“Jake, I think Julia’s got this under control,” Rami gently tells his boyfriend.
“I’m just making some suggestions.”
“And I appreciate them, I do,” Julia says diplomatically, “but right now I think some natural photos of just Loncey and their mother is best.”
She lifts one of her cameras but when Jake and Rami don’t move she turns back to them. “Actually, could you go and tell the Father and Brother of the Bride to be ready for some group shots? Maybe check they’re completely ready.”
Suddenly entrusted with something to do, Jake marches out of the room. Rami is slower to follow and just before he leaves, he turns back to us.
“I’m sorry he’s so agitated. He can be funny about weddings,” he says, before checking Jake has left the room. “But little does he know the next one he’ll go to may well be his own. He’ll be a complete nightmare on that day!”
I blink. “You… you’re going to propose?”
“Soon. On the 28thof May,” Rami says, and a proud smile lifts his whole face. “The day we had our first kiss, two years ago.”
I walk over to Rami and offer him my hand. “I’m so happy for you, man,” I say and I’m only slightly aware of more clicking behind us.
“Love truly is in the air,” Mom says as Rami nods at us both and leaves.
“Or in the stars,” I say, and then I don’t stop myself from pulling Mom close for a long embrace as the camera keeps on clicking.
Twenty minutes later and we’ve moved into the living room area of the suite we’ve hired for getting ready and Jake has me, Marty, and Maeve’s father, James, all lined up near the marble mantelpiece above an empty fireplace. I’ve put my suit jacket on and my mom has tidied up the last of my locs which had fallen out of the top knot I’d created earlier that morning.
“Looking very smart,” James said when he shook my hand, before nodding at my camisole. “That green colour is especially good on you.”
“It’s to match your daughter’s eyes,” I told him and I didn’t know what kind of a reaction I expected but when he closed hismouth, pulled his lips over his teeth and lowered his eyes, I knew he was feeling emotional. And then suddenly so was I.
“I will look after Maeve,” I told him. “I’m going to make it my life’s work.”
“I believe you, son,” he said. “Shit, sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“No, it’s okay,” I told him. “I like it. My sister still calls me her brother. And you can call meson,if you want.”
He shook my hand again then, this time with a hand on my shoulder.
And now I’m standing beside him, with Marty on my other side.
“Ah, would you look at the three of you,” Cynthia says as the door to our suite clicks closed. She must have just arrived. She comes to stand behind Julia who is busy taking photos. “So very handsome.”
“Thanks Ma,” Marty says with a dazzling smile, the kind that reminds me of Maeve. Aside from their long, tall physiques, they don’t look very similar with Marty’s dark eyes, dark brown hair and full beard, but there’s something in that wide, proud, unapologetic smile that has me missing Maeve sharply and it’s not even been a day since I last saw her.
“Wait, can I say handsome?” Cynthia steps closer. “Is that too, you know, gendery?”
“Handsome is fine,” I tell her. “But I’ll also take a beautiful here and there.”
“Well, I do think you look beautiful,” she says with a smile of her own that isn’t exactly dim or dull.
“Agreed,” Marty mumbles through the teeth of his smile.
“You know, I wouldn’t mind abeautifulnow and then,” James speaks up and we all turn to look at him. He adds, “Well, who wouldn’t?”
“Husband.” Cynthia steps into the frame and approaches James. She reaches up and cups his face. “You look beautiful too.”
They kiss and Marty and I smile as Julia moves in place to capture it all. And I’m glad. I can’t wait to have these photos and tell Maeve all about the moment I fell in love with her family.
*****
I think I’m ready. I’ve been standing here in front of the registrar for nearly twenty minutes, facing everyone as they offer me polite or kind or encouraging smiles as we all wait for Maeve to arrive. The room we’re in is tall and circular, with marble columns around the perimeter. Every single noise travels in this vast space, but I’m ignoring it all. The chatter of the small number of guests, the string quartet playing Prince songs, even the echoing squeals and giggles of Patience sat with her mom and dad in the front row doesn’t distract me. I am focused. I am ready.
