章 13: A Common Name
When Hazel stepped out of the bathroom Will was in the middle of knotting a blue and green striped tie. He had clearly combed his hair and run a little hair gel through it as well.
Rather than getting married, he looked like he was about to head into the office. But that was perfectly acceptable for a drive-thru chapel. Regardless, he looked nice. Her heart thudded momentarily when he looked up at her with that lopsided grin.
"You look beautiful."
"Thanks," she said, embarrassed. After all these years she was still uncomfortable with compliments. She had been ever since she got out of the hospital. "You look nice too."
His suitcase was already packed so they grabbed their things and brought them down to the parking garage. Will lifted Hazel's suitcase into the trunk for her and they were on their way.
They had to drop by the marriage licensing office first to pick up the license. They would get the certificate at the drive-thru chapel once they were actually married.
The woman at the desk was very professional, didn't ask any questions, and had them in and out in less than fifteen minutes. She must see a lot of impromptu marriages to not even bat an eyelid at two people clearly on their way to get married happening to swing by and fill out the paperwork. Viva Las Vegas!
Hazel stared at the piece of paper in her hand authorizing William Sheffield and Hazel Kathryn Dixon to get married. She had been here yesterday, though she had thankfully been helped by a different employee. It would have been mortifying to be seen in the marriage licensing office with two men in two days.
She didn't even know where that other marriage license was. Probably back in the hotel room. Since it wasn't going to be used it would expire naturally. The other one looked identical to this if you replaced "Sheffield" with "Daniel Lawson."
She would have thought it was strange that both of her fiancés had the same first name if not for the fact that William was one of the most common names in the English speaking world. One year in middle school there were three different boys in one of her classes all named William. Two went by Will and the other went by Liam.
Taking roll towards the beginning of the year had been very confusing because when the name William was called all three of them said "here." Distinguishing Liam hadn't been too difficult but the teacher ended up calling the other two Will C. and Will R. for the rest of the year to tell them apart.
"What are you thinking about?" Will asked. They were halfway to the chapel and she hadn't spoken a word.
"Names," Hazel said honestly. "Yours is really common."
He laughed self-deprecatingly. "Yeah, I've definitely had problems because of that. My parents weren't as original as yours. I've never met another Hazel."
"Neither have I. At least people usually spell it right because it's an actual word."
They went quiet again until they pulled into the 'tunnel of love' at the drive-thru chapel. Will rolled down the window to be greeted by the minister. He was an overly cheery man in his forties who seemed both ridiculously happy to see them and eager to move them along to help the next customer.
He actually performed the ceremony—if you could even call it that—standing outside the driver's side window. Once it was done he told them to keep driving until they saw the area with an imitation of the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign where they would get a flower and a boutonniere and could take pictures.
Hazel and Will exchanged a slightly disbelieving glance before quietly doing what the minister said. He waved them off with a happy shout of "congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield!"
Mrs. Sheffield. Hazel hadn't even thought about how she would be changing her last name but she supposed it would be awkward facing whatever neighbors Will had if she didn't. Originally she had been planning to change her last name to Lawson because she thought she was in love with Billy and wanted to feel like a part of his family.
There had been time for her to prepare herself for the change. Suddenly taking on a random last name would take some getting used to. At least Hazel Sheffield didn't sound too bad.
A woman with a camera handed out their flowers. Will pinned the boutonniere to the breast pocket of his suit and Hazel held her flower up awkwardly as they both smiled for the camera. This had to be the strangest picture she had ever taken.
Not that there were even very many pictures of her at all. At least she had taken back her parents' photo album from when she was little after her uncle's death. Everything after that point was either a yearbook photo, an ID photo, or the occasional selfie.
"Stand closer together! You're married," the photographer ordered.
Will's arm went around her waist and Hazel tried and failed not to be stiff. This was too weird!
Once the painfully awkward photo session was done, somebody came out of an office and handed them their marriage certificate and told them the pictures would be emailed to them later that day. With that, they were shooed away so the next customer could take their pictures.
The whole process had taken less than twenty minutes. It was nearly 9 PM and there was still a steady stream of cars coming into the tunnel of love as they drove away.
The airport was about twenty minutes away and the flight left at 10:15. It was going to be tight; there would be no time to change out of their wedding clothes. For Will it wouldn't be too bad. People flew in suits all the time. But Hazel was wearing a lacy white wedding dress!
She sighed. People were going to stare at her; she could already tell.
Sure enough, all eyes were on her as they went through security. She wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.
Will put a protective arm around her shoulders and glared as if daring people to keep looking. His eyes glowed like molten gold and anyone who caught his frightening gaze instantly cowered in fear. Hazel couldn't see his face but she was too busy drowning in her own mortification to notice the other people's reactions anyway.
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