All My Loving

Chapter 1: Tory and Maury Featuring characters from the story, “Love, Love Me Dude.” Maury’s sister Sheila was getting married, which was driving him nuts, and, therefore, me, too. The wedding would take place on Saturday, a day and a half from now, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over already. Leonard, Sheila’s fiancé, had the patience of a saint, in my opinion. He had to, in order to live with the woman and the mild hysterics that had happened from time to time when something ruined her perfect plans. It had been a nightmare of epic proportions, these past six months, and I hoped to never have to deal with such like again in this lifetime. I got why she wanted it to be perfect. The father of her children was a moron of the highest order, and she wanted a do-over, of sorts. Still…Maury and I had watched over his sister’s triplets any number of times as Sheila and Leonard traveled up and down the coast in search of the perfect dress that didn’t cost the earth, a venue that wouldn’t bankrupt them, and on, and on. Now, we were at the end of the wedding rehearsal, catered by René, our local pastry chef extraordinaire. Sheila had made the wedding party run through the program three times, and there would have been a fourth if Maury hadn’t put his foot down. Thorn and Brian, who would be providing the music at the wedding, had already left, since Thorn had to work. The triplets were asleep, two in Maury’s lap and one in mine. I couldn’t wait to go home. “Tell me we won’t do this on our wedding day,” Maury whispered to me as we watched Leonard and the priest calm Sheila from yet another meltdown. I turned to him in surprise. “You want to get married?” It hadn’t even occurred to me such a thing would come up, even after gay marriage became legal. Why did we need to be married, anyway? We were happy together, firm in our love and neither of us was going anywhere, ever. Putting a ring on his finger seemed…superfluous. “You don’t want to get married?” he asked, the surprise and sadness—hurt, even—I saw on his face taking me aback. “I…I didn’t realize it would be important to you, tying the knot. We’ve never talked about it. Aren’t we fine as we are? Why do we need a ring? I love you and you love me. Is all this hoopla—” I gestured to the madness around us and scowled “—is it really necessary?” “Well, I don’t want any madness like this, that’s for certain,” he replied, which I took to mean that yes, the hoopla was a given. Crap. I sighed, knowing I’d do anything to make Maury happy, but getting married? I wasn’t sure I could promise that. My parents hadn’t been the demonstrative sort, and though they’d cared for me, I knew they’d felt relief when I left home. They’d gotten married because my mom had been pregnant with me, after all. I’d been a constant reminder of their “mistake.” I hadn’t heard from them since I walked out the door at eighteen, but I hadn’t made the effort for them to find me, either. If I were to use them as a shining example of marriage, it wasn’t encouraging. Another hour went by before Leonard and Sheila finally came over to take the triplets and thank us for watching them. Maury kissed his sister on the cheek and assured her the wedding would be perfect. His smile was bright, but I could see the strain behind it. Leonard shook my hand with his free one and I could tell he couldn’t wait to be done with the whole fiasco. Why would Maury want any of this? Did he need proof of our love on a marriage license? It disturbed me he might feel that way. And where did that leave me?