through search.

"Then we can continue?" I asked.

"Outside," the guy replied. "The lights are flickering here. My assistant here, Chuck, will act as your witness. Sign these here papers. Then we can go outside and do this."

Michael and I did so. I was sixteen and therefore age of consent. Thank heavens.

So we got married that night, December 25, 1944 in the lightly falling snow. With a guy named Chuck Lewis as our witness. "Where'd you get my ring?" he asked, staring at it as we walked home.

"It was from home. I snuck it out," I said with some wistfulness in my voice.

"My grandmother gave me your ring when you went to get her some tea. It was her wedding ring. She told me that I was too young to get married and needed all the help I could get."

I smiled, "So she kind of liked me?"

"Figured it would be better for me to marry the princess of a country than someone off the street."

"So glad I am good enough," I said with a roll of my eyes. "What now?" I asked, stopping in front of his apartment.

"Now I don't let you out of my room until I leave for boot camp," he said lifting me off the ground and going into the building.

His parents were not happy with us. At all. "What about her parents?" his father boomed. As if I wasn't sitting right there. "Her father is going to kill me…he trusted me to take care of his daughter."

"They knew my intentions!" Michael boomed back. Wow. A booming family.

"What, that you'd marry her? Honestly Michael! They probably saw this as a harmless fling!"

"It's not a fling," I spoke up, grabbing Michael's hand. "I love him with every fiber of my being and he loves me. We have a plan."

Dr. Moscovitz laughed. "What's that then?"

"After he returns we're moving to California," I said defiantly.

He chuckled. "Where will you live until then?" he demanded.

"Hank, don't do anything rash," Mrs. Moscovitz said soothingly. "She'll live here, with us. Like we planned. You promised Phillippe. And I know you are a man of your honor. Besides, she's our daughter too now…""

He threw his arms up and stormed out. Michael stormed into his room. We Mrs. Moscovitz's sat in the den. I started crying and she held onto me and said soothing things. "You'll be fine," she said softly. "He'll be back. I'll help you out darling. Don't worry about a thing."

Lilly was happy to have me as a sister. But sad that I was moving into Michael's room. Sorry. I definitely want to be with my new husband. Must upset one Moscovitz child to keep the other happy.

Michael and I liked to stay in his room alone so we didn't run into his father. His mother brought us dinner. That is, until New Year's. That night we went out with Kevin and Miranda.

"I can't believe you two went off and eloped!" Randa said excitedly. "It's so romantic. I wish we had instead of all that attention being thrown on us."

I shrugged. I didn't care how I married Michael. As long as we were married. "I suppose."

"Lemme see your ring again," she said grabbing my hand. "It's so antique."

"It was his grandmother's. She married his grandfather in Genovia back in the eighteen hundreds. Maybe the eighteen eighties or so."

"Genovia sounds so romantic. Maybe we'll honeymoon there after all this is over. What's it like?"

I would not be able to tell her very much. All I knew was the palace. And I had a feeling not everyone had marble tile in their closets. Michael looked at me expectantly. He knew I had no ideawhat it was like outside the palace walls. Maybe he expected me to tell her the truth?"Be surprised."

And then Michael pulled me next to him, and into a corner. We were in his friend Danny's apartment, and nearly everyone there was necking. "It's almost midnight," he replied.

"So?"

"We have to kiss in the new year," he explained.

"Oh…"

"Lemme guess, you didn't do this in Genovia?"

"Nope. We went to mass."

"Not religious?" he teased, pulling me closer. "Well, let's practice a little bit, shall we?"

We kissed, and didn't stop kissing until we realized it was past midnight and Kevin was tapping Michael on the shoulder to tell him they were leaving. That Randa was feeling sick.

"Happy New Year, Mrs. Moscovitz," Randa said hugging me. "When our boys leave we should get together."

I nodded, "Sure. That'd be fun."

Not that hanging out with Lilly and Tina and all them wasn't fun, it's just, they wouldn't get everything. Get that my one true love was on the verge of being shot at any moment. Randa would.