Chapter 10 #2
“Victoria, that’s enough,” my mother said, practically pleading with me to shut up.
I didn’t. “How is that not ‘celebrating your failures and flaws’? And even if you weren’t a colossal hypocrite, you still have no right to judge me or my relationship.
I love Ava. I’ve loved her for years, and I’m finally marrying her because I want to spend the rest of my life with her.
I don’t care what you think about people like me.
I don’t care, Aunt Elizabeth. I just don’t.
And I’m not going to stand here and listen to you of all people tell me I shouldn’t marry the woman I love.
” My voice was suddenly shaky, but I barreled on.
“She’s been my best friend since we were kids, and I’ve never loved another woman—another person —like I love her.
” I forced back in the lump in my throat.
“You won’t have to watch me marry her because you’re not welcome at our wedding. ”
With that, I stalked out of the living room and out onto the back deck. It felt a bit dramatic, and my face heated with embarrassment because I wasn’t usually one for theatrics, but I was pissed .
I had no idea if anyone was telling her off inside. Most likely, they were all pretending it hadn’t happened and were trying to revive the mood of the party. Anything to avoid confrontation, that was the Griffin family through and through.
The vast majority of my family was completely fine with me being gay, even if some of them had taken time to come around.
They’d apologized for their issues in the beginning, and we were good now.
Most of them rolled their eyes at Aunt Elizabeth’s self-righteous antics, whether she was ranting about “people like Tori” or whoever else had landed on her sin radar.
Sometimes I wondered why they still invited her to anything, since she always managed to find a soapbox and start flinging fire and brimstone.
Normally, I just gritted my teeth and ignored it as best I could.
I’d even timidly let her say all her shit about me being a lesbian, especially when I was younger.
My parents stood up for me in those situations, at least, and now that I was an adult, I’d push back a little.
Mostly, the whole family had an unspoken agreement to just let her rant, smile and nod, and then change the subject.
Nobody in this family liked confrontations, so it was just understood that we all knew she was a shitty person with obnoxious opinions, and it was best to gray-rock her until she ran out of steam.
Today, though…
Today, I couldn’t stay silent.
Not when she was acting like my marriage was wrong or that there was something dirty or bad about me marrying Ava.
Who the fuck was Elizabeth to get on a high horse about anyone’s marriage?
Like, I shouldn’t marry the woman I loved, but she could cheat her way through three marriages?
Hell, she probably had a sidepiece right now, and we’d all be getting invites to her next wedding in a year or two. But I was the sinner.
Ugh. Fuck her and her bigoted bullshit.
The sliding glass door opened behind me. I cringed and turned, not sure who I was hoping for. I was relieved, though, to see that it was my dad.
“Hey, kiddo.” He approached slowly, as if trying to gauge my mood. “I heard things got a bit heated with your aunt.”
I laughed bitterly. “Just a bit.”
He came closer and rested his elbow on the deck railing. “Did you really disinvite Aunt Elizabeth?”
I met his gaze. “After she called me a sexual deviant, yes.”
His eyebrows shot up. “She called you that? To your face?”
“Are you actually surprised?”
He pursed his lips, then sighed. “Not really, no. What about Grandma?”
“I mean, I didn’t disinvite her, but Elizabeth told her my”—I made air quotes—“‘gay satanic priest’ will be officiating, so I doubt she’ll be coming.”
Dad snorted. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”
“Right?” I sighed as my humor died away. “I think I’m going to take off, though. I want to stay for the party, but… not if she’s here. Not if they’re here.”
To my surprise, Dad nodded. “I get it.” He squeezed my arm. “I’m sorry they’re making you so miserable.”
“I know. I’m sorry I made things tense.”
“You didn’t. No one in this family likes conflict, but she brought it, not you.”
“Do you think people will be mad at me for saying what I did?”
“Nah. You were just saying what everyone else was thinking.” He smiled, some pride slipping into his expression. “It’s about time someone put her in her place.”
That made me laugh, and we shared a quick hug. Then I went inside and said goodbye to my mom and a few family members before I slipped out the front, got in my car, and left.
I was exhausted by the time I got home. It was only seven o’clock, but the whole day had been draining.
When I walked in, Ava was on the couch with Tucker.
She’d been writing in the spiral notebook we used to track wedding expenses, and there was a pile of binders on the coffee table.
When she looked up, her concerned but warm smile brought me back to life.
She was unreasonably cute, sitting there in sweatpants with her dark hair pulled up in a messy bun, her blue hoodie covered in floof from the cat leaning against her.
“Hey.” She closed the notebook and put that and her lap desk aside. “I didn’t think you’d be home for a while.”
I groaned as I shrugged off my jacket. “I left early. My aunt was being… well, my aunt.”
Ava made a face. “Oh God. What did she have her panties in a wad about this time?”
Draping my jacket over the back of a chair, I said on a sigh, “Our wedding.”
“Ooh. Yeah. That sounds like her. So she threw a fit about it?”
I nodded, my whole body exhausted as if I’d run a marathon instead of going toe-to-toe with my aunt.
“First she tried to make it all about how having Marco as an officiant was the worst thing ever, and then she went off about how two women shouldn’t…
” I waved a hand as that fatigue pushed down hard on my shoulders.
“Ugh.” Ava rolled her eyes. “What a twat.”
“I know, right?” I grimaced. “I’m surprised my mom hasn’t blown up my phone yet.”
“Why would she?” But as soon as the question was out, Ava stiffened. “Oh my God. You said something, didn’t you?” Her expression was a mix of giddy excitement and dawning horror, as if she were amused by me pushing back but also aware of how that could’ve blown up in my face.
“I did, yeah.” I managed a tired laugh. “I asked who she was to talk about ‘making others celebrate sin’ when two of her three weddings were to men we knew she’d cheated on her husbands with.”
Ava clapped a hand over her mouth. “You didn’t.”
I cracked a grin. “I did. And she wasn’t happy about it.”
“Did your family get mad?”
“Not really. I mean, I’m sure they don’t like that I made a scene, but I didn’t say anything they weren’t thinking.”
She lowered her hand and finally let herself giggle. “I almost wish I could’ve gone just so I could see the look on her face. It must’ve been priceless.”
“It was,” I admitted. “And it felt good to say something instead of just nodding along.” My own amusement fell. “But it also sucked, you know? So I just decided I didn’t want to stick around.”
“I don’t blame you,” she said, sobering as well. “I’m surprised you went at all.”
“Well, I do like the rest of the family. Just not her. Or Grandma.”
Ava winced. “What does Grandma think about the wedding?”
“She’s not happy about our gay Satanic priest.”
The laughter that burst out of Ava mended everything my aunt had ripped apart today. God, she was beautiful.
How can anyone look at you and wonder why I want to marry you?
As I joined her on the couch, she wrinkled her nose. “God, can you imagine how awful it would be to hear all of that if you were getting married for real?”
My stomach flipped. Getting married for…
Right. Right, we weren’t getting married for real.
I cleared my throat. “I mean, as far as they know, we are getting married for real.” I paused. “But yeah, it does take the sting out.”
Liar, liar…
“It sucks either way.” She touched my arm. “I’m sorry your family is…” She rolled her eyes and waved her other hand.
I laughed halfheartedly. “I mean, most of them are great? But those two…” I groaned. “I guess I should be thankful Grandma didn’t get a word in edgewise.”
Ava laughed wickedly. “Good. Hopefully she was stewing the whole time like ‘shut up, Elizabeth, so I can speak!’”
“She probably was. Anyway, I should…” I thought fast, then waved a hand at my clothes. “I’m going to go change into something comfy.” I gestured at the kitchen. “Have you eaten yet?”
“Not yet, but I was thinking about making one of the meal kits from this week’s delivery. Are you hungry?”
“Starving. Do you mind making one tonight and I’ll do tomorrow?”
Her smile made my head light. “Sure!” She got up and headed for the kitchen, dusting off some Tucker fluff as she walked. “Do you want the chicken teriyaki or the coconut curry?”
I thought about it. “The curry sounds good. What do you think?”
She seemed to give it some thought, too. “Actually, I’m not really in the mood for anything spicy…”
“The teriyaki is fine, then.”
“You sure?”
“Of course.” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute. Then we can eat and I can help you with the rest.”
With that, I headed down the hall while Tucker joined Ava in the kitchen. “Do you want to help me make some chimkin?” she was asking him. “It’s not the spicy kind, so you can have some. Yes, you can.”
I smiled to myself even as my stomach wound itself into knots.
Then I stepped into my bedroom, closed the door behind me, and exhaled.
I wasn’t marrying Ava.
This wasn’t real.
I knew that, and I’d known that all along, but today… the whole time I’d been exchanging barbs with my aunt…
My shoulders sagged, and I leaned against my closed door as my mind whirred. Our wedding was fake and I knew that, but…
As I rewound the argument with my aunt and the more subdued conversation with my dad, it hadn’t crossed my mind that anything was fake.
In those heated moments, I’d been so angry and hurt that I hadn’t even paused to remember that this wedding—this marriage I was defending at the expense of a low-conflict family gathering—wasn’t real.
My fury at my aunt had been real. My anger over her saying two women shouldn’t marry was real.
And in that moment, my rage over her suggesting there was anything wrong with my marriage to Ava—that, too, had been real. All the way to my core, I’d been livid at the idea of someone so much as hinting that I didn’t belong with this amazing woman.
All those raw emotions. All those things I normally wouldn’t dare say out loud. All those tears I’d been fighting back.
That was all real.
So was the way my whole world had settled when I’d walked in tonight and seen her smile.
I closed my eyes and pressed my head back against the door.
What the hell was happening?