Page 40 of A Storybook Wedding

“And?”

“And nothing. I really don’t care much about the wedding itself; I care about the woman and the whole idea of, you know, forever. But yeah, I’d say it’s on my in-my-lifetime to-do list.”

“Just not right now.”

“Exactly.”

“So then it wouldn’t massively alter the trajectory of your future either if you think about it. Figure we can at least try. Worse comes to worst, we can get it annulled.”

I take a breath. She’s serious. She would actually do this.

“Okay, let’s say we were crazy enough to go down this road. What would be the brilliant story we’d tell? Because once we disclose it to Dillon, we’ll have to disclose to the entire school.”

“First of all, I don’t think the whole school is going to really care about the particulars of the story. But fine. We are creative writers, correct?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So let’s create ourselves a story.”

“Like once upon a time?”

“Exactly. I’ll start.” She clears her throat. “Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to write books. She was a children’s librarian and wanted nothing more than to become a real-life author. Your turn.”

I can’t help but smile. “This is ridiculous.”

“I know. But play with me anyway. Go ahead.”

“Fine. Let’s see.” I think for a few seconds. “The girl was fascinated by the literary world, so she…” My voice trails off.

“So she read everything. If it was critically acclaimed, she read it. If it won a Pushcart Prize or a PEN Award, she read it.”

“One day, she met this guy in a bar. He said he wrote a book that was going to be published, but—”

“But she thought he was full of it, like, that he had zero game and was just trying to flirt with her—badly.”

“Wow. Why does he have to have no game?” I ask.

“Just trust me. It’s more believable this way.”

“We’re only a minute into this exercise, and already it’s becoming hurtful,” I laugh.

“Focus up. Okay. So even though she doesn’t believe that he’s got this book coming out or whatever, she still lets him take her on a few dates. They hit it off surprisingly well. But then…”

“Oh! That’s easy. Then the book does come out, and the girl’s eating her words realizing that this guy’s the real deal, and then the whole world gets shut down because of COVID.”

“Yesss! She comes from this big family in Queens, and they won’t let her out of their quarantine pod.”

“And he’s stuck in Manhattan, where no one wants to be.”

“Did you actually live in Manhattan during quarantine?”

“I did,” I say. “But that was before I had any money. I was sharing a rental with two other guys in East Harlem. It wasn’t terrible, because when COVID hit, one of them went home to live with his parents in Connecticut, and the other one moved in with his girlfriend in Dumbo. So I was there by myself for the most part. But once the book blew up, I moved to my current apartment on the West Side, which I got for way cheaper than it’s worth because everyone wanted to escape the city.”

“Weren’t you lonely?”

“Yeah, I was. But I worked from home. And I read a lot. Oh! And I taught myself how to cook.”

“Really?”

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