2: Our wedding photo

"I…Your…W-What?" shocked and confused I pointed my finger to my chest then to his and back to mine. "I'm married?"

He placed his arms across his chest.

"We are. We are married." He said with a now serious face.

"B-But how? How could I be married to you?" I then again pointed my finger to myself.

He just stared at me instead.

I stared back at him with a much bigger knot on my forehead.

I mean, I could be forgetful and all but I will never ever forget my wedding day especially the face of my own husband if he is as hot as this man standing in front of me. How on Earth could this happened?

We suddenly ended with a "the longer I stare at you wins" contest.

"Are you going to stare at me forever, Mister?" I asked without batting my eyes.

"Great idea. I would love that Missus." He stressed the last word.

"But it would be a much greater idea if you mind explaining to me first how I suddenly became a married woman."

"You liked me. You stalked me. I hated you. You hated me back. Then you let me go. I realized that I love you too. I won you back so we got married." He said those words as if he was just giving an instruction how to ride a bicycle to a five-year old kid.

My jaw dropped, literally.

"You are kidding." I repeatedly shook my head as I tried to suppress myself from laughing.

"Which part of what I said sounds like a joke?" Matt's face turned to be more in confusion now than mine.

"That I liked you first and stalked you? Gosh!"

He was dumbfounded. "That sounds funny to you?"

"Of course. I would never in a million years, I mean ever, that I would stalk a guy because I like him. That's just crazy. I think you got the wrong lady, Mister." I let out a crazy good laugh.

In my entire life, I might have had some crush over some boys at school but I can never recall myself crushing over someone and stalking him to like me back. That was just insane.

Matt seemed upset but I sensed he was trying to hold himself up.

"You don't believe me, huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, how could I?"

I stopped laughing when Matt suddenly seized my wrist and brought me out of my house. In a flash, I found myself standing inside his almost bare unit with a lot of unpacked boxes and still cloth-covered pieces of furniture.

Without letting go of my wrist, he grabbed a picture frame placed over a modern fireplace and gave it to me.

"It's a wedding photo." I whispered as I glanced over the beaming bride and stern-looking but handsome groom in the photograph.

He held the other side of the picture frame and looked at it lovingly. His face softened as his eyes shifted from the photograph to me.

"Our wedding photo." He said.

The beaming young beautiful bride was me. It was absolutely me.

Oh gee! My wedding gown was ethereal, immaculate and just mere perfection. I felt I was a modern-day Cinderella wearing that classic and regal ball gown silhouette. No wonder I looked so pleased and contented.

I looked so happy and in love. My eyes were sparkling and my face was glowing.

Undoubtedly, the groom in the photo with me was Matt. He's a little taller, a little bulkier and tanned in the photo but that didn't make him less attractive. In fact, I feel that the man in the photo with a serious face is even more inexplicably handsome than the Matt I was with that moment. He was wearing a three-piece white suit with his long shoulder-length wavy hair brushed up like that of David Beckham's. His eyes were sparkling beneath those bushy eyebrows and thick lashes. He got those sexy facial hair around his thin red lips and jawline which amplified his mysterious aura even more. I admit, his overall look reminded me of some dashing knight in shining armor ready to sweep me off my feet anytime and with total surrender I would easily give in.

We looked so happy. His arms were wrapped around my tiny waist and our eyes were stuck at each other shooting hearts and love. I can even hear everyone's cheering on us while the photo was being taken.

"Three months ago, I got married to the most stubborn, badass, most spoiled princess on the face of the earth yet she too was the most loving, most selfless and most sensitive woman I have ever known."

"You mean, me?"

He nodded.

"This is not fake, right?"

"Not a chance." He chuckled a bit.

It was the first time I saw him smile. Somehow, it felt good seeing his face lightened up like that. As if I yearned for it for a very long time.

"B-But what happened? To us?" I avoided his eyes and gazed back at the photograph we were holding. "Did we break up? Did we get divorce?" Then I realized something so I stepped back and looked at him with a big question mark on my face. "Did I cheat on you…No. Did you cheat on me? Oh my God! I would never dare cheat on you."

Matt stepped forward, two steps away from where I was standing. His eyes were glimmering wistfully.

I stepped back twice. He stepped forward again. I stepped back. This time I was pressed against the empty wall. I cannot move.

"For once, will you please not let your imagination run too wild?" he pleaded.

"Why? Was my imagination that bad? I am dead serious. Who cheated on who? Definitely it wasn't me. Or else, I would never want to live again."

"No one cheated, okay?"

"Really? Then what happened? Tell me."

Matt let out a frustrated sigh before he returned the picture frame to where it was earlier.

"There was an accident."

Then his phone rang.

--

I gave Matt a sideway glance as I positioned my elbow over the train's window pane while my hand cupped my chin. I was starting to feel bored while Matt was comfortably sitting beside me listening on this particularly familiar music on his loud headphones. The last time I know, we climbed on a 12-hour train ride away from the city. He promised to tell me the whole story about my accident and our short-lived marriage if I join him on his trip to the countryside. He said he needed to go home urgently as his great grandmother was sick.

Actually, I dared not to come but when he mentioned that it was his great grandmother's wish to see me one last time, before she drew her last breath, I was moved. I mean, who else in the whole world wouldn't be touched and somehow get scared to reject that right? Personally, I didn't want to be blamed if she'll leave this world with her unmet requests.

Matt said that it was Nana Beryl's, as he fondly calls her, influence that we get married as soon as possible. Apparently, it happened three months ago which left us in this kind of a messy situation. Matt, a wife-less husband seeking to fulfill his great grandma's deathbed wish and me, a confused woman inside the train sitting across my "husband" on my way to somehow recover my missing memories.

"Love you forever and forever, love you with all my heart. Love you whenever we're together. Love you when we're apart."

"Favorite?" I casually asked.

He removed his headphones and looked at me. "Pardon?"

Using my pursed lips, I pointed the headphones on his lap. "Oh, this? Maybe." He tilted his head as if he's trying to remember something. "Somehow, I find myself enthralled to it for no apparent reason."

"Not expecting you're the sentimental type." I shrugged my shoulders and looked away.

After a brief moment, I noticed the glimmering jewelry on my left hand. My empty ring finger was now decorated by a shining golden wedding band. It was a solid proof that I am absolutely, Mrs. Matt Hughes. Matt's initials were engraved in it too. The capital letters M and H were carefully engraved in the interior band of my wedding ring.

But that fact was really hard to swallow. Imagine that in just one night, I became a married woman to a handsome totally hot guy, a total stranger though, who just moved in next door and yet knows every nook and cranny of my apartment.

Others might have just freaked out so I was quite proud I didn't throw a massive hysteria back there inside his house. He was calm in explaining to me our situation in summary and I congratulated myself for not losing my mind with all the little truth I found out on the same night.

When I turned my eyes to Matt, he was already busy answering voice calls and messages. He was so occupied working on his laptop I even thought I was some kind of an invisible soul with no one to talk to but myself. We were inside a cabin, just the two of us but I think he brought with him a world of his own and left me outside the door. This man was really something. At one time, his eyes could speak a thousand words as if his soul was speaking directly to mine yet he could also manage to ignore my existence and shut his world to me by drowning himself on his work.

I shook my head and looked outside. There was nothing to see outside the window since it was already past midnight. It was all pitch black and the fog caused by the air-conditioning blurred the window even more. I don't even feel sleepy because I have to digest a lot of information that I just heard three hours ago.

I have a lot of things going on in my mind. Some were just crazy like I've been ruminating on an idea that my case could be a kidnapping one. But then I remember that I am just a single woman, with no family, no enough savings at the bank but only owns a single-room apartment and loads of fading memories to restore.

So, I discarded that crazy thought. I guessed a person like Matt wouldn't bother to fool a woman like me. I mean who am I to him but just a mere forgetful neighbor with missing memories. Nevertheless, I felt that he's someone I could trust despite not having any recollection of him or our past.

There were a couple of wedding photos too with our families and friends, some of them felt so familiar but the rest of the faces I've seen were all strangers to me. He said that the wedding was so intimate that only the closest to us were invited.

Then I was surprised when a warm pink velvety blanket was placed on my lap. It was Matt's doing.

He left his side of the cabin and took out some pillows too from the overhead cabinets.

"It's cold. Try to get some sleep." His voice was even warmer.

"Thanks." I cuddled in and curled up in my bed.

He switched off the light inside our cabin and opened the door. His laptop was clipped under his armpit.

"I'll get some coffee."

"W-Wait." I rose up and instantly rushed standing in front of him.

He then leaned on the sliding door as if he was waiting for me to say something.

"I'll go with you."