Page 63 of Save the Date

Emma turned to her, annoyed. “You don’t buy it?”

“I think you’re both putting too much emphasis on a piece of paper. Things aren’t going to change the moment you get married. He’s not immediately going to get over his trust issues and you’re not suddenly going to fall in love.”

“I know that. But I do think there can be power in ceremony and ritual. They mean something to people for a reason.”

“You’re right,” Imani agreed. She had been the one to convince Emma that spirituality and psychology could mix after all. “I just don’t want you to ignore any issues that might come up in the next few months because you assume they’ll work themselves out once you’re married. We both know it never works like that.”

“My relationship got better once we were married,” Jackie countered. “Mostly because I was no longer constantly bugging Chris about when we’d get married. But I do think it can be smart to test the car before you buy it.”

“I think she’s talking about sex,” Imani stage-whispered to Emma.

“I don’t know, she could also be talking about his Porsche.”

“Matt has a Porsche? Never mind, just risk it,” Jackie replied. “Sex is overrated anyway.”

***

“This should only take a few hours.” Emma leaned over Matt’s fancy sports car’s console to kiss him goodbye. “I can grab an Uber home.”

“Nope. No rideshares for my fiancée. Just text me when you’re done and I’ll come pick you up. There’s a new taco place—”

A loud knock on the window interrupted their conversation. Emma turned to find Will staring into the car with a grin. She rolled her eyes at him while trying to calm her accelerated heart rate. She was not planning on this interaction.

“That’s my producer, Will,” Emma explained as she opened the car door. Will backed away from the Porsche to give Emma room to get out before reclaiming his spot at the now-open door.

“Hey, man.” Will leaned into the car for a handshake. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“You, too,” Matt replied, even though Emma barely talked to Matt about Will. It seemed safer that way. Less opportunity for potentially troubling information about her complicated feelings to slip out.

Once the handshake was complete, Emma intervened before Will could say something embarrassing—or life ruining. She also didn’t want Matt to mention their engagement before she could tell Will privately. She knew she owed him that courtesy out of respect for their peculiar relationship. Now that that disclosure was imminent, Emma was increasingly nervous about his response. What if Will was annoyed the podcast had been cut out of the proposal? Or worse, what if Will was happy forher, relieved, even? The fact that this concern existed at all was proof that Emma liked jealous Will a little too much.

But, Emma reminded herself for the umpteenth time, Will had made his choice. And now he had to live with the fallout. Which might include a lot more time with Matt now that he was officially her fiancé and a likely future guest of the podcast.

As the thought of Will interviewing Matt threatened to induce a panic attack, Emma took a few calming breaths to place herself back into the present moment. A moment in which she very much wanted Matt to drive away before things got even more awkward.

“I’ll see you soon,” Emma sputtered as she nudged Will toward her apartment building, where they were planning to record.

“Bye,” Will sang out in a pitch that felt like he was poking fun at her. “Wow.” He whistled. “That’s a good-looking man.”

“Are you surprised?”

“No, but it is a good reminder to renew my gym membership,” Will joked as she punched in the building code to open the front door. Emma tried to push away the guilt she was feeling for unintentionally shoving Matt’s perfect hairline in Will’s face. Matt wouldn’t be chauffeuring her around if Will hadn’t rejected her first, so any discomfort he was feeling was really his own fault.

Emma loved when a reframe absolved her of all responsibility.

“Thank you for helping me with this,” Emma said a few minutes later as she not so carefully put her West Elm dishes in a packing box. They were four years old and purchased at a big discount. It didn’t feel worth the time to individually wrap each one. Especially if she was going to be moving in with Matt soon.

“I’m not here to help. I’m here to document,” Will replied as he unpacked a new kind of mic that he could attach to her body as she moved around.

Alan had finally found a subletter for Emma’s apartment, some son of a friend of one of his tennis buddies. Emma had the weekend to get all her stuff out once and for all. It was the end of an era that had already been on life support.

“If you do help, you get to go through my stuff.”

“Now you’re talking. I call the nightstand drawers.”

Emma laughed, pleased that she had already removed her vibrators during an earlier sweep. Will was more than welcome to pack up her emergency flashlight and overnight moisturizing gloves.

“Have we moved up at all?” Emma asked as calmly as she could. The first episode of the podcast had officially launched yesterday, and the last Emma had obsessively checked they were number seventy-six in Apple Podcast’s top one hundred shows under Society & Culture.

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