The Perfect Couple(80)
Celeste looks at Mac and Betty sitting across from her in the booth the way they always do, her father’s arm draped across her mother’s shoulders, her mother’s hand resting on her father’s thigh. Celeste envies them. She doesn’t want money; she wants what they have. She wants love.
In case you have any doubts…
“If anything,” Karen says in a lower voice, “I was thinking you might get married sooner. Maybe in the spring or early summer.”
…I’m in love with you.
Sooner? Celeste thinks.
She nods. “Okay,” she whispers.
Shooter has disappeared back into his own life—steak houses, downtown clubs, the U.S. Open with clients, Vegas with clients to draft fantasy-football teams. Benji shows Celeste the pictures but she barely gives them a glance. She can’t think about Shooter; she can’t not think about Shooter. Part of her suspects her desire for Shooter is what caused Karen’s cancer to spread. Celeste knows life doesn’t work like that but she still gets the nagging sense that the two things are connected. If she stays with Benji, if she marries Benji, Karen will get better. If they get married in the spring or early summer, Karen will live forever.
Celeste drops five pounds, then ten. Merritt expresses envy and tells Celeste how wonderful she looks.
Celeste is irritable at work. She finally loses her temper with Blair the hypochondriac. One more missed day and Blair will be fired, Celeste says. Blair threatens a lawsuit. She has legitimate reasons for calling in sick. Celeste, in a rare fit of rage, tells Blair she needs to stop with the bullshit, and the next thing Celeste knows, she’s getting called into Zed’s office for a lecture on professional attitude, appropriate workplace language, blah-blah-blah.
Greer summons Benji and Celeste to the Winbury apartment for dinner. She has made something called a cassoulet. Celeste is her dutiful self and replies that it sounds good, but in fact, Celeste is annoyed. She has no idea what cassoulet is. She hates constantly being confronted with these erudite dishes—can’t Greer just make meat loaf or sloppy joes like Betty?—and it turns out that cassoulet has duck, pork skin, and, worst of all, beans in it. Celeste manages two bites. Her lack of appetite goes largely unnoticed, however, because Greer’s real motivation isn’t to feed Celeste and Benji but rather to let them know that she would like to plan their wedding. They can have the entire thing at Summerland on Nantucket the weekend after the Fourth of July.
Benji reaches for Celeste’s hand under the table. “Would that be okay with you?” he asks.
“We don’t want you to feel railroaded,” Tag says. “My wife can be a bit forceful.”
“I’m just trying to help,” Greer says. “I want to offer my support and our resources. I hate to think of you having to plan a wedding while your mother is so sick.”
Celeste nods like a marionette. “Sounds good,” she says.
At first, Celeste stutters only when she’s talking about the wedding. She has a problem with the word caterer; it’s a stuttery word all by itself. Then reverend, then church. People pretend not to notice but the stutter grows gradually worse. Benji finally asks about it and Celeste bursts into tears. She can’t c-c-control it, she says. Soon, all hard consonants give her trouble.
But not at work.
Not on the phone with Merritt.
Not alone in her apartment when she’s reading in bed. She can read entire passages from her book aloud and not trip up once.
Celeste holds out hope that a big, elaborate wedding on Nantucket will prove to be a logistical impossibility—it’s too last-minute, every venue must already be booked—and so either the wedding will be postponed indefinitely or they can plan something smaller in Easton, something more like her parents’ wedding, a ceremony at the courthouse, a reception at the diner.
But apparently, Greer’s influence and her pocketbook are mighty enough to make miracles happen. Greer enlists Siobhan at Island Fare, arranges for Reverend Derby to do the service at St. Paul’s Episcopal, finds a band and an orchestra, and hires Roger Pelton, Nantucket’s premier wedding coordinator—not that Greer can’t handle it all herself, but she does have a novel to write and it would be silly to have a resource like Roger on the island and not use him.
The wedding is set for July 7.
Greer asks Celeste what she would like to do about bridesmaids.
“Oh,” Celeste says. This obviously isn’t something she can ask Greer to handle. “I’ll have my friend Merritt Monaco.” Merritt will be a good maid of honor; she knows all the rules and traditions, although Celeste shudders when she thinks about the bachelorette party Merritt might plan. Celeste will have to talk to her about that.
She notices Greer is still looking at her expectantly.
“And who else?” Greer asks.
Who else? Her mother? Nobody ever asks her mother to be a bridesmaid; Celeste knows that much. She doesn’t have a sister or any cousins. There are no suitable choices at work—Blair is now not speaking to Celeste; Bethany is her assistant, so that’s too weird; and the rest of the staff are men. There is Celeste’s roommate from college, Julia, but Celeste’s relationship with Julia was utilitarian rather than friendly. They were both scientists, both neat and respectful, but they parted ways after college. There is Celeste’s one social friend from college, Violet Sonada, but Violet took a job at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. Is there anyone from high school? Cynthia from down the street had been Celeste’s closest friend but she dropped out of Penn State with a nervous condition and Celeste hasn’t talked to her since. Merritt has a bunch of people she knows in the city, but Celeste can barely remember who is who.