When I had finished folding all of the boxes into box shapes and securing what would be the bottom with two lines of tape, I realized I had completely blacked myself into the living room with a wall of empty boxes. Fortunately, boxes are not known for their excessive weight, so I grabbed an empty box in each hand and bulldozed my way through the rest of the pile.

I forced myself to dance along to the upbeat music, at least maintaining the illusion that I was happy, as I packed my clothes, books and jewellery into the newly formed boxes. It was a good thing I hadn't amassed many things in my twenty-five years of life and always kept my apartment spotless, or it would have been an even more monumental task to pack everything I own in under twenty-four hours.

I was midway through packing the bookshelves when I reached the classic literature section. Part of me still loved the well-worn copies of stories about marriage and love and breaking social constraints. But another, currently larger, part of me couldn't stand to look at those concepts a minute longer after what had happened to me.

I stuffed the books into the bottom of a box where I wouldn't have to look at them anymore. Maybe one day I'll love you again.

I carefully piled the rest of the books in on top until they were all off of my shelf. The seven very heavy boxes would have to rest on the floor in front of the bookshelf until the movers came because there was no way I would be able to move them. Maybe I should have spread the books into different boxes, I reasoned. But it was too late to change it.

I plopped my exhausted body down onto the couch and rubbed the sweat off my brow with the back of my arm.

I should probably tell Melody what's going on, even though she is on her honeymoon. Don't want to freak her out coming home and finding some old scary man living in my apartment.

I turned down the music and pulled my feet up onto the couch before dialing Melody's number and putting the phone on speaker so the still-broken screen wouldn't poke my face. It rang so many times that my anxious self could not sit still. So by the time she answered, I had paced the floor twice and was in the middle of wrapping family photos in packing paper and bubble wrap.

When she finally answered the call, her voice was thick with sleepiness. "Hey, Aubrey? What's up?"

I did the math in my head. "Oh, my gosh! I'm sorry!" I yelled as I sprinted over to my phone. "I didn't realize what time it was there. I can let you go if you want... Is it all right if we talk?"

She chuckled and I could hear her moving around before closing a door. "Yeah. I'm in the living room now so we won't disturb Paul. He sleeps like a rock. Did you know that?"

A laugh escaped me at her question, despite my predicament. "No, Mel. If you didn't know he slept like a rock, how would I have known? I've never slept with your husband!"

She gasped and then laughed, probably realizing what she had just asked me. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm tired."

"I know. Sorry. How's married life treating you?" I cringed at the words coming out of my mouth. I sounded like my father.

"Pretty cool, actually." I could hear her smiling as she spoke. "I like waking up next to him, Aubrey. And it's pretty nice to let someone else take care of you for a while."

"See, that I might want," I said without thinking.

"You could have it one day, you know. You just have to let people in and do the work. Love is about the doing, Aubrey, not just the feeling."

"Yeah, I guess..."

I cleared my throat and then silence filled the line.

"You still there?" I asked after a few minutes, hoping she hadn't fallen asleep.

"Yeah," she replied between yawns. "I'm still here."

"Yeah..." I fiddled with the frames and packed them into a box as well as I could. "I'm sorry I woke you."

I guess I should probably just tell her the truth about why I called.

"Aubrey? What's up? You've said you're sorry to wake me like three times but you aren't hanging up which leads me to believe that whatever this is, it is important to you. So can you spit it out?"

She was more forceful than I was expecting, but I didn't have time to figure out why. I had to tell her before my resolve flew out the window.

My first attempt at an answer came out barely above a whisper. "I got a match this morning."

"What did you say?"

"I got a match this morning." That time, I was careful to say it loudly enough for her to hear.

"What?" Her response was likely loud enough to wake the entire city. "Didn't your parents feel like giving you a day or two of freedom first? Did they wake up early just to get the match in on time?" She paused for a breath before adding. "I mean, what gives?"

I taped the box full of photographs and knicknacks shut while I tried to compose myself. "I don't know, Mel. I guess they must have."

Melody would probably have launched into an hour-long rant about how unfair the whole situation was, but that was the last thing I needed, so I cut her off before she could speak. "I know this is outrageous and I'm still processing it. I just wanted you to know, so you don't come back to find me missing."

"Why would I find you missing?" Her voice was fully attentive on the other end of the line, all traces of tiredness seemingly having evaporated at the sound of my news.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you the best part."

"Way to bury the punch line."

I went to the kitchen to make some tea before I had to pack again. "Yeah, the kicker is I'm getting married."

Before I could get any more information out, she interrupted me. "I know that, silly. That's what the match is for." She put a lot of emphasis on 'for' like I couldn't hear her or something.

"Will you let me finish, please?" I put the kettle on and waited for it to boil. "What I mean is, I'm getting married. Tomorrow. I think."

My big revelation was greeted with silence. Did our call get dropped? I thought for at least the third time today.

"Mel? You there?"

"Mmhmm." She was acting exactly the same way I did when I found out, which made me feel a little better. At least I wasn't the only one who thought the whole arrangement was absolutely absurd.

I let her have a minute to process her thoughts while I continued to explain the situation. "Well, I don't know exactly what is going on. I only know I'm moving tomorrow at nine in the morning. Apparently we are moving into a house. I can only assume our parents arranged that, too. I don't even know his name!"

I was thankful to have the tea to focus on because Melody was only providing silence on the other end of the line.

"Mel?" I finally asked after several minutes had elapsed. "Please say something."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

She knows me well.

I laughed at the absurdity of her question. "Try to find a way out of it, obviously." She laughed with me, but we both sounded hollow.

"I'm packing everything right now because it seems I have only twenty or so hours to get my whole apartment crammed into boxes. Apparently, I'm going to meet my new husband looking like a haggard wench, because I have to spend all of my time packing. I guess, if I'm lucky, he'll just run for the hills at the very sight of me."

Melody laughed for real this time. "Or the smell of you!"

Our laughing died out and the call returned to silence as I sipped my too-hot tea and tried to hold myself together.

Finally, Melody spoke. "Aubrey, I don't even know what to say. I'll come see you as soon as I get home, okay? I'm so sorry this happened to you. I can't believe it happened so fast. I wanted to be there to help you pack and throw you a wedding and a shower and..." she trailed off. I couldn't see her face, but I didn't need to see her to know she was shrugging on the other side of the line in exasperation.

"Yeah, I know." I shrugged, too, unable to come up with anything to say that would make either of us feel better. "I'm just going to keep believing there will be a way out of this. There has to be. So for now, I'm just going to pack my things and go through the motions and keep up appearances. What else can I do? Jail really isn't my look, so I'm low on options."

"I'd tell you if I knew."

"I know."

We filled our call with another minute or so of silence, and I felt the tears starting to well up in my eyes again.

"Well, I'm going to let you go sleep now," I said once I was able to compose myself enough. "Thanks for letting me talk. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"You're welcome. Call whenever you need me."

Just before she hung up she added, "Be safe."

Great! Just what I needed! Another thing to worry about.