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It was what had drawn us to each other in the first place, and what remained our common ground.
It wasn’t the flirtation; it was the oneness.
We each sought the other like two pools of mercury skating across a surface, looking for more particles so we could be something bigger than just us alone.
It was why I didn’t hesitate when she asked, why it didn’t seem uncharacteristic or out of the blue. It was like I’d been waiting for her to say those words, to offer herself in marriage.
“She’s... my Eve.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Father Vasili asked.
Decca
“You didwhat?“ Bethany’s jaw hung open as she slowly lowered the water bottle she was about to sip from.
I’d brought my friends together this afternoon to rip off the BAND-AID, but Bethany’s reaction was why I’d been dreading telling her. It was going to be a bigthingnow. I didn’t want it to be athing. Not until after I’d cleared my head and talked to Gus about this silly plan in lengthy, exhausting detail.
I still couldn’t quite admit tomyselfit was real. That I was really going to marry him. How was I supposed to break the news to my best friends?
Maybe I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. The likelihood that he, or I, or both of us would back out was as high as the Himalayas.
“I proposed to Gus,” I repeated, willing my voice not to betray me. I would be calm and rational, dammit. “Besides. Soula just told us she’s pregnant again. I don’t know how my engagement garners a bigger outburst than Soula’s news.”
“Soula is Soula. Nothing she does shocks me.” She turned to Soula, who was slipping sock-footed down the hallway to catch a precocious six-month-old who didn’t want to take her nap.
“Élla thó,Athena! Come back here,“ Soula yelled to her daughter as she crawled around the corner.
Bethany pointed a finger at me. “You, on the other hand.“ She rubbed her chest and took a deep breath. “You just zapped the life back into me.”
“I should have started withclear.“ I smiled. Somewhere a phone buzzed. All three of us were on call, so it was anyone’s guess as to what the emergency was this time.
“At least let me see you rubbing the paddles together,” Bethany said, checking her pocket.
The buzz came from my phone. I looked at the screen.
It was from Gus.
Looking forward to dinner. Can you text me your address?
I blinked, frowning at the words that highlighted the sheer weirdness of our situation. I almost wished it was a call.
I had a fiancé.
I had a fiancé who didn’t know where I lived.
I couldn’t blame Bethany for being shocked. Itwasshocking. Especially for me. I didn’t do things like this. I didn’t have the self-confidence to propose marriage to a man out of clear blue nothingness. Who did?
“Are my boobs getting smaller?” Bethany palmed her breasts. “I don’t know if I’m ready for new implants yet. Maybe fat injections.”
Bethany.She’d have the confidence to do something like that.
Soula, too. I was the timid one in our ghoul gang. I lived for my friends’ happiness, only keeping the dregs for myself. And that wasifthere were any drops left in the bottle.
“You didn’t do some kind of black magic, did you?”
“To your boobs?”
“No. To Gus.”
