Chapter 14 #2
“Marius and I want to keep our wedding small. We understand that you and Dad are very proud that I’m getting married, and we love you for that, but we don’t want hundreds of people we don’t know well or at all with us that day.
Yes, we can afford it, but that doesn’t matter.
We want our wedding the way we want it. I hope you understand. ”
“But these are people who we’ve known for years. How can we not invite them?” she asks, clearly not hearing me.
“Mom, they’re your friends, not mine. I’m happy you have so many good friends, but this is my wedding. I deserve to have the final say.”
Out comes the pout, just as I suspected it would. “Oh. I didn’t realize it would be such a problem to share your big day with people.”
There’s the martyr act, right on schedule. At least it’s nice to know certain things never disappoint.
“Mom, it’s not a problem, per se. It’s fine that you want to share our big day.
We just don’t want to have such a big guest list. Marius and I live very low-key.
We like it that way. So it’s only normal we’d like to keep our wedding low-key.
We don’t want to upset you or Dad. We love you.
We just want to do things the way we want. ”
She’s silent for a long time and then shrugs. “Fine. Whatever. I’m sure people won’t think badly of us.”
I reach across the table and touch her hand. “Mom, please take this in the way I mean it, which is in the kindest way possible, but this isn’t about you and Dad. This is my wedding to Marius.”
She opens her mouth to say something, but I quickly say, “Mom, do you remember how you were when you were getting married to Dad? Did you want your mother and future mother-in-law dictating your choices for your own wedding?”
My mother’s eyes grow big, and she stares at me like I’ve stunned her. “I didn’t think they were dictating. They just had suggestions.”
“Which you didn’t take, did you? Because it was your wedding, not theirs.”
Furrowing her brows, she doesn’t say anything for a long moment. When she finally talks again, she seems far less combative.
“You’re right. I guess I forgot. I wasn’t trying to dictate things, honey. I’m just so thrilled that you’re getting married.”
“I know, and I love that you’re so enthusiastic, even though it doesn’t seem that you like the man I’m marrying.”
The look on her face is instantly that she has no idea what I’m talking about. Surprise fills her eyes, and she asks, “How can you say that? I’ve never been anything but lovely with Marius. He’s not exactly the man I would have chosen for you, but I don’t dislike him.”
Now it’s my turn to look shocked. “Mom, you give him a hard time about being with Lily every time he’s around you.
I don’t understand why you don’t approve of that because it’s a good thing.
And why wouldn’t you want me to marry Marius?
He’s crazy about me, he’s got enough money to take care of me and Lily, and I’m madly in love with him. ”
She seems to be unsure what to say and mumbles, “I just always thought of a different man for you.”
Then it dawns on me. I know what she means, and it’s actually so silly to me.
“This is because he’s not Sicilian, isn’t it?”
I see immediately I’m right. Her face changes into that sort of smug, sort of irritated expression I’ve seen so many times in my life, and I know that’s the problem.
Marius King isn’t the Sicilian boy she always dreamed I’d marry. It’s the twenty-first century, and still my mother is focused on things like a man’s family line.
“He’s not only not Sicilian. He’s not even Italian, Eden! I don’t even know what the Kings are,” she says with pure exasperation.
I can’t help her with the nationality details of the Kings since I never thought to ask. I fell in love with a man, not a bloodline.
“Mom, he’s a good man who gives me everything I want and need. He’s an incredible father to our daughter. We live in a beautiful house, and I and your granddaughter want for nothing. Does it really matter that his family came from somewhere else hundreds of years ago?”
Quietly, almost as if she knows she’s made a mistake all this time, she answers, “No. I guess it doesn’t.”
“It doesn’t matter, and I’m glad you agree. I want you and Dad to enjoy yourselves at the wedding, but we have to trim that guest list. I also don’t plan on having Lily in the ceremony. I know you said that would be nice, but she’s too young.”
My words hang in the air between us as she says nothing. I know it’s hard for my mother to accept, but I’m a grown woman now. I can’t be responsible for her happiness, even though I would never want to hurt her.
Softly, she says, “Okay.”
I have something to make her feel better, though. I saved it for last knowing I, like my father, always make sure to smooth things over after disappointing her.
“But we like your idea of an ice sculpture, so we’re going with that. Thank you for suggesting it.”
Her eyes grow wide again, but this time in excitement. “And the whiskey sour fountain? Will you say yes to that?”
Inwardly, I cringe at that idea, but I don’t actually know if Marius hates it since he’s never listed that as one of the issues he has with her suggestions. For now, I won’t completely shoot it down until I find out how he feels.
“I don’t know, but let me talk to Marius, okay?”
Her happiness dims a little, but she doesn’t seem to be completely defeated. “That’s fair. Tell him people like to drink at weddings. That may convince him.”
“Mom, we’re having a full bar with bartenders. People can get their drinks from them.”
It doesn’t matter, though, because she doesn’t hear me since she’s already up on her feet and hurrying into the house to get me pictures of a fountain she saw at a wedding last spring. Like usual, my mother’s brain has settled on an idea, and that’s that.
I’m taking today as a win, though. I successfully explained to my mother what I want for my wedding, and she didn’t explode like Mount Vesuvius, as my father thought she would.
That’s a win in anybody’s book.