Almost Married

ALMOST MARRIED

1989 a very good year, I am living at the world famous Eden Roc Hotel on Miami Beach, sweet suite living, or to be more correct, cool cabana living.

I have remodeled a beach cabana that the movie actor/gangster wanna be George Raft once got his hide tanned in style during the fabulous 50s, when the Eden Roc was at its prime time.

I am the owner and operator of two of the hotels restaurants, the elegant Club Bamboo adjacent to the upper level pool area, where one could sit at the bar with a birds eye view directly into the depths of the pool though some things are best left as mysteries, strange things happen beneath the water break level.

Directly below Club Bamboo is The Mermaid Beach Bar, dogs, burgers,and bikinis are the order of the daze, it is located, directly at the boardwalk and beachfront of the Hotel.

All is good. I am also involved in a casino cruise ship venture on the vessels of Chandris Cruise lines, now known as Celebrity Cruises.

A new employee has been hired to deal Black Jack on one of our ships, a beautiful doe eyed hour glass waist-ed young gal from Macedonia whom we shall call Liliana , she has a temporary work visa, a fact that comes back to haunt me, we hit it off and are soon a couple, spending time at sea cruising the Caribbean and on land cruising Miami Beach, after a few months that temporary visa status becomes an issue.

Lonesome story short while we are vacationing at my friend Cadillac Jacks place in Daytona Beach Florida, (Jack a certified Notary in the state of Florida, this is crucial to this tale.)

Liliana and I get into one of our now quite regular heated discussion about her status in the country.

She wants me to marry her so she can become a legal resident with her promise that as soon as she is legal we will be divorced, this discussion/argument has been going on for months, and I have not the slightest intention or desire to be married, that along with he fact that we are now at the point in our relationship where the thrill was gone, and had been replaced on both sides with other more thrilling partners.

She implores me to do this for her promising to be divorced once she is legal, and at her cost,truthfully in those Miami Beach days this was common with Americans and Europeans.

She knows Cadillac Jack is a notary and can legally marry us, so I fatefully say aok .Making sure the divorce timeline was mentioned many times.
Liliana for some reason insisted on wedding rings, so Jacks brother Jimmy and I found a pawnshop open late at night and I purchased two used tokens of affection in a pawnshop, fits the scene perfectly!

An omen if ever there is one.

So we are married by Cadillac Jack .

He invites many of his friends most of whom I do not know to the wedding, and when asking me if I do accept Liliana to be my wife at the bogus ceremony, slyly winks at me as I say yes I do do, as I had asked him to allow me possess and to present or not present the notarized marriage certificate to the Fla. State office, just in case I changed my mind.

Mind changed that same night after one of our arguments.

The wedding party none of whom I know well if at all, are drunk as skunks on free booze as are Liliana and I, when we get into one of our heated exchanges, she bolts off to the ladies room in anger, and I take that interlude to take her drink and bless it with some personal holy water, not much as I just want to get her attention, not kill her.

She returns to our wedding party table and I ask her to let our past argument slide and to let us toast to the wedding day, we interlock arms and she sips her drink, a screwdriver as I recall,, and then an odd look came over her face, she licks her lips and has a quizzical quite odd look on her face, she was not sure of what she had just tasted, so she sipped again!

Now she was damn sure!!To this day I swear smoke came out of her ears! She calls me a very nasty name and tries to throw her drink in my face , I duck and the babe next to me takes it flush in her face! Bedlam breaks out as the entire wedding party starts to brawl. Somehow Liliana and I end up outside, we jump into my car and beat it. She is of course still fuming, but I was her only ride, and
she of course wants this marriage working until she is a legal resided, so she is taking no chances of losing sight of me.
The next morning early I walk myself down to the Atlantic ocean debating whether or not to rip the marriage papers up and toss them into the ocean. But I think once more, and decide to burn them, just in case!

The end of this story? Liliana is married and becomes a USA resident. All ends well, as well as can be all considered.