Page 33 of Save the Date

“I’ll add it to the list. No food sharing and order tissues in bulk.” Will smiled. Despite her nerves, Emma felt one start to form on her own lips, which really proved the complexity of being alive.

“What I wanted to say,” Will added with the most apprehension she’d seen from him thus far, “is that I think I know a little about how you’re feeling. I’ve never been engaged, but I did live with my ex for four years until she left me for a fellowship in England. She didn’t even ask if I wanted to come. She just packed up and left.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, it was.” For a moment Will looked like he was getting pulled back into the memory before he returned his gaze to Emma. “But it got easier. Sorry to hijack your big speech. I just didn’t want you to think you were the only one in this bed who’s been unceremoniously dumped.”

Emma reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’ve been unceremoniously dumpedmanytimes. This one just stung the most.” Will laughed and it gave Emma the courage to keep going. “Part of what made it so excruciating is that I have this YouTube channel…”

“Okay, now I understand why you didn’t want me to know your last name. I’m going to have to watch everything.”

“I had a feeling you’d say that, which is why we needed to have this conversation first.” Emma realized she should have prepared for what was about to happen. Or at least done a role play with Imani to make sure she wouldn’t sound completely bananas. “You see, my entire channel is meant to be a professional resource about therapy and relationships. But about a year ago, I started including Ryan in some of the videos to help demonstrate communication skills or review how we movedpast a certain conflict. He became sort of a fan favorite, so I put him in more and more stuff.”

“I get that. Audiences love authenticity, right?”

“Exactly! But when he left…” Emma trailed off, hoping that Will’s emotional intelligence would help fill in some of the blanks.

“You thought you would lose them too.”

Emma nodded, increasingly grateful for this man in front of her. “Then I had this idea. And at first, it’s going to seem really bonkers and intense, but I think if you give me enough time to explain you’ll see where I’m coming from and maybe even want to be a part of it.”

“Oh my god. You want to murder Ryan and you need my help.” Will shifted himself into a more upright position and flexed his biceps. “Where does that punk live?”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” Emma replied with a laugh. “But that’s not what I wanted to pitch you.”

Emma took another one of her calming breaths and started to explain the strangest plan she had ever made.

***

“You haven’t said anything in twelve and a half minutes,” Emma announced. She and Will were now fully clothed and standing in his kitchen. As soon as she’d finished describing Operation: Save My Date, Will had jumped up from the bed and declared he needed coffee to properly process this new information.

“Pour-over coffee takes a lot of concentration. I don’t want to mess up the ratios.”

“Okay,” Emma conceded. If she wanted any shot at keeping him, she knew she couldn’t push too much. She went to sit at the dark wood kitchen table while he finished pouring his culinary masterpiece into two mugs. One was fromThis American Lifeand the other said, “Careful or you’ll end up in my next podcast” in italicized font.

“Here you go.” Will handed her the kitschy mug as he sat at the table.

“Thank you,” Emma replied. “So, on a scale of one to ten how freaked out are you right now?”

“I’d say maybe an eleven or twelve. I guess I can’t figure out why you think you need to do this.”

“I don’tneedto do this. I want to. It’s an opportunity for me to build the life I want and make a real difference.”

“And the real difference would be proving that you can replace one guy with another guy whenever you want?”

“No. Of course not. The real difference would be showing that love isn’t some magical thing you have to passively wait for. It’s something you can choose to create with another person.”

“Uh-huh,” Will said, not at all sounding convinced.

“Look, I know how it sounds, but plenty of people get married after only knowing each other for a few months. Think about arranged marriages or soldiers about to go off to war.”

“But those people weren’t planning a wedding with someone else a month before.”

“We can’t know that for sure,” Emma offered as a weak attempt at levity.

Will ignored this and used his right hand to massage his forehead. “It just sucks because I really liked you.”

“I really like you, too,” Emma replied—even though his use of the past tense tore through her heart like shrapnel.

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