“What will Adam’s father think?” my mom is saying when I bring the phone back in range of my ear.
“Why do you care, Mom?” I’d typically keep this type of thought to myself, but it slips out unchecked as I verify that this is the only white car in the lot. It’s definitely mine, even though the lights aren’t flashing when I click the button.
“Heispaying for most of the wedding, Callie. Of course it matters what he thinks. Someone your age and with your good looks should be dating a nice young man. The kind of date you bring says something about our family.”
Fruitlessly, I try all of the door handles, even though it makes no sense that the back door would unlock when the driver’s door wouldn’t. The rain, which had been quietly steady, picks up pace, big drops splashing off of the side of the car and onto me.
“Tell me you haven’t been sitting around moping, Callie. You should be dating, trying to find someone as good as Rick was?—”
Lord, help me.
“…or a guy like Adam. Someone who’ll care for you, so I don’t have to worry about you, or worry about what people think about your situation. My friends say?—”
Something in me snaps. I’m still trying to figure out why my car doors won’t open, I’m stepping in puddles and gradually getting drenched, and I just need her to stop talking.
“I’ve been dating someone, Mom.”
I realize it’s a huge mistake as soon as the words leave my mouth, but once they do, there’s no turning back.
Her tone changes immediately. “Wonderful. I can’t wait to meet him at the wedding. What’s his name?”
“I …I’m not sure if he can come.” I inspect the keyfob to see if something’s wrong with it.
“Not sure if he can come? What do you mean?”
“He might have to work. And it’s such a long event.”
“What does he do?”
“Mom, I’m out in the rain right now. I’ll tell you about him another time.” My keys slip out of my wet hand, drop into a puddle, and somehow bounce under the car, and I bite back a string of expletives.
“Surely he can come to the ceremony and the reception, at the very least.”
“I’ll find out, Mom. I gotta go.” I set the umbrella on the ground so that I can crouch down and try to find my keys without ending up in a puddle myself. After reaching around blindly under my car, I finally get them.
“Not yet, Callie. It’s critical that I get a name for the place card by tomorrow. Do you understand?”
I’d like to tell her that I’ll never understand how it seems that the fate of the world hinges on some fancy letters being printed on a little paper rectangle. I really thought she’d have let this go by now, since all throughout the past year, different elements of wedding planning have been an emergency one day and a non-issue the next.
Thanks to Rick, I don’t have any male friends I can ask to go to the wedding. I used to have friends from school, but Rick made me feel like a slut if I wanted to hang out with them, even though I’d have been in mixed groups of both girls and guys, and eventhough I always invited Rick to come too. He isolated me from most of my friends.
There are dudes at the health club, of course, but I don’t know any of them personally, and I can’t just randomly ask one of them to be my date for such a big event. Besides, the owners might frown upon instructors dating each other, and I can’t afford to do anything to jeopardize my job.
Meanwhile, Big Daddy’s is owned and staffed by women, and though I’d love to give my mom a shock by bringing a woman, even one of my roommates, as my date, I wouldn’t subject a friend to the kind of awkward drama that would create.
Further complicating all of this is the fact that the wedding isn’t just one day, like a normal wedding. There are several events planned, taking place over five days.
“If your boyfriend can’t come?—”
When did I say I had a boyfriend?
“…it’s going to make the reception seating arrangements lopsided. Adam’s best man is married, so obviously, he’ll have a date. All of the other bridesmaids are bringing dates too, and I have all of their names already.”
I tune her out again, putting ninety-percent of my focus on my car that I am somehow locked out of, even though I’m holding the key in my hand. Maybe the battery’s dead in the keyfob? That must be it.
“I don’t want you to be the odd one out, Callie, especially since— Oh dear, I’m not sure whether I should tell you this …”
“Mom, I really need to get going.”
