“Adrian?” Her mouth drops open. “As in the hottie who couldn’t keep his eyes off you Saturday night?”
“What?” I scoff. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Girl. I watched the two of you talking on the balcony.” She nods her head, confident in her admission. “He didn’t look like a guy who only wanted to catch up. He gave you all his attention.”
“That’s just how Adrian is. He’s always been good at giving his full attention. You know that.”
“I bet that’s not all he wanted to give you...”
“George, no!” I slam my face down into a nearby cushion. Why did I think this was a good idea again? “Please. Focus.”
“I am focused—focused on you telling me why that fine, upstanding himbo has got you all hot and bothered.”
“Don’t call him that word. It’s so ugly.”
“Ooh, territorial much?” George’s face softens a moment before her eyes pierce through mine. “Are you sure you guys were just locker mates?”
“George, do you think I’d still be a—well, you know—if I dated Adrian in high school?”
“Good point,” she concedes. “Continue.”
“Anyway, he shows up and asks if I want to have dinner with him—”
“Oh my God, he asked you out on a date—”
“As friends.” George pouts in response. “And that’s what we do. We go to dinner as friends, eat as friends, and relate to each other as friends. Nothing more.”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.” Ugh, I want to slap her when she gets all uppity like this. “Don’t stop, keep going. What happened next?”
“So, he drives me home, and I tell him that we should do it again sometime as friends and he agrees. That’s how the night should have ended. But it didn’t.”
An impish smile spreads across George’s face. “Did my dear, sweet Micaela finally lose her V card?”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not interested in sex?” I smack her with the cushion a few times. “What is so wrong with being a virgin at twenty-eight? Nuns would praise me for my restraint!”
“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t mess with you on a regular basis?” George loves to roast me, and I know she’s just trying to inject humor into an otherwise tense situation. At the end of the day, she respects my choices. I know she doesn’t mean to make me feel awful. But it doesn’t take much to remind me that I’m not normal. “I’m sorry, Kay. I went too far. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I know you didn’t, it’s fine. But... it’s all a mess.” I scoot back, sinking deeper into the couch. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“What’s happening? Why is it a mess? Come on, Kay, don’t hold out on me now!”
“I’m not. I just don’t know how to say this.” The more I think about it, the crazier it gets. “Promise you won’t freak out?”
“How about I promise not to freak out so much that the neighbors complain? They’re already pissed off at me because my streams get crazy loud sometimes. Today, I’ll give them a break.”
“I guess that works.” I hug the cushion tighter, taking a deep breath. If I speak quickly, I’ll get it all out before I decide to mute myself. “Long story short. I made a marriage pact with Adrian on Senior Beach Day. One that said if we weren’t married by thirty, we’d marry each other. In my defense, I thought it was a joke. But now, he wants to fulfill it. Two years early.”
At first George looks at me, lips parted, eyes wide, breath shallow. I can see the words absorbing into her bloodstream, circling through every part of her body until the blood rushes into her head. I watch as she slides down onto the ground, floored. I feel bad. I fried her. Or maybe she just can’t compute.
“Adrian Campos . . . proposed to you?” The sentence is peppered with giggles. Maybe she does get it.
“Yeah. Crazy right?!” Nervous jazz hands. “We haven’t seen each other for ten years but that didn’t stop him from dropping a proposal in my lap.”
“Holy crap, that’s wild!”
“Right? I’m so glad you see how messed up the situation is—”
“This is so exciting! You and Adrian? Getting married? That’s so wild!” George clasps my hands, her entire body vibrating with excitement. Oh no. She doesn’t get it at all. “My friend’s getting married to her high school sweetheart, er, locker mate! I’m so happy for you!”
“The hell you mean I’m getting married to my high school sweetheart?” I shriek, jumping up. Is she for real? I say ‘locker mates’ and George defaults to ‘high school sweethearts.’ “I didn’t accept his proposal. I’m not getting married to a man I don’t know!”
The kettle whistle blasts and George hops up. “Hold that thought! I’ll be right back!”
I watch as she rushes toward the kitchen. Good—I get a break from all this craziness. What is life right now? A storyline ripped straight from a daytime soap opera or a reality television show. But I’m no fame-obsessed commoner desperately reaching for a happily ever after in front of millions of viewers. I’m just a simple pharmacist who wants to live a quiet, uneventful life.
There’s no way in hell I’m going through with this. I’d rather be forever single and comfortable than enter a marriage that is doomed to fail.
“Lemon tea, coming in hot.” George carefully hands me a pink mug of tea. The fragrance of lemon and flowers calms me down a bit. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but he must have a damn good reason to want to marry you if he’s willing to risk it all like this.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not interested.” I put down my tea for a moment to grab my phone, pulling up the email. She hungrily gobbles up every word. “He wants to meet tonight. I’m going to ask him to meet me at the park across from my house and tell him that I can’t go through with it. I’ll let him down easy and we can both move on with our lives.”
“You aren’t even a little bit curious as to why he asked you? “
“No, and even if I was, it’s clear that he’s only asking because I’m a backup.” It’s not the tea burning my tongue. It’s bitterness. “What I don’t get is why he’s jumping the gun two years early.”
“Exactly!” George puts down her tea, scooting a bit closer. “Adrian is a tasty morsel of a man. There are plenty of women who’d run, not walk, down the aisle and scream ‘I do’. And yet he’s running toward you. Two years early. Sorry, but you don’t do that for a ‘back-up’.”
“Maybe he’s desperate. Maybe he’s in a bind that requires him to get married quickly. I don’t know.”
“Or maybe he just wants to marry you because it’s you. It’s not rocket science, Kay.”
“Why would he want to marry me? You know what, don’t answer that.” The last thing I need is to invite any opportunity that will make me reconsider. “There is nothing you or Adrian can say that will change my mind about this. I’m not marrying a guy I don’t know all that well just because he’s cute. End of discussion.”