I drew back.
But she was still clinging to me.
The pull of her hands curled in my lapels kept me close. Our noses brushed together as we shared the same air. Her breath – my breath – our breath – was coming quick and hot.
Van whooped. Something snapped. Sadie sprang back.
‘Congratulations,’ the celebrant said warmly, as if my bride hadn’t just jumped away from me like I was on fire. ‘Now let’s get the marriage certificate signed so we can make this legal.’
It took less than a minute for everyone to sign the papers that would irrevocably change who we were to each other – so short a time, so small a gesture, for so big a change. ‘Okay, let’s loosen up!’ the photographer declared. ‘You’re married! Let’s celebrate.’
‘Are you all right?’ I whispered to Sadie, as the photographer made us pose with our foreheads leaning against each other, fingers intertwined.
‘What does it look like?’
The acid in her voice should have unknotted something in me. That was the Sadie I knew, caustic, acerbic.
It didn’t, though. The knot twisted itself even tighter, guilt shooting through me like an electric current.
‘Let’s try something old school romantic!’ the photographer said. ‘Jonah, I want you to kiss Sadie’s hand. Make sure we can see that beautiful ring!’
Sadie had goosebumps all up her arms, I noticed, as I pressed her knuckles to my lips. ‘Are you cold?’
‘A little,’ she admitted.
I took my jacket off and wrapped it around her, the smallest possible way I could placate my conscience. ‘It’d be a pretty bad start to our marriage if I let you get hypothermia in the first fifteen minutes.’
It was a weak attempt at a joke, and the laugh she gave was weak in response, as the photographer kept clicking away (‘Oooh, yes, lovely, very romantic!’). My boutonniere was looking a little worse for wear, the petals of the yellow rose bruised from where she’d curled her fingers into my lapels when we’d kissed.
My wife. I’d kissed mywife.
Once the photographer had taken a few more shots and then left with the celebrant for their six o’clock wedding, and we’d waved Van and Annie goodbye, Sadie took off my jacket. ‘Thanks for this,’ she said, practically throwing it back at me and then slinging her handbag over her shoulder. ‘I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow. Text me when you get there and I’ll let you know where I am, okay?’
I caught her wrist. ‘Sadie, wait.’
‘What?’
‘You, um… When we talked about how this night would go before, you said you’d stay with your sister. But…’
She pulled her wrist out of my grasp, fished in her handbag for an elastic, and tied her hair back. ‘Another night on the share house couch won’t kill me.’
‘Come on, don’t be ridiculous. You’re not going back to the share house.’
‘You will note,’ she said tersely, pulling out the handle of her carry-on, ‘that nowhere in the contemporary marriage service does it say I have to obey you.’
‘What would Van and Annie think? We’re newlyweds, and yet you’re running away from me to crash on their sofa?’
She shrugged. ‘They’ll probably think we had our first fight.’
‘Come home with me.’
She looked right through me.
‘My parents are away. It’s just me and Elias, and he knows that we’re… you know.’
‘Spend some time with your brother, Jonah.’
‘Oh, his brother has plans,’ Elias said, sticking his head into the conversation. ‘I’m off to dinner with an old colleague. Nice to meet you, by the way, Sadie. Welcome to the family.’
