Page 29 of Our Big White Lie
She huffed sharply. “Well, we all thought you’d grow out of it. You were only fifteen.”
I gritted my teeth. “Mmhmm. And I’m twenty-six now. Not growing out of it. Also, didn’t Aunt Gina meet Uncle Larry when they were fourteen?”
“She did, but she didn’t marry him until she was twenty.”
“Okay, but you always talk about how romantic and sweet it is that they knew from a young age that they were meant to be.” I shrugged as flippantly as I could. “ButIcouldn’t know myself until I was?—”
“You were way too young to know you were a sexual deviant,” she snapped.
I stared at her. I’d always known she and my grandma weren’t thrilled about my sexuality, but neither of them had beenquiteso blunt about it. Not even my aunt, who was quite outspoken about her opinions. Apparently they’d just assumed I’d eventually evolve into a proper heterosexual, but now that I was marrying another woman, the gloves were coming off.
I set my jaw and looked right in her eyes. “Well, if you and Grandma don’t approve, you don’t have to come. In fact, I don’twanteither of you to come.”
“I can’t imagine why I would,” she threw back haughtily. “It’s utterly ridiculous.”
My mom came back into the room, glaring at her sister’s back as she helped Grandma into her chair.
Elizabeth wasn’t done yet, either. “It’s bad enough this is a wedding between two women. But you’re having it officiated by a gaySatanicpriest? That’s not a wedding. That’s a circus. It’s a mockery of a sacred union, and the two of you are a mockery of marriage. You should be ashamed of yourself, marrying that woman instead of a man.”
Anger flared hot in my chest. “I love her,” I said through my teeth. “That’s why I’m marrying her.”
My aunt made a disgusted face. “That isn’t love. It’s perversion and?—”
“What wouldyouknow about love?” I demanded.
Everyone tensed as all the air seemed to rush out of the room. I stared my aunt down as my mom and everyone else probably wondered just how far I was going to take this. There were certain things we all knew but didn’t talk about, and if Aunt Elizabeth kept at it, we were going to talk about them. Right here. Right now.
Voice cool, she said, “I know that marriage is between a man and a woman. Not…thisnonsense. I’m sure she’s a lovely girl, but you and she both need husbands. Not each other.”
“I needher.” I was going to grind my teeth to dust at this point. “I don’t care if you approve. I love her. I want to be with her. And I’m?—”
“Then just be together instead of demanding everyone endorse it.” Elizabeth folded her arms. “I just don’t understand why you two have to get married. You already live together. What difference does it make? Why do you need all the fanfare?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why did you need all the fanfare for three different husbands?”
Someone choked. Someone else murmured, “Oh Lord…”
Elizabeth’s jaw worked as purple rose in her cheeks.
“Tori,” my mom said in a quiet but gently warning tone. It was one I recognized from past family shindigs—theI’m on your side but please don’t make a scenetone.
Fuck that.
“No one’s forcing you to come to the wedding,” I snapped at Elizabeth. “No one’s forcing you to like it or even care about it. But you don’t get to question it either. You haven’t been able to make a marriage last longer than five years, and even if you had, I really don’t give a damn if you have opinions about me marrying Ava.”
“It isn’t right for a woman to marry another woman!” she threw back.
“Says who?” I shouted. “Because I’m pretty sure your book has a whole lot more to say about adulterers than it does about lesbians!”
She looked like I’d smacked her. I kind of wished I had.
“Victoria,” my mom said more emphatically this time.
I ignored her. To my aunt, I said, “You’re a hypocrite. We all know you cheated on both of your ex-husbands, and I don’t think any of us would be surprised if you’re cheating on Paul.”
“How dare you?” She glared hard at me. “I’m not perfect and I’ve made mistakes in my past, but I don’t ask people to celebrate my failures and flaws.”
“Oh really?” I barked a caustic laugh. “So it was just my imagination when we all knew you were marrying the man you cheated on your first husband with? Or the one you cheated onhimwith?”
