Chapter Twenty-Five: Bride:

Ben walked around in the garden behind the church. Maybe they were all right after all. But she seemed to love him. She made him not feel like a loser. She didn’t pretend to like him while looking around for better men to hang out with. His bride didn’t make up excuses to cancel their dates either. The couple took time to listen to each other. Sure, they looked odd together, but Ben didn’t care. She didn’t share her past with him and he didn’t press her. It didn’t matter to Ben either way. She loved him and he loved her. His lovely bride even happily agreed to marry him.

That’s what it appeared to be at least.

Ben looked down at his feet. Now what?

“Psst!” he heard behind him. The groom whipped around to tall bushes.

“Hello?” Ben asked.

“Ben. Ben! Ben!” a woman’s voice whispered. The nerdy guy’s heart jumped in his chest.

“Azusa?” he asked. A woman’s head poked out of the bushes. Despite the branches and leaves in her hair, she looked pretty in her wedding dress and veil. Her husband-to-be tilted his head.

“Where have you been?” he asked. “What are you doing in the bushes?” The bride sheepishly pressed her lips together.

“I’m in trouble,” she said. “Big trouble.”

“What’s wrong? What’s the matter?” Ben noticed her shaking as she looked down at the table.

“I screwed up,” Azusa said. “I screwed up big time.”

“What do you mean? What did you do?”

“I owe bad people some money.”

“What bad people? What money?”

Azusa looked him in the eyes. She looked him in the eye as she began trembling. “It was a long time ago. I used to be a stripper.”

Ben gave her an odd look. “Azusa-chan?”

His bride shook her head. “Please! Ben…” She shook her head. “You are such a good man. I really do love you. I do want to marry you, but…” Ben pulled her into his arms.

“Shhh,” he whispered. “It’s okay, you’re here now.”

She tried to look away. “I don’t want to drag you into my problems.”

“I don’t care about that. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Please, let’s go inside and get married.”

“I can’t!” his bride cried.

“Why not?” Ben asked. Azusa quickly shook her head.

“They’ll kill you!” she said.

“I don’t care. We’ll run far, far away. I just want to be with you.” His big puppy dog eyes had stirred something inside of her. Her cheeks turned a rosy pink as she lowered her eyes.

“You sure you want to marry me? Even if I am in a mountain of debt?” Azusa asked. Ben nodded. His bride mouthed “wow”. She rested her hand to her chest. Her soon-to-be husband grabbed onto it.

“Please?” he asked. “Let’s go and get married.” His bride knew that Ben had a strange power over her, but tonight really got to her. Her eyes lit up as she nodded.

“Yes!” she said. Ben ran with her into the church.

By the time the staff returned, the couple had gotten married and ran off. Come, let us sit back and listen to the lovely sounds fury and annoyance from spending the whole day looking for the runaway bride.

This should take about… oh maybe… quite a five or six days tops? Yeah.