Page 20 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

“Ouch.”

“I’m not sure what you want from me.”

“This sounds like anger. I don’t think you’re as indifferent as you claim to be.”

“Sue me.”

“I don’t want to sue you. I have plenty of money. I want to see you. We have some things to discuss.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve spent these months coming to terms with the fact that I was stupid enough to let your prettyface and your pretty words cloud my usually sound judgment and that I was nothing more than a vacation fling.”

“Don’t. Don’t you say that. You were never just a vacation fling, Gloria.”

“Right—because I didn’t sleep with you. Hard to be a fling when the clothes aren’t flinging, am I right?”

“Dammit—stop. I told you the truth. My family is horrible at the best of times but I can’t simply cut ties with them. It’s complicated. I miss you, though, and I need to see you. I need to see… mywife.”

“You went home to your wife?” My voice grew thick with his betrayal. “What? She away now? You like the challenge?”

“Glory,Jesus—I wasn’t married. I’m not that kind of man.”

“You weren’t married… but you are now.” My stomach dropped, noplummeted, out of my body, through the floorboards of the living room to parts unknown. Letting out a breath, I squared my shoulders to finish this nightmare up. “Congratulations. I hope she’s everything I never could be.”

“Gloria—I marriedyou.”

What? He married me?

“Excuse me?” I whispered, lacking the ability to raise the volume of my voice any higher.

“You’ll never guess who I ran into. Moses.”

“You ran into Moses. Our safari guide… inVermont?”

“He came to visit his brother, Michael, who happened to be one of the lawyers overseeing my grandfather’s estate. I knew his brother worked in America but what are the chances? And Glory, he had a whole lot to say.”

“I feel like this is where you tell me to sit down.”

“Sweetheart, if you’re not already sitting, do it.”

“I’m sitting.” I waited.

“Do you remember when Mingati asked if we were married or brother and sister?”

“Yes. I thought it was weird.”

“Well, in their culture, men and women don’t travel alone together unless they’re married or siblings or whatever. The men who sat in the circle with us were on the hunt to prove they’d be good providers for their new families.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re married.”

“Remember the body paint and those beautiful shawls draped around us?”

“Parts of it.”

“What parts, exactly?”

“I definitely remember the shawls and the paint, and that first drink of bitter alcohol.”

“And that’s where they got us. Mingati spoke to the people. There were dancers. The alcohol. All of that was our wedding ceremony.”

---