Chapter 15

“Okay,” said Nathan, “I’ve got Jennifer on it, well, her PI at any rate. She’ll be getting back to me pretty soon. I’m sure of it.”

“Okay, and I’ve got some news. Selena came at me after Jack left to go home,” said Victoria.

“Oh?” he said.

“Yes, she is pressuring me as to what she thinks I’m keeping from her. It’s apparently her belief that John Michael is even worse, not better, than he has so far been portrayed to this point, and she wants the whole truth. I was able to put her off, but she is not going to be happy until she can collect all of the gossip that’s out there,” she said.

“Jesus, okay, well, regardless, she only gets the party line. I will not break my promise to the man, and neither will you. That’s got to be set in stone. There is no possible upside to doing otherwise,” he said.

His woman nodded. “Okay, it just seems so unfair to the man. He has given up so much. And, he did it for me. If I hadn’t been such an asshole to his woman, his new woman, well...” she said.

“We’ll make it right by the man. I’m working on it. It might not be as easy as it would with almost anyone else. But it is doable. And, I promise you it will be done,” he said. “I just have to figure out what button to push. I know he’s got one, everyone does. It’s just a matter of finding it.”

“Thank you, my husband,” she said.

“Well, they haven’t gotten back to us. But, I guess that is an RSVP in itself,” said Henrietta.

“Yes, I think you’re right. So, we just go ahead and get it done. Next Monday’s the 14th. The justice of the peace office will be open. We’ve already got the license,” I said. She nodded.

“I wonder if they’ll just show up. I mean to be fair we only gave them two weeks’ notice,” she said. I shrugged.

“Unlikely, but if they do; they can take us to lunch. I am so looking forward to this no matter which way it goes. The good news for me is I will finally have me a wife that actually loves me as much as I love her,” I said.

It was cloudy out, but as far as I was concerned it was a beautiful day. Almost as beautiful as the woman holding the bouquet of flowers standing across from me. There is just something about a prospective bride that is beautiful, eerily so.

“You may now kiss the bride,” said the magistrate. And I did, and it was wonderful and she tasted great, and we were married. Nobody had the right to be this happy. The witnesses had been my bud from my old job at the Auto Works, Julian, and a lady worker in the magistrate’s office was the maid of honor.

Julian joined us for lunch at the Elegance: steaks all around. Oh, and champagne, the good stuff.

We had both taken off from our jobs at The Drover for a weekend of sun and sand on the Verde river. We’d been married on Monday and had waited for the weekend to have our little mini-honeymoon. We didn’t have the money for any big deal: Paris would have to wait a bit, like maybe ten years.

We’d gotten ourselves a motel room in Clarkdale for the weekend on the Verde, and we really had a wonderful time, the both of us. We were starting over, again, the both of us, and it was good. Oh my, yes it was.

Monday saw us both back on the job and getting a bus load of congratulations from the other workers at The Drover. We were happy, rich no, but happy. I wondered if the two assholes could have said as much.

Oh, and no, none of the assholes had shown up for the wedding. I was thankful for that little bit of serendipity.

“Well, I guess they’ve written us off,” said Henrietta. She’d come into the break room where I was tilting back a cup of java. She took the seat opposite me.

“Guess so,” I said, “and I am just all the hell broken up about it.”

“We’ll likely get the official invitation to Selena’s wedding when she and her beau finally decide on a firm date to tie the knot,” she said.

“Yes, and we will suitably absent ourselves from that little do. I mean fair is fair,” I said.

“Hmm, yes,” she said. “Or, we go and just spectate. We don’t sit with the wedding party. Kind of passively make a statement of our own. I mean the food will likely be first rate.”

“Yes, I would suppose that it would be,” I said. “Okay, if they do invite us that’s how we’ll play it. They wouldn’t come to ours, but we do to theirs. Yes, I like it.”

“Momma, a friend of Jack’s, who works at the hospital was in town last Monday to get a marriage license,” said Selena.

“Oh?” said Victoria. “That’s nice.”

“Yes, well there was a marriage ceremony going on in the offices just across from where he was getting his license, him and his fiancé,” she said.

“Okay,” said Victoria

“Mom, my bio-dad was marrying that woman,” she said. He knew who they were because he works part time at The Drover to make ends meet, I mean Jack’s friend does: he’s an orderly at GMC,” said Selena. “He knows the both of them, the Steeles, now I guess.”

The older woman stared. “Oh my. Well, it was not unexpected. We did get the invite,” said Victoria. “August 14th, I guess nothing is left for him and me now.”

“Momma?” said Selena.

“Yes, Selena, make sure you send the Steeles a formal invitation to your wedding. They may or may not come, but I really don’t want it to seem like we are slapping him, them, in face. He did bad choosing our anniversary—his and mine—to wed his new woman. We will not disrespect him, them, by following their bad example. We will not,” she said.

“Okay, momma, I guess we can at least do that much,” said Selena. The other woman nodded.

“Yes,” said Victoria.

It was October 3rd. We watched attentively as my baby got hitched to mister Jack Sizemore. I couldn’t help it; I got a little emotional when my successful rival walked my girl down the aisle and gave her away. It should’ve been me doing those things. Henrietta noticed, but didn’t say anything.

They, the assholes, hadn’t seen us; well, I didn’t think they had. We hadn’t gotten any looks. I figured we would at the reception.

The organist played a version of Mendelsohn’s wedding march as the couple exited the altar area and headed for the outside steps of the church for the mandatory picture taking and rice and screaming that were part and parcel of fancy weddings like this one. I wondered where they would be going on their honeymoon. We’d likely find out at the reception, well, we had attended mainly for the food, oh, and to make our passive statement.