In some other story, this would be a meet-cute. In this one, the timing is bad. I can tell Nick’s attention is still with Kira and he barely clocks the significance of the name Shawna.
I dislodge my shoe and tap my mother on the shoulder. “Mom, can I talk to you alone for just a sec?”
“Do you need to readjust your bra?” Mom whispers.
I gently hustle my mother to a quieter area behind a giant tree and attempt the impossible task of conducting an uninterrupted conversation with a bride at her wedding.
“I need to tell you something about Nick,” I say, trying to get it out quickly before more guests see us and want to take selfies with her. “He’s not interested in Shawna.”
“What do you mean?” Mom furrows her brow. “He literally just met her. She said they had a nice chat, but he’s not onFacebook very much so it’s been hard to get a conversation going—”
“Nick isn’t interested in meeting someone new right now.”
“People say that, but it’s usually because they haven’t met the right person. Is he still devastated about his marriage? Men usually bounce back so quickly. Do you think he and his wife are still involved?”
“No, Mom,” I say, probably with too much urgency. “He’s totally moved on.”
“Really? I did wonder if they might reconcile.”
“What?” I take a breath as one of the guests pulls her aside for a quick hug. “That’s not—”
My mom’s eyes flick past my face, lighting up at someone behindme.
“Barbara! This is perfect timing. Do you recognize this girl?” My mom puts a hand on my shoulder, pushing me toward a woman about her age, wearing a flowing dress with a giant vintage brooch. She’s eating an empanada. “This is Sam. All grown up.”
“Congratulations, Jennifer! And Sam! Just the girl I was looking for!” Barbara Silverton says before reaching over to give my mom a side hug and air kiss. “We have an opening in the art department,” she says. “A maternity cover for the fall semester. I already passed along your résumé to Dr. Zelinsky.”
I allow my expectations to shoot skyward. Is she offering me the opportunity to be a visiting lecturer?
Mom gives me a squeeze. “That’s amazing, Barbara.”
Itisamazing. I picture myself updating my CV to include actual teaching experience at the collegiate level. What an unbelievable stroke of luck.
Barbara takes a bite of her empanada and nods. “I’ll send you a calendar invite when I get back on Monday.”
“Wow…I…thank you,” I say, flustered. If she wasn’t holding a plate of hors d’oeuvres, I would have taken her hand. “I appreciate this so much.”
“In a couple weeks you could be the new temporary administrative assistant for the art education program,” Barbara says.
Administrative assistant.
Amid the din of the reception and the music, I only hear white noise. I barely register when Barbara hands me her phone and asks me to take a photo of her and my mom posing together.
I tap on the shutter button about twelve times while mentally berating myself. As if this woman was about to let me cosplay as a college professor.
But my mom looks overjoyed as she gives Barbara a last hug and turns back around to me. She probably feels like her last problem (what to do about Sam) was just solved.
“Hey, Mom—” I say, but I get drowned out by the amplified voice of their DJ, who I’m pretty sure is one of Perry’s close friends with a Spotify playlist and boundless enthusiasm.
“We’d like to call Jennifer and Perry over to the dance floor for their first official dance as spouses!”
I miss theirfirst dance because I’m busy at the bar, replacing the drink that wound up on Shawna and spiraling.
I drown my double-pronged anxieties: Nick and Shawna on one side of my brain, a job I don’t really want in upstate New York on the other.
Nick watches my mom and Perry dance, while physically restraining Kira from joining them on the dance floor. Shawna and her mom haven’t left his side. I’m a little too far away to catch his attention, not that I have any idea how to politely extricate him from this situation.
The DJ executes a very abrupt transition and other couples trickle onto the dance floor. I watch Shawna’s mom physically push Nick and Shawna forward and I realize this is my karmic retribution for waiting too long to be honest with my mom. I fucked around and I’m finding out.
