The Eighth Wedding #4
J laughs, and the clean-shaven groom adds, “He really did bake it. I’m not saying I’m marrying him because of his baking. But...it’s certainly in the plus column.”
The ceremony is as sweet as J imagines the cake to be. When his turn comes, he sings to them:
At Borough Hall they told them they had a surprise for their big day
A wedding singer from Sweden had offered to write them a serenade
When they saw it was who they thought it was they almost dropped the cake
That David had spent the whole night to bake
The wedding singer took a good look at them and wondered who they were
He noticed the way that Christopher comforted his nervous partner
And how David reciprocated the gesture with a kiss
And he thought: the reason I sing at weddings...is this
Many photos are taken, and Nick assures the grooms repeatedly that he’ll forward his recording of the song to them.
“I wish you could join us,” the bearded groom says.
“Me too,” J replies, and it’s not a lie. “But we have to do a few more weddings for the piece.”
“A wedding singer’s job is never done, I guess! Do you live in New York now?”
J smiles. “I could never live in New York.”
It’s Nick who asks, “Why not?”
“It’s just not a place for me. Too big. Too busy. Too full of itself.”
Judge Pao does her velvet-glove routine to keep things moving. After the Abramovitz party takes one last round of selfies and leaves, Nick checks his phone for new texts from the interns and starts laughing.
“What?” J asks.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Nick says. “The next couple is named Thor and Meta .”
* * *
They don’t see J at first when they walk into the room, and J completely understands why.
Meta is the first member of a wedding party today to have treated Borough Hall as if it were The Plaza, in terms of attire.
At its heart her dress is a simple white, sleeveless, satin sheath.
But over it is something that J can only think of as the most elaborate, dazzling fishing net he’s ever encountered.
It’s woven in thicker ropes, but each rope is made of glittery filaments, which give Meta the air of frost in sunlight, even under the municipal lamps.
Thor cannot take his eyes off her. And Meta, at least at first, cannot take her eyes off her dress, trying to prevent it from sweeping too much up off the floor.
“Welcome,” Judge Pao says. Then even she can’t help but add, “That’s quite a dress.”
“Thank you,” Meta says, lifting her hem to step onto the wedding platform.
It is only after she does this that she and Thor see J.
He can see it happening—Meta turns, sees him, starts to turn to Nick next, but then stops as if someone inside her has stepped on the brake.
She looks back at J and elbows Thor to take a look.
“I can’t believe it!” Thor says, breaking out of his Meta reverie with a grin. He leaps down and gives J a huge hug. J hugs back, because to not do so would be even more awkward than doing so.
“When they told us they had a singer, I had no idea...” Thor says. “I mean, what are the odds? This is so cool .”
Meta has not moved from her perch. Meta does not appear to think J’s presence is so cool.
“Oh fuck,” Thor says, realization dawning. “This wedding is a secret. You can’t tell anyone. Not even V. You have to promise.”
“Of course, of course,” J says.
Thor turns to Nick. “And you can’t use our names.”
“No names,” Nick says. Though he can hardly keep the curiosity off his face. Who are these people?
J walks back with Thor to where Meta and Judge Pao are waiting.
“Congratulations,” he says to Meta. He is not going to attempt a hug, or even a handshake.
“Really. You can’t tell anyone,” she says.
“I promise.”
“Okay,” she says. “Good.”
“I like your dress,” J offers.
“It was my grandmother’s,” Meta replies. J can’t tell whether she’s serious.
“Time for a wedding!” Judge Pao proclaims.
The ceremony only takes four minutes—Judge Pao’s script, the laminated vows.
J spends these four minutes not trying to come up with a verse for their song, but instead trying to figure out if Thor and Meta are truly in love, if they really should be taking this step.
It’s clear that they believe they’re in love; even though they haven’t known each other long, they’ve forged a visible togetherness.
But is it a durable one? Is there any actual way to know?
Even from the inside, it’s hard. But from the outside?
If someone saw J and V a few months ago, would they have thought they were in love?
Forget the private moments. Were there ever public moments where they emanated togetherness, where they would have seemed to the casual observer to be each other’s metronome?
Or not even the casual observers. What about friends?
What did their friends see? Two people in love, or two people trying to be in love, or two people not trying to be in love, or maybe just one person trying to be in love, and the other uncertain of how to deal with that?
Thor loves Meta. There’s no doubt of that.
Well, unless he’s just infatuated with her.
He’s so young—is there a way of discerning a difference?
Maybe it’s wrong to blame it on youth. What if, all this time, all he really felt was infatuation toward V?
What if he was not only infatuated with her, but with their life together?
And she must have been too...but what if it was something less than infatuation?
Something closer to benign enjoyment? Perpetual amusement?
Why is Meta so much harder to read than Thor?
Is it because she feels less, or just that he shows his feelings more?
V never said she was coming to New York to get away from J.
She never told him she didn’t want him to follow.
If she wanted him to let go, why didn’t she just tell—
A hand on his shoulder. Nick’s. He blinks back to the room that he’s in. Sees Thor, Meta, and the judge all watching. Waiting.
J wills on his stage smile, the one that is waiting like a spare tire whenever he doesn’t feel like going on. He congratulates the couple. He makes a show of getting his guitar. He quickly thinks of something to sing, then sings it.
The prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed until the age of twenty-five
But you can drink at twenty-one, marry at eighteen, and at sixteen you can drive
Well, what has the prefrontal cortex ever done but overanalyze?
When the heart knows what it wants it’s always right.
“That was so great!” Thor calls out when J is done, running over for another big hug.
Then he pulls J onto the platform so J and Nick can be their witnesses.
As he signs, J knows two things: That he will, indeed, keep this a secret from V, and that she will inevitably find out anyway.
This signature will be one of many clues.
Judge Pao keeps things moving as always, and Nick tells J the next couple asked for the singer not to be present.
“Come walk with us for a second,” Meta says, her voice making it clear it’s not a request so much as a requirement.
Thor holds Meta’s hand as they move into the hallway, her dress even more discordant now than it was in the chapel.
She leads them to an empty corner, makes sure that it will remain empty for the near future, then laser-locks her eyes on J’s and says, “I want to emphasize, this needs to stay a secret.”
“We’re planning a real wedding,” Thor adds, trying to be as laid-back as Meta is severe. “That’s going to be the big deal. You’ll be invited, of course. And hopefully will play for us again! Only we’ll be the only ones knowing it’s the second time!”
“There are serious business implications,” Meta continues. “Things are very close to a resolution with the next stages of Secret Project, and we don’t want the fact that we’re married to be a distraction from that. At all.”
“Of course,” J says.
“You can’t tell V,” Thor says.
“Especially V,” Meta adds.
“You’re in luck,” J replies. “I’m not sure V will ever speak to me again!”
Thor laughs at this. Meta can tell he’s serious.
Then Thor, seeing that Meta is not laughing, assures J, “Believe me, V loves you. We all know V loves you. So even if you’re not speaking now, you will be. You just can’t tell her about today.”
Meta provides a more measured, “It’s true—I doubt you’re over yet.”
They seem so sure that J and V will talk again that J savors a small bit of hope. What have they seen in J and V together?
“Plus—those songs!” Thor enthuses. “Are you really writing a new song for every wedded couple?”
“Well, the first verse...”
“Amazing! There has to be a use for that in Secret Project. We’re absolutely going to have weddings on there. How cool would it be to get your own song? We could have you write a bunch of variations, and then AI could take it from there. Let’s talk!”
Horrified, yet not knowing what else to say, J says, “Sure. Let’s talk.”
Meta somehow pulls a phone from the mesh of her dress and checks the time.
“Any big plans for after?” J asks, just making conversation.
Meta smiles and takes Thor’s hand. “That’s a secret, too.”
“Okay, man,” Thor says. “Again, it’s, like, too amazing that you were the singer in there. Wipe this all from your memory—but I promise we’ll never forget it.”
Meta smiles sweetly at him. “Never.”
And then, as if a spell has been cast, or maybe taken away, they suddenly appear to J as exactly what they are: a newly married couple about to take their first married step out into the world. They practically slide down the banister into the lobby, out of J’s sight.