On the ride home Hayley said, “So are you packing up tonight?”

“Wait, what — I have to pack? What the hell is happening? Have I lost my mind? Crap, this is not good.” I fanned myself and pretended to hyperventilate, though actually the line between pretending to hyperventilate and actually hyperventilating was a really thin line.

Hayley glanced over her driving arm. “Are you okay girl? Are you — look, just breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, there you go.”

I was resting my head back, eyes closed. Images flashed in my head of me driving, and Magnus with his eyes closed, complete trust that I would get him where he needed to go.

Someone who trusted me so much had to be trustworthy, right? But why the heck was I marrying him when I was still wondering if I trusted him? “When I was marrying Braden I was just going to go home with him afterward. I already lived there. I was used to sleeping with him. I'm going to move into a strange man's house. Hayley, you have to save me. I don't know what I'm doing.”

“I don't know either. Half the reason I'm still with Michael is because he's already seen me with hairy legs. You're going to have to hide your razors.”

“You're not helping. At all.”

“I've never known or even heard of someone literally moving into their husband's house after the wedding. Does that even happen anymore? Who moves the stuff?”

“It all fits in my Prius. It's just clothes and bedding. And my computer and video equipment.” My eyes were still shut tight.

“So sometime between the wedding and the wedding night you're going to shuffle boxes up the stairs into your new house. This is weird.”

“Oh no — the wedding night.”

“Don't panic, that's the one thing you know how to do.”

“But not with him. Holy poop, this is crazy. Please tell me something good.”

“Okay, let me think, got it — from where I'm sitting it's likely that you'll never have to clean another bathroom.”

“There is that. Man, I keep thinking I'm getting pranked. Like I'm going to show up tomorrow, and he's going to say, 'You didn't actually believe me did you? Who does that?' And it will be just like with Braden. Maybe there will even be a hidden camera. And I can't even talk to him about it because he doesn't have a phone.”

“Zach does. Call him.”

I pulled my phone from my bag and called Zach.

“Hi Katie, I was just about to call. Magnus wanted to talk to you, and I was going to hold the phone for him because you remember what happened last time.”

Magnus's voice in the background said, “Pray tell Kaitlyn I replaced it.”

“He replaced my phone. I tried to buy him one while I was there, but he refused it. So I'm handing him my phone, here.”

Magnus's voice came on, too loud. He was yelling. “Hullo Kaitlyn!” I held the phone away from my ear.

Hayley giggled.

“You don't have to talk so loud, Magnus. Hear my voice? This is my normal speaking voice.”

“I will try. Tis all rather odd this machine.” His voice was much lower, almost too low, but I decided not to mention it. “Tis so small.” His voice was not directed into the microphone anymore, I heard fumbling. “Hullo?”

My future husband didn't know how to work a phone. I sighed. “I'm here.”

“I needed tae hear ye.” Oh. I smiled to myself.

Hayley was hurling our car down the highway while I talked. Pretending not to listen, though she was right there and rightly curious.

“I was worried ye might nae come. That ye might be scared tae be there.”

“I was buying a dress and I did get scared. I thought you might not want to get married and maybe it was all a prank.”

“A prank?”

“Like a joke, a trick. You wouldn't show up.”

“I will be there, at the church at three o'clock.”

“The Episcopal church, the one on Atlantic?”

Off the phone I heard Magnus speaking with Zach, who then called out, “That's the one. Oh also, ask her if she's with Hayley.”

I answered, “I am, she's driving.”

Zach came on the phone. “Put me on speaker.”

He told Hayley that he and Michael could come to her house and pick up my things and bring them to Magnus's house while I was at the church.

Hayley grinned at me. “That sounds great. Good plan. That was one of the million things Katie was worrying about.”

Zach said, “You should see Magnus, he won't stop pacing. I'm thinking about feeding him dinner so he can go to bed already and stop driving us crazy.” He laughed, then hung up, and that was the end of the conversation.

I checked the phone twice to see if somehow Magnus was still on. He wasn't. That had been a lot of discomfort for him anyway.

Hayley said, “Your boy is nervous. How's that feel?”

I stared out the window at the pine trees gliding by. “Terrifying.”