Looking forward to it!he types.
V calls that night, to make sure he did as he promised. They end up talking for twenty minutes, mostly about her day. He asks her if she wants to come to the wedding with him, and she says no. Not ano, because I already have plansor ano, I don’t want to be doing that with you again. Just an unambiguous-in-decision, ambiguous-in-causeno. J thinks it’s a little strange to be lying in bed in the same city (albeit a different borough) and talking on the phone. He makes what are (to him) the slightest of hints that maybe they should hang up and continue in person, but she passes them by, signs for exits she’s not taking.
He is happy to have her be the last voice he hears before he goes to sleep. And at the same time, he wishes he could reach out and find her there in the bed, to fall asleep to the sound of her breathing.
J takes some time on Friday to rework the payphone song. It’s like going back to a house where he once lived and rearranging thefurniture; it might end up being an improvement, but it will still seem unfamiliar.
By the time the sun sets, he’s pretty much done with the song. He messages V to see what she’s up to. She replies,Work,and that’s that.
Next he messages Skye, to ask how they’re doing.Messyis their reply.Want to talk? J offers, thinking it would be nice to see Skye again. He’s disappointed when Skye responds,Had to go out of town for the weekend to think things through. Sorry. Are you still around next week?
I think so? J replies. There is another wedding on the horizon that will require travel, but if he doesn’t stop at home first, he might be able to get another week here.
Tara and Hugh’s wedding is at a hotel in Jersey City, overlooking the Manhattan skyline. J arrives an hour early, partly to situate himself and partly because he thought New Jersey was much farther away than it really is (a mistake most people make; the Hudson River isn’tthatwide).
He realizes too late that Tara hasn’t given him instructions. He is already a little self-conscious because he is wearing the same suit he wore to the fake wedding, although he is fairly certain that nobody from that wedding will be attending this one...and even if they do, what he wore was the least memorable part of that wedding. He also has his guitar case, which always garners looks when striding through a hotel lobby or into a ballroom where a wedding has been set up.
As he walks in, he sees a cluster of old men in tuxedos talking in a corner. Their talking stops when he enters the room, and almost immediately he feels like a trespasser and hopes he has picked the right wedding in the right ballroom; he imagines any hotel with a skyline view will be packed to bursting with weddings on a Saturday night. One of the older men says something to his cohorts, thenstrides over. From his age and genteel bearing, J imagines this is Tara’s or Hugh’s father.
J is expecting aCan I help you? But what he gets instead is a blunter, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for Tara,” J replies. “Can you tell me where she is? Or maybe the wedding planner?”
“Christ, you’ve got a lot of nerve,” the man replies.
“Tara invited me,” J says, taken aback by the father’s vitriol. “This is Tara’s wedding, isn’t it?”
“This isourwedding,” the man says. “And I guarantee, you’re not on the guest list.”
“Hugh?” J asks, confused. “I’m J—”
“I know exactly who you are. And if you think you can waltz in here and make trouble...”
This completely breaks the tension for J, because it’s so ridiculous.
He laughs. “I’m not here to make trouble. I’m just here to sing a song as part of the wedding. It was supposed to be a surprise for you. Please, just ask Tara. Or the wedding planner. Or Lori.”
“Like I’d trust Lori!”
“The wedding planner, then.”
“Fine,” Hugh says. Then he turns to his cohort and yells, “Will one of you go get Maria? The planner? She’s probably in with the girls.” As one of the men runs off, Hugh tells J, “You wait here.”
J is relieved that when the wedding planner arrives, she does not seem at all disturbed by his presence.
“You knew about this?” Hugh accuses.
“Yes,” Maria replies calmly. “This was meant to be a surprise.”
“Some surprise!” Hugh says to Maria. Then he turns again on J. “Have you and my wife been talking all this time? That would be one helluva fucking surprise.”
J resists pointing out that Tara isn’t Hugh’s wife yet. Instead he says, “I only heard from her last weekend. She saw I was in townfrom Sweden. It’s been years since we last spoke. She asked me to sing in the ceremony and invited me and my girlfriend to the reception afterwards.”
J is hoping the mention of a girlfriend will satisfy a man like Hugh...and in this case, it’s the right call.
“I see,” Hugh says. “So where’s your girlfriend now?”
“On her way,” J bluffs. “I’m here early to see the stage—I mean, the venue. Amp my guitar if that’s possible. See where I’m supposed to stand.”
