Page 81 of Que Será, Syrah

“Hah! So, you are married!” Bee says in triumphant tones.

I open my mouth to answer, but Rosa gets there first. “She says she’s not.”

“Divorced then?”

“I asked that, too. She said there wouldn’t have been enough time.”

Bee chews on her lip for a moment and then says, “Legs, is this why you stayed away all summer?”

My face heats up and I cover my eyes. I’m so overcome with embarrassment I can barely mumble, “Yes.”

“So, you’re in the process of getting divorced?” Rosa asks.

“No,” I tell her. “Like I keep trying to explain, I can’t get divorced because I was never actually married.”

“Which I still don’t understand.”

“Wait,” Bee says in muffled tones. She’s sitting cross-legged on the couch, eyes closed, head bowed, one hand placed reverently over her heart while a small, Mona Lisa, not-quite-a-smile glimmers on her lips. “I think I do.”

We wait, as requested, but when the silence drags on for several seconds, “Bee? What’re you doing?” Rosa asks.

“Shh. I’m having a moment.”

“What kind of moment?” I ask.

“A transcendent moment of peak, quintessential middle-childness.”

“Huh?”

“Normally, it makes me sad, being the invisible middle child all the time. But I’m just feeling so good about my life choices right now.”

Rosa and I share a look. “Well, that sounds rude,” she observes.

“Mm-hm. I totally agree.” Then I drain my glass and hold the empty out towards Rosa. She leans in and refills my glass and then tops up her own.

“So, how long do these transcendent moments generally last?” Rosa inquires after another moment.

“Not long,” Bee says as she opens her eyes and smiles benevolently on us both. “Sorry. Where were we?”

“I believe you said you knew what was going on?” Rosa says.

“Oh, yes.” Bee nods. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? You both got secretly married and then had the marriages secretly annulled. And now, you and your spouses have all converged here at the same time. It’s like…what are the odds?”

“Whatever they are, it doesn’t matter,” I tell her. “Because that’s not what happened.”

Rosa agrees, “No, of course, it’s not. I did get married, but I only thought it got annulled.”

I nod. “Exactly. And I only thought I got married but couldn’t get it annulled.”

Rosa frowns. “Yeah, about that. I know how much you love keeping secrets, Legs,” she says as she pours more wine into Bee’s glass. “But you really need to explain yourself.”

“I think you owe us that much,” Bianca says.

So, I tell them about the day after the will was read, and how Nico had convinced me to go to the Registry of Marriages with him and apply for a license. And how we were married a couple of days later by the captain of the cruise ship we were both working on.

“You worked on a cruise ship?” Rosa asked.

“Yes, but that’s not important right now.”

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