Ezo eyes her ring curiously and pokes the big diamond with his forefinger.
Alicia finally drops it when neither of us comment or look sufficiently awed. “So, what are you up to lately, Ana? Still working as a waitress at that quaint little diner? Or have you moved on to being a cashier at the Gap?” Then she leans in. “Hey, it’s a step up from just being that person who walks around folding the clothes, right? Every little step is a victory. That’s what you have to remember.”
What. A. Bitch. Before I can snap out a biting reply, she looks to Ezo. “And what do you do?”
He tilts his head, a little surprised by the question. Shit. We should have prepared ahead of time what we would tell people if they asked us this.
But I should have known that Ezo would be cool under pressure. “I am in the military.”
“Oh.” Alicia looks taken aback for a second and she exchanges a glance with Brian, who looks bored.
I finally give myself permission to look at him. He’s tall—though not nearly as tall as Ezo—and skinny with curly hair and thick framed glasses. He has a nerdy, sophisticated look. I always thought that meant he was deep and sensitive.
I was wrong. He wasn’t either of those things.
After he broke up with me, I suspected he stuck it out with me for so long because being with me made him feel superior. He was finishing up his PhD in a philosophy but his papers were rarely if ever accepted into conferences and his prospects for a future teaching gig were pretty bleak. And what the hell else was he going to do with a philosophy degree if he couldn’t teach?
I believed in him, though. I supported him and was a cheerleader every time he got depressed about the future. I’d bake him cupcakes and offered to proofread his papers and helped him grade for the classes he TA’d for… But it was never enough.
My sister visited one weekend and two weeks later I came back from a coffee run to find them in bed together. That was all it took. He didn’t apologize or anything. He just pulled his pants on long enough to say, “Come on, your sister is so beautiful. She’s like an angel. I couldn’t help myself. I’m in love with her.”
“I thought you loved me,” I cried.
He just shrugged. “I didn’t really know what I wanted. But she’s like a dream girl, and she wants me. Besides, I thought you knew that this was just casual.” He gestured between us. “That we were just kind of hanging out, ya know? You aren’t even really my type.”
I packed my bags, left, and haven’t seen him since.
But looking at him now… I don’t really feel anything other than a sadness that I wasted a year of my life on him. He treated me like shit. I always felt like I had to keep doing things to earn my place in the relationship. After all, he was getting his PhD and who was I? Just some loser who’d failed at everything I ever tried.
“Where did you serve?” my sister asks, leaning in towards Ezo and curling a lock of her hair on the tip of her finger.
Ezo frowns at her and moves closer to me, putting an arm around my shoulder. “I don’t like telling war stories. They are very sad.”
“Oh. Of course!” My sister’s cheeks go red at making a social gaffe. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—” And she laughs and puts a hand on her chest, drawing attention to her cleavage. “You must find all of this very banal after being in war.”
“I am glad to meet my Ana’s family. You are now my family.”
Alicia’s eyes go so wide I think they’ll pop out of her head. “You two aren’t—”
But I interlace my fingers with Ezo’s and smile up at him. “Yes, we’re going to be married.” Being mated is basically the same thing in his culture. I hope I’m not overstepping but his answering grin says that I’m not.
“Yes,” he says, eyes bright and happy. “Married.”
“Sorry,” I immediately say to Alicia. “I haven’t told Mom or Dad. I don’t want to take away from your big day.” And I don’t. She can have this day and these people and all this fakery.
She just looks back and forth between me and Ezo, mouth slightly gaping. “Oh.” She seems flabbergasted and a little lost. “Well, it was so nice to… I have to go see to…” Her words fade off again and then she grabs Brian’s hand and starts to stride away, jerking him along behind her.
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Thank God that’s over.”
Ezo looks down at me. He seems like he’s about to ask me a question when I suddenly see my father striding towards me. He looks pissed. Oh shit.