Surprise, Surprise

Mike invited his and Amanda’s friends to their favorite beer garden and announced that they were getting married when the semester ended. Everyone expressed proper surprise. Everyone congratulated them with raucous laughter. For real or a joke, they kept asking.

“For real,” Mike said. “Very, very real.”

[This is the second post in a serialized story. Click here to read the first one.]

“You should do it like a reality show,” Jason, his best drinking buddy said. “Start with the wedding and then video yourselves three nights a week.”

After people suggested various scenarios for this, one guy asked when Amanda was due. “She isn’t.”

Amanda blushed, throughout, more embarrassed than she had anticipated. She wasn’t used to attention, and big as the university was, from her first week there, people noticed her for some reason. Other students remembered her even from lecture classes. After she had hooked up with Mike, who was famous for getting people to tease him, they teased her, too. But now, the kidding about how their marriage was a great joke was going on too long.

Everyone was getting drunk, except Amanda, who wasn’t so much embarrassed anymore, but practically ashamed. She looked around, suddenly aware that she didn’t know these people, her friends.

Maybe she didn’t even know Mike. Excusing herself, she watched the group from behind an alcove. Just as she decided to leave, because this wasn’t fun, not to her—Mike came from the shadows behind her and startled her. He pulled her through the front door and ushered her halfway down the street. 

“People testing our resolve is part of the ritual,” he said, stopping under a big tree. “Just smile and say ‘thank you,’ no matter how screwy the congratulations. I’m the big joker,” he said, “and you’re the bride.”  He smiled at her as if just looking at her was an awesome privilege.

“Come on.” He tucked her hair behind her ears and after that, she felt okay.

The next day, though, her roommate from freshman year waylaid her after lunch. Amanda had ignored Petra’s voice mails, not wanting to get into it. She had barely recovered from the party at the beer garden.

“You’re not so hot,” Petra said. “You think you can just waltz around, like you’re the shit. If you get married, you’ll get divorced.”

“I know it’s a risk,” Amanda said. “But what isn’t?”

Petra shouldn’t make it personal. What did she care if Amanda got married?

“Because we’re friends,” Petra said.

“Oh, there’s more to it than that,” Amanda said too fast to find the right tone.

“Well then, we’re not friends.” Petra’s mouth curled into a grimace and she stomped off, her arms flying about, making some undecipherable argument.

Getting married had frightened Amanda from the beginning. But being afraid wasn’t a reason to tell Mike no. She refused to be a coward. Not counting social anxiety, she wanted to marry Mike. The whole last three months, since they started sleeping together, were high-flying bliss.   

And it wasn’t just three months. They were friends for almost two years before they were lovers.

Studying together that afternoon, Mike claimed he had no doubts, no qualms. Amanda was the one for him. “That’s why we’re getting married.” He had already told his parents, who were both doctors at the school, although they lectured separately around the world. They’d all get together in two weeks.

“Were they surprised?”

“It’s hard to tell with them on a conference call,” he said. “But they like it when I make my own decisions.”

“I kind of dread telling my mom. You know that, right?”

“So let’s do it. The sooner the better.”

 (Click here to read the next episode.)