Page 55 of The Wedding

Etta took her by the hand and brought her over to a bistro table set among a bed of tulips. Jamie sat, letting Etta help her scoot in her chair before she sat across from her, a single candle burning between them. Jamie propped an elbow on the table and gazed at her, wondering how she ever became so lucky.One day I left my ramshackle apartment and returned home with a job offer I couldn’t refuse.Now, here she was, gazing into the exquisite visage of her fiancée.

“Did you think I would say no?” Jamie asked after the sommelier came by with the wine and left again. She picked it up, ready for a toast. “Really, now.”

The happiness flickered on Etta’s face. “I had been told no before.” She picked up her glass as well. “I’m never sure about anything.”

Their glasses hovered in the air. “You want to marry me?”

“Yes, I do.” Etta didn’t give her any condescension. No,“Of course, silly, why wouldn’t I?”That was one thing Jamie loved about her. Etta always gave her a straight answer… assuming she gave her an answer at all. “Here’s tous.”

Jamie smiled. “To us.”

Their glasses clinked together. A waiter chose that moment to ask Jamie whether she would like the calzone or the special four-cheese lasagna. She picked the lasagna and enjoyed the first sip of her red wine.

“Now, you have to tell me what finally made you propose to me.” Jamie put her glass down and rested her chin atop her hand. “Because I know you, and it wasn’t any one thing. You never base your decisions on one thing, even love.”

Etta took her hand on top of the table. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. A certain someone may or may not have been nagging me. The bouquet was not exactly subtle.”

Jamie snorted. “She has not shut up once about you asking me to marry you. No wonder she came all the way down from the mountains today. She knew, didn’t she?”

“You would have thought she planned this whole thing.”

“Well? Did she?”

Etta shook her head. “She suggested the planetarium as a possible place to propose, but that was it. I told her I wanted to create a fairy tale feeling because you’re my princess.”

“I’m your Cinderella.”

“I wasn’t going to say it first.”

They toasted again. Jamie wasn’t sure she wanted Monique to meddle in her life this much in the future, but for now, she made winning decisions.

“There was also the…”

“Hm?” Jamie placed her glass on the table. “The what?”

Etta broke eye contact, and for a moment, their cherished moment was amiss. “There was also when you were sick.” Her voice was not meek, but it was quiet. “I did a lot of thinking during that time.”

Jamie was in no hurry to recommence eye contact.Why didshe have to bring that up?She had been enjoying her evening so far. She didn’t need her girlfriend – fiancée – reminding her about that.I don’t want to feel stupid the night I’m proposed to.

“My number one thought,” Etta continued, ignoring Jamie’s demeanor, “was that I had to make sure you were taken care of. Then I had to take into account my image. It’s not a pretty thought, no, and normally I wouldn’t bring it up because I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable but considering how we got together and how it’s been a year already… getting engaged might be the best for my already precarious image. So I thought the best thing to do was… well, marry you.”

“I see.”

“I tell you this so you know I have been thinking about marriage for a long while. But recently, many things came to a head and I had to make a decision. Did I want to marry you? I wasn’t opposed to the idea, I just wasn’t ready, I suppose.”

“Etta… stop…”

“No, listen.” She squeezed Jamie’s hand. “I decided after Adele came back into my life. The other night, when I told you that I haven’t loved anyone nearly as much as you? I was telling you the truth. At first, I was thrown for a loop when Adele showed up. Can you blame me?” Etta snorted. “I wasn’t sure how I would act around her, but then things continued as normal. I didn’t feel… anything for her. It was the strangest thing. I spent so much time being hung up over her to the point I couldn’t even imagine having another serious relationship. Then she was here, and I realized I had moved on from that part of my life. Now I am in this one. With you.”

“That’s… sweet, I suppose.”This is getting weird.

“It was then I decided for sure that I wanted to propose to you. My flower.”

Their food arrived. Jamie let go of her hand so she could stare at a plate of Italian cuisine. The sautéed vegetablesmade her forget everything Etta just said. “I don’t know what to say. I honestly never thought the day would come so soon, if ever.”

“Would you have been satisfied spending the rest of your life with me without getting married?”

“Well, after a while I may have started to wonder, but before a couple of months ago, it never crossed my mind. Well, not seriously. We’ve only been together a while. You’re busy. I never felt like I didn’t matter enough. But I guess a lot of wrenches got thrown into our lives recently.” She laughed. “Now we have to plan a wedding.”