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I kept letting my mind drift as I started planning a special night for us together. It might take a couple of weeks to put together, but it would be worth it. I wanted to talk about our future in a way that would give her every indication of what I wanted first without me having to say the words.
Drifting off to sleep myself, I let myself dream of those plans. As they came together in the misty haze of sleep, I smiled.
10
KRISTEN
"Can you believe it? I haven't even been married for a third of a year yet… Kristen? Are you listening?"
I snapped out of the thoughts I'd drifted away into and looked at Brianne. I blinked at her a couple of times, trying to get myself back into the conversation we were having. It hadn't fully sunken in, but I managed to grab the mention of the length of time.
"Third of a year?" I asked, confused. "You mean four months?"
"Yes," she said. "I haven't even been married for four months."
"Then why didn't you just say four months?" I asked.
"Because people talk about a decade, half a decade, a year, half a year, it's a … never mind. It doesn't matter. What I was saying is I'm still a new newlywed. Not even just a newlywed. Like a brand-newlywed. And his mother is already shaming us for not naming our children the traditional names in her family. Children we don't have yet, by the way," she said.
Brianne and I were sitting in the middle of her living room floor on a cheap plastic tablecloth we'd spread over the carpet after pushing her coffee table out of the way. Several ceramic planters designed to look like teapots were arranged around us, and we had little pots of paints in a wide range of colors set out between us.
We'd been working on the decorations for a Mother's Day event I was helping organize at the community center where I taught adult classes, and these adorable teapots were Brianne's idea. They were also my favorite thing about the entire event so far, which would have been a major bummer if I'd been as wrapped up in the preparations as I usually was.
As it was, my mind had been drifting for the entire time we were together. I was looking forward to putting on the event for the families at the center, and I knew it would be amazing, but I couldn't stay focused.
"She was shaming you?" I asked.
I knew I sounded like I wasn't paying attention, and it made me feel terrible. Brianne and I hadn't hung out as much recently, and now that we were finally getting an evening together, I was distracted. I didn't want her to feel like I was ignoring her or didn't want to be spending time with her.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
I nodded. "Absolutely. Go on. Tell me about the shaming. What did she do?"
She eyed me for a second like she was seeing through me. It was the look women seem to inherit when they become best friends. It was somehow judgmental, suspicious, supportive, loving, and scathing all at once. Brianne had mastered it.
We kept painting the planters as her story gave me a glimpse into married life and the delicate politics of having a mother-in-law. I thought I was keeping up until she said my name again, and I looked up at her.
"What's going on with you?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you've been painting that same pansy petal for the last ten minutes. And I just told you my mother-in-law wants us to promise to name the future child she insists arrive within the next year the traditional family name of Bergamot Montrose Merlot, and you didn't even flinch," Brianne said.
I didn't even know how to respond to that. My mouth opened, but when nothing came out after a few seconds, I closed it again. I thought, trying to come up with the right response.
"Bergamot like the soap fragrance?" I finally asked.
"That would be the one," Brianne said. "You didn't miss the second middle name, did you?" she asked.
"Oh, no, I got it. All that sank right in. I have a lot of questions." I sighed and put down my paintbrush. "I'm sorry. My mind is a million miles away. Well, three hundred miles away."
"That seems oddly specific," Brianne said.
I nodded. "Van Hope University. Three hundred and twelve miles from here."
"You heard back?" she asked excitedly.
I nodded. "Yeah."
