"Put it around your neck and... wrap it around twice... wait. Let me go get one. I think I have to do it before I can describe it."
"OK."
It was pretty embarrassing having to call your dad in the middle of your honeymoon to ask how to tie a necktie, but he had to get this right. They were heading to a restaurant that was way more upscale than any place either of them had ever been before, and if he was going to pay fifty bucks for a bowl of soup and a piece of fish served on a block of wood, he figured a tie was pretty much mandatory.
She was in the bathroom doing whatever girls do before a big date like this.
"I hope you don't mind - I hope you don't mind - that I put down in words - how wonderful life is - now you're in the world."
They had watched Moulin Rouge! while eating omelets and packing until 3:00am the night before, and that song had been in her head ever since. He wasn't a big Elton John fan, but that night, that song, the way she sang it... he didn't mind. Life was wonderful.
"All right, Son. Wrap the fat end around the skinny end twice, then poke the fat end through the gap you made."
"OK."
"You might have to keep trying a few times to get the length right."
"All right - I think I've got it. Thanks."
"No problem. Have a good time, Son."
"See ya later."
"Bye."
She came out of the bathroom, smiling at him.
"Did you get it figured out?" He smiled back.
"Yeah. Wow, you look great!"
She did look great. She was wearing a silky, cream-colored dress with a brown sash that matched his shirt. She was elegant and sexy, and he was undeservedly blessed by God.
They had an incredible week together. They ate lunch at a cute little pizza place, they toured eighteenth-century churches, they saw a play about Judy Garland (her favorite actress), they took a ferry to Lovells Island, where they explored a World War I fort, and did a lot of walking and talking. It didn't matter that neither one of them knew how to catch a taxi, or that it rained while they were on the island, and they had to spend the first day there playing "Twenty Questions" in their tent, or that their flight home was delayed overnight, or that they ended up being separated by a fat guy who wouldn't trade seats on the plane, or that they only made it home with sixteen dollars - the exact amount they needed pay to get their vehicle out of the airport parking lot. They were finally married, they were very much in love, and at that moment, that's all that mattered.
...
He opened the back of his delivery truck and sighed. Time to unload the empty totes from route #1 and load up for route #2. He wasn't having a horrible day, but it wasn't a good day either. He had overslept that morning for the third time in as many weeks and still felt dead tired. Apart from a quick "I love you" and an even quicker goodbye kiss, "I hate my job" had been the last thing he said to her. He knew it bothered her when he said things like that, but he hadn't really cared at the time. It was sunny and eighty degrees out, which really irritated him, being October and everything. The warehouse guys were listening to some chick station that seriously had no business in a manual-labor type environment.
He sighed again and started pulling totes out in stacks. The song on the radio changed. It sounded kind of familiar, but he was toning it out. Despite this effort, some lyrics broke through, and all of a sudden, he was back in Boston.
"I hope you don't mind - I hope you don't mind - that I put down in words - how wonderful life is - now you're in the world..."
Omelets and Moulin Rouge!, the hotel, the island, "Twenty Questions", that cream-colored dress... it all came back to him like a favorite movie. And he thought about her...
They had an incredible life together. They had a beautiful two-year-old daughter and a son due in four months. It didn't matter that he had gotten a frustrated voicemail from his manager that morning, or that she had class that night, or that they were low on groceries, or that they'd been borrowing her brother's car for the last six months. He was still married to the girl of his dreams, they were very much in love, and at that moment, that's all that mattered.
