Wedding anniversary

The scent of apple pie betrays them before they even knock at the door. Well, that and some whining and faint barking. I look at Kyle.

“Did you expect guests?”, I frown.

He looks at me back, caught.

“Ah… Ryan said he’d probably drop by after lunch”, he says, scratching his nape, guilty air. And before I can protest and remind him that today is our wedding anniversary, he walks to open the door. “I asked him to bring Nan’s apple pie” he says as an excuse.

I snort. All right, apple pie for desert is a good idea, but if it comes with Ryan and Nero, goodbye to our personal plans for the afternoon.

And suddenly Kyle freezes at the door and stammers a “He…llo! What a surprise!”

“Helloooo! Congratulations!! Oh Maker, a year!! And it seems as if it were yesterday!!! Isn’t it romantic?????”

I facepalm. Only one person would be able to make the word “romantic” sound in italics so clearly.

“Hello, Mary Sue”, I sigh, getting up to greet our guests. Definitely, here go our plans to have a quiet, relaxed, and, specially, intimate evening together. “I’m going to prepare tea to go with that apple pie…”

Mary Sue enters first, a wide smile in her face and a basket with a terribly tacky glistening pink bow attached to it. I shiver when I realize the glitter is heart shaped. “We have a present for you!!!!” and hands the basket to me. Ryan is grinning, so I hope Mary Sue is only responsible for the presentation, and not for the contents. But when the basket moves a bit in my hands I think I got happy too soon. I wait until Kyle is by my side to open a bit the lid of the basket…

… and two clever eyes and a bright black nose welcomes both of us with a tiny whine. I open my eyes wide.

“What is this???” I ask, almost letting the basket fall. Kyle quickly sinks his hands inside, grinning like an idiot.

“A mabari puppy!!!!”, he screams like a child, taking the small beast in his arms like a baby. The puppy moves the stump where his tail should have to be and pants in Kyle’s face, drooling all over him. It is love at first sight. Kyle is delighted. I glare at Ryan, but I know he has brought maybe one of the things Kyle would appreciate most. He doesn’t talk much about it, but I know he misses his dead mabari a lot. “I’m calling you Nelson!!”, he says, rubbing the dog’s nose against his, and the puppy replies to him licking his face, which makes him laugh rumble. I can’t stay serious anymore. He’s so happy it is contagious. I’ll think about the problems of raising a puppy later.

“I knew you’d like it, bro”, Ryan laughs too, while Mary Sue giggles.

“I wanted to tie a bow to his neck, but Ryan suggested better to put it on the basket”, she pouts. “I still think he would have been cuter with it!”

“We… appreciate it the same, seriously”, I say resigned. Kyle has left Nelson on the ground and walks into the kitchen in search of milk to serve him. I have now two happy puppies at home. I point the chairs to our guests so we can sit and enjoy the tea and the pie, hoping against all hope that they will go away after eating it. At least the pie is awesome. Kyle didn’t joke when he said Nan’s pies were as good as Madame Soreil’s.

After some trivial conversation (“How’s Nadette going?” “Any news from Lirya?” “Are you planning to have children soooooooon?” and things like that), the pie is finished and the Couslands get up, but, just my luck, Mary Sue pulls my arm and says “And now we’re going to help you choose your respective anniversary gifts, all right? Because I’m sure you didn’t buy anything to the other!!”

I blink, glance at Kyle who seems as desperate as I am, but Ryan is already patting his back to make him get up too. “But we already did…” I start protesting, which is a half truth because yesterday we purchased some plants for the kitchen garden and other things we needed for the house, since our idea of a wedding anniversary gift was going to be enjoying each other’s company. But of course it is useless.

“No, no, no, we’ve prepared the perfect evening for you two!!” Mary Sue says all excited. “And you’re not going to say no!!”

As if we could, I sigh. And we get carried on, and which is worse… separately.

Ryan takes Kyle away, with Nero behind and Nelson at their feet, while Mary Sue continues pulling my arm and brings me directly to the shopping district, not the marketplace as I expected, but the posh part. I look at her confused.

“Milady… I’m not sure…”

“Shut up, I’ve already arranged it!” she says, eyes glistening. And indeed she has. The seamstress has already some pre-sewn dresses for me to try, so she will only have to adjust the one I choose; then she guides me to the bath house and to the hairdresser, and after we come back to fetch the dress and wear it, I have the feeling she has already exchanged me by another person.

“But what about…?” I protest. She shakes her head. “Now, now, now you’re perfect for your romantic dinner. Here!” She puts a box of chocolates in my hand and pushes me to the Flemeth’s Broom tavern, where they have reserved a special table for us.

In a sudden moment of sanity, Mary Sue has stayed in the doorway, or maybe Ryan is holding her from behind, so now I’m entering the tavern on my own, too nervous to be aware of the customers looking at me, a bit uncomfortable in my silver velvet new gown, trying not to slip on the strange shoes or to step over the hem of the dress, like the day I was walking to the aisle. I grip the box of chocolates until my knuckles get white, because I feel my hands are trembling.

And then I see him waiting for me by the table, as confused as I am, smiling awkwardly behind a huge bouquet of roses, and I release my breath, relieved. Finally…

His eyes look at me with devotion, and I realize that was the same way he looked at me the day of our wedding. Maybe it is the dress, or the hairdo, or the slight make up I have accepted to wear… but I don’t care because his gaze sinks into my very soul and I feel a warmth inside myself I can’t just explain… but that makes me stupidly happy. And when I reach the table and he takes my hand to help me sit down, I realize I needed it because my knees tremble and my legs don’t hold me anymore.

 Art by Darkicemistress

I look back at him, and somehow I know I’m gazing at him the same way he does to me, and we’re reviving our love story again, we’re getting married again. Because, now I understand, this is the meaning of marriage. It is not something you do one day to get attached forever. It is something your hearts choose, and it doesn’t need a ceremony, a special dress or a witness.

It only need two hearts beating the one for the other, like ours do. And it happens each time we remember it, each time our love takes over.

“I do” I whisper, while sitting down. He smiles, and nods, and the ceremony starts.

Until death tears us apart.