Eve

“Who would have thought that you would be getting married here? I wish I would have seen mother’s face when you told her. Was she shocked?”

Shocked didn’t even start to explain how she had looked at me. I knew that Carlos had said something to her about it, but at the end of the day, it was still a surprise to hear it. Maybe she had thought that I would say no, but that was the very last thing that I had thought to do.

“Well she was definitely surprised, but she started crying almost immediately. You know how mom is.”

“Yeah, I do. When I told her that me and Barry were getting married, she had to have known it was coming, but she still wept every time she saw me for a week.”

“I don’t think I am going to be here that long, so she is going to have to get it all out at the wedding.”

My sister looked at me alarmed. “You aren’t going to stay here?”

I shook my head that I wasn’t going to. I had no intentions on staying here for another moment after we got married. I didn’t want to live there in that small town anymore. I had spent too much of my life there and when I told Constance that, I wished I had said it a better way.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” She was clearly offended and her feelings were hurt.

“What did you mean then? Do you really have nothing to stay around here for?”

“There is no work for me and Carlos owns two businesses in the city. I have to go. There is nothing for me here anymore. I don’t know if there ever was. I will miss you and our parents, but I will visit often. It is not that far away.”

Constance was watery eyed and she made me feel bad that I had made her that way. She was as bad as mom was about guilt and I felt guilty for even wanting to live somewhere else. I knew that it was what was best for me, but that didn’t really stop me from wanting to leave. I couldn’t live another person’s life anymore. It was time for me to live for myself and Carlos was my future. He was my destiny and wherever it was that he was, that was where I belonged. I understood that now, more so than I ever had before. Why couldn’t they be happy for me?

“But why today?”

“Because it is time. We have been here almost a week getting everything ready. I told mom that I would do it here at the church, like she always wanted, but after that, I am done living for them Constance. I have to live for me. I know that you won’t get it, but you are happy here with Barry. You are happy in Watertown, right?”

There was a moment of hesitation as the façade fell, but it was back up so quickly that I wasn’t sure if what I thought I saw was real. “You are happy here, right?”

She shook her head, but there was a tear in her eye that she brushed away and tried to laugh off. Everything was not as perfect as she would like me to think, but I couldn’t think of that today. Constance knew that I would always listen, but by the looks of her, she was not quite ready to give it all up just yet.

“You know that you can always come and visit us if you like Constance, with or without Barry.”

I could tell that she was rather surprised by the invitation and how it was given to her, but I wanted her to know that she was always welcome if she had to get away. I wasn’t going to tell her to forgive him if he did wrong. I would be there for my sister, not for the sake of her marriage.

“It is just going to be so strange without you. When you were gone before, I thought I was going to go crazy with no one to talk to.”

“I am only a couple of hours away and you can always call. I write at home most of the time, so I am always ready to talk. I felt the same way when you got married. I thought I was going to lose you or something, but I didn’t.”

Constance was crying freely now and I was doing my best not to. “Please Constance. I don’t need to smear my makeup. It took forever to get it on there.”

Smiling at me and wiping my eyes, she just laughed. “I did it too. I was smeary seconds before I walked down the aisle with Barry. Mom thought I was backing out, but it was really just too much to deal with all at once. How are you feeling about everything right now? Are you okay?”

I told her that I was. For a moment I had been nervous, but now all of that was going away and all I could think about was what I wanted to do next. I was ready to get married, because I knew that Carlos was the one for me. And he had promised me that if I ever forgot why I said yes to him, he would remind me again in a thousand ways. I really hoped a few of those ways ended up in the bedroom. He was very convincing there.

***

“Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health as long as you both shall live?”

I nodded my head and finally squawked out an answer, hoping that it was loud enough to be heard. Carlos was holding his breath and finally let it go with my answer. Did he really for a second think that I would say no?

He didn’t wait for the preacher to give the okay, signifying that we were married in God’s hands. Instead he pulled me to him and made quite a scene in the church. I could hear the gasping from behind me, but I also knew that every woman there wished that her husband had done the same. I was too busy dealing with the lips that could convince me of anything. All he had to do was ask and I was left helpless to not give him what he wanted.

When he pulled away, it was me who was finding it hard to breathe and I panted a little, my mind already going to what was going to be in store for us. I knew that it was going to be perfect. He was perfect and it didn’t matter what was ahead, as long as he was with me. With Carlos, I knew that I could do anything and now it was just official.

Walking back down the aisle hand in hand with the man I love was something that I would never forget. I didn’t see anyone else, nor was I going to remember anyone else. All I was going to remember was those dark brown eyes that twinkled at me and the beginnings of a beard that I missed so much.

“I love you Eve. I never thought I would feel this way, but I can’t think of what it would be like without you with me and I never want to find out.”

“I love you too Carlos. I am not going anywhere, ever again.”

Helping me into our getaway car, I moved to kiss him, grabbing his face and pulling him in. It was the first time that I had done it, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be to be the last. With Carlos, there was no right and wrong, there was only us.

THE END