EPILOGUE
Mary Simms’s Column
I, like so many other secret romantics, have been waiting for this announcement for some time. If you were up late at night, reading a certain article by one Tom Branimir some summers ago, you will be as thrilled as I am to hear of this news.
This journalist is pleased to announce the engagement of Tom Branimir, Political Writer, and Raina Lewis, Neurodivergent Presenter, with best wishes and many congratulations.
The couple currently reside in North London with their beautiful rescue dog.
When asked about the engagement, Mr Branimir Senior said he was ‘delighted’ and that he ‘loved Raina more than his own children’.
He also placed some importance on the fact that the wedding should, in his view, take place in Scotland.
Mr Branimir’s sister would only be quoted to say ‘about time’.
Miss Lewis’s sister, Oxford graduate Solana Lewis, made some rather unintelligible noises when I approached her for comment.
She has a First Class degree with honours but is currently working as a showgirl in the famed Rococo Club in Mayfair.
I asked if her parents approved of her job, after all those years of studying.
She laughed and said they liked it even less than her recent dyspraxia diagnosis.
Maid of Honour Miss Pepper Cousins had more articulate notions, and is happy for the couple, describing Miss Lewis as ‘the love of her life’ and Mr Branimir as ‘almost good enough for her’, which I decided to take as charming.
When I approached Mr Branimir for this piece, I praised his romantic spirit and mentioned my admiration for the article he wrote two years ago.
His efforts not only won him back the subject of said article, but they also resulted in him trending on the internet for three days straight. I’m told this is some sort of accolade.
When I first started writing these sorts of things, I did not have a whole lot of choice in the couples I wrote about.
It was my old editor’s friends’ children, usually.
Rather dull assignments. As I was writing some of that early hooey, I wanted to say that none of them would last. And they did not!
Now that I’m a household name, if I do say so myself, I get to decide who to write about.
These two are made to last. I spent one morning with them in North London, where Miss Lewis was warm and polite and Mr Branimir was .
. . not. To me, at least. For her, nothing is too much trouble.
I suspect he’s suspicious of me and overprotective of her.
Raina was very accommodating of me, in comparison to her rather gruff fiancé.
She is currently working with television broadcasters to better their treatment of disabled employees.
This after a sold-out tour of the UK, promoting her viral sensation, The Disability Track.
She seemed much more excited about her work and her dog than the prospect of children, but I found that quite refreshing.
I tried to ask a little about her disability and she changed the subject so adeptly I didn’t realize she’d even done it until later that evening.
When asked about her engagement, I found her replies a little bemusing.
‘He loved me unapologetically. He saw me and loved me in and out of my mask. Now I no longer wear one. My whole life, I’ve felt unnatural. But with him, everything is easy. I feel more natural than ever before. I feel human. For the first time.’
When I pressed her for what that meant, she said, ‘It’s a neurodivergent thing.’
Whatever that means.