It All Worked Out In The End- A Purple Hearts Rewrite

Chapter 6- So We're Really Doing This?

~Cassie's POV~
I woke up from a call from an unknown number. I rubbed my face and just accepted the call, thinking that maybe one of my friends got a new number. "Hello?" I groggily asked.

"Is this Cassie?" A familiar voice asked.
I was confused and sat up a bit, "uh, yea... who's this?" I asked, messing with my hair.
The familiar voice cleared his throat, "uh, it's Luke. Remember? Frankie's bunk mate."

I sighed, "how did you get my number?" I asked.
"I might've gotten it off of Frankie's phone."
"Well, what do you want, Commando?"
"Look, I was thinking about what you and Frankie talked about the other day, and I was wondering if you wanted to get married?" He asked.

I was now awake. I looked at my phone for a second, then brought it back to my ear, "wait what? Why are you wanting to do this now? I thought you said that it was fraud and a scam." I said coldly.
I heard him scoff on the other line, "Look, can we just meet somewhere to talk? We can make a plan."

I hesitated, but sighed, I needed the health insurance. "Okay, yea, where should we meet?" I asked.
The stayed quiet for a minute, "The Liberty Diner on Belle Ave. It's quiet and small, usually pretty empty." He said.
I nodded, "Alright, does noon work?" I asked.
"Yea, alright see you then." He said and then hung up.

I looked at my phone and stayed on my bed for a few minutes, trying to take it all in.
Is this actually happening?
I saved the contact information on my phone and soon got ready.

At noon, I was waiting for Luke to show up. Soon, he did. He saw me and then looked around a bit, then came over.
"Hi." He said.
I nodded a bit, "Hi."
He sat down, "Thanks for meeting with me."
I looked out onto the parking lot and gasped a bit in a joking way, "Is your dad in the parking lot waiting to cuff me?"

He seemed a bit nervous and chuckled, "Funny."
Then the door opened so the little bell rang. Luke looked around, all anxious-like.
I looked at him and whispered, "You're acting kinda sus." I said.
He looked back at me and took a breath, "Yeah. Well, if we do this, if..." he said, putting emphasis on the 'if', "We need to be very careful. All right? We need a story. You and I didn't get along at the bar the other night. The others saw that, but the next night, I was very charming and persistent, and I convinced you to go out with me."

I looked at him and chuckled, "You did?" I asked.
"Mm-hmm." He said, unamused.
I looked away for a second and laughed under my breath, "Was it hot? When you asked me out?"
"Very." He said.
I looked at him for a minute, "I'm sorry- I'm just gonna need you to explain yourself, because a week ago you were lecturing me on how this is fraud, so... what's changed?"
He sighed and looked at him, "It is fraud. I don't wanna do this." He said.
I was a bit confused, "Okay, so... don't."

"Believe me. If I had any other choice, I wouldn't be. Marriage should be for love. And where I come from, it's for life." He said.
I watched him speak and was just baffled, "Do you come from a fantasy land? Because, where I come from in reality, marriage is really just a pointless legal arrangement that turns lovers into enemies, so..."

He rolled his eyes and looked away for a second before I spoke again, "Why don't you have another choice?"
He looked at me, "How's that your business?"
"Kind of is. I am possibly about to marry you. So spill."
"I need the extra two grand a month married guys get."

I really didn't believe him, "That's it? And I'm supposed to trust you here?"
"Trust me? Okay. Look, if I can trust a lib who doesn't give a shit about the law or the military, I can sure..." he started to say but I cut him off.

I got closer to him. "I have an ethical code that doesn't include blind obedience, and I desperately need this to literally survive. Whereas you could be... I don't know, stockpiling supplies for your bro-militia."

He scoffed and got up, "I'm leaving. This was a mistake. 'Bro-militia'."
He started walking off and I called out to him, "Luke. Luke."
"Liberal nut." He scoffed, then looked back at me.
"What?" He asked.
I chuckled a bit, "Look, I don't like you."
He looked away and scoffed, "No shit."

Then I spoke again, "But you seem solid. So... I'm sorry, okay? Please."
Luke sat back down, "Listen. I need you to know what you're getting yourself into. If we're caught, I get court-martialed. As in, arrested and maybe doing time."
I nodded my head a bit, not wanting to hear this lecture, "Okay." I said.

Then he continued, "Look, this is already gonna be a shotgun wedding. We're gonna be on their radar. So, once I get over there, to Iraq, we've... we've got to just, like, set up consistent times where we are gonna speak, okay? We gotta make this look normal, like a real marriage. We'd have to write some romantic emails in case somebody reads them."

I just nodded a bit, looking at him.
"We just have to keep it tight for my tour. And once I'm back here, we file for divorce. And that gives you a year of free health insurance. And we can split the cash down the middle. Yeah?" He asked.
I nodded my head and smiled, relieved.
He nodded as well, relieved I said yes. "Great. And one more small thing. I deploy Friday morning."

That got me a little anxious considering that was in 3 days.

"We'd also have to go out with my company. Act like we..." he struggled to find the words.
I tried helping him finish his sentence, "Like we like each other."
He just laughed a bit, "Yeah, more than that. Like, love each other. And, um..." he took a breath and clicked his tongue, "So, all married couples spend the night at this motel near base. It means we would have to..." he started to say, but I understood and just nodded my head slightly, clearing not too fond of that idea.

"Super..." I sighed, then looked up at him, we locked eyes. "So, are we out of "if" territory? Are we doing this?" I asked him.
He nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, we're doing this. But you can't tell anybody that doesn't need to know."
I just nodded a bit.
"You have to promise." He told me.
"I promise. In fact, I pinky swear." I said, folding out my hand.
He just looked at my hand and scoffed, "No, I'm not doing that."
I just laughed, "We're getting married, man."
He sighed and reluctantly pinky swore, then got up from the table, "I'll text you." He said before walking out.

I stayed at the diner for another 2 minutes before leaving myself. Once I got home, I sat on my couch, looking at the new and old medical bills on my table, thinking about this whole marriage idea. This is it. My life will finally turn around.

My phone soon went off, I checked it and Luke gave me the information, he booked us to get married Thursday morning at 11am at the courthouse. I felt a rush of emotion come over me. Was it excitement? Fear? I'm not really sure. But part of me felt a relief. My medical debt will soon become non-existent.

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