I gave Amy a death look, “Why on earth did you do that?!!”

She gave me an apology look, “I’m sorry. I was so thrilled of having you as my sister-in-law. You know how much everyone of us wanted that.”

“Urgh!!” I stood up. “You just made me hate you!!” and walked away from them. I’m so damn angry I could kill each and every one of them with my bear hands.

I bumped into my one of my other girlfriends who just on their way to the restaurant, “Hey Ash, what’s wrong?” asked Judy looking concernedly at me.

“Nothing!!” I said angrily wiping my tears away, “I just need some fresh air,” I said and continued to walk away. Damn!! I cursed in my head. Why Amy couldn’t keep her mouth shut? Of all the people why does she have to tell our parents? She knows how much our parents want Nick and me to be together.

You see, my parents were always very strict when it came to choosing friends and whom I dated during high school. Knowing that they trusted and liked Nick, Amy and I had came out with an idea that every time we’re going out at night to a party or movies, I would tell them that Nick would be there even though most of the time, he wasn’t around. Whenever I mentioned his name, my parents especially Daddy would just nod his head and let me go without further questioning.

My parents loved him and both our parents really thought we were dating during high school right until he left for college. Nick knew about this but he never said a word about it. A good thing is he would act as if he was my boyfriend whenever we had family gatherings. We would both sit next to each other during dinner, without any words or physical touching, just sitting together quietly. Our parents thought we were just acting decent front of them. Well, when I come to think about it, he’s not really a jerk.

Amy was right. Everyone in the family wanted me to be with Nick. They had been pressuring us both to get engaged before I went to college but we both managed to get away with giving reason and neither of us was ready for any commitment. I don’t know why neither of us, especially me had not been able to tell our parents the truth about us. I really thought that after coming home from college everyone would have started to realize the truth about us but the thought had still gone unchanged.

I don’t know where I was and how far I was from our hotel. I just let my legs lead me. I needed to get away from Amy and the rest of the gang to clear out my mind and think about what I should do to get out from this mess.

I finally saw a bench and went to sit there. I felt so horrible and down. I covered my face with my hands and began to sob. Why is this happening to me? It took just one day for my perfect and beautiful single life has been ruined. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have agreed to come to Vegas with them.

I felt someone sit beside me and I quickly wiped my tears. I looked to my side and found Nick was sitting beside me. He cast me a worried and concerned look. Yeah this time I’m sure my eyes didn’t play a trick on me, he really looked concerned.

“I’m really sorry. Ashley,” he said and I looked at him in shock. Now, did my ears just playing trick at me? Did I hear it correctly?

“Did you just call me Ashley?” I asked him shockingly.

He rolled his eyes, “Yes I did. I call you Ashley. Happy?” he mocked.

“What date is today?” I asked him happily.

“24 May,” he said.

“Right, 2405, reminds me to buy that number later. I think I definitely will win first price. Nicholas Sinclair just called me Ashley today,” I mockingly throwing my hand up in the air. “I definitely will remember this day for the rest of my life.”

“Yep you definitely will,” he smirked, “Because it’s also reminds you that this day you became my wife and you had sex with me, Wifey”

Damn him, did he have to remind me that? I gave him a death glared for reminding me and all he did was chuckled.

“Well, I’ll make sure you will suffer for as long as we remain married,” I smirked.

“So you decide to remain married to me?” he raised his eyebrows

“No, not really,” I shook my head, “We need to find a way to tell our parents that it was just a mistake,” I told him.

“Do your parents know you don’t like me?” he asked looking at me knowing what my answer would be.

Looked at my hands, pouted and twisted my lips, I slowly answered, “No.” I’m too shy to look at him and admit that I had been using him during and since high school.

“You think our parents will believe it?” he sighed.

“They have to believe it,” I stressed, “We have to make them believe it. We have to tell them we actually don’t like each other,” I suggested. “We have to tell them the truth.”

“After all these years you want to tell them that we’ve been lying to them?” he asked looking intensely at me.

I sighed knowing that he is right. How could I tell my parents that I had been lying to them about my relationship with Nick? I was thinking of how to show them that Nick and I were not an item after I came home from college but now look at me, I’ve gone and married him.

“We have to, Nick,” I said softly to him. “It’s all my faults. I should have thought about the consequences for using your name for this long. I should have just told them the truth when I had the chance but I continued with the charade even after you left.”

“Well it’s my fault too, I played along with you,” he shrugged.

Damn why is he being so nice? I had never seen this side of him before. We both remained quiet for a while thinking on how to get both of us out from this mess.

“We have to tell them the truth,” I said to him after a long silence. “That’s the only way.”

“They will be heartbroken if they knew that all this while we were just pretending,” he said softly.

I sighed again, “Yeah, they sure are but I think we should stop pretending. We will hurt them more if we continue rather than showing them that we had been pretending and lying to them all this time.”

He remained quiet, probably thinking about what I was saying. I know how he felt about seeing both our parents hurt and heartbroken with our actions. I didn’t want to see that too. I love both our parents but I think we both should stop pretending.

“I think you are right,” he finally said. “We should tell them the truth,” nodding his head in agreement.

I smiled happily, “I’m glad you agree with me.”

“So when do you want to tell them?” he asked, “When we get back?”

My phone rang before I could answer him. I looked at the caller ID. I gulped and told him, “Maybe we should tell my parents first and right now?”

He cast me a weird look then I showed him my phone, “It’s them,” I said to him.

He took a deep breath while I did the same before answering, “Hello mum.”