Jessica Martinez - The Vow

I put my Pop-Tart on the bedside table. It tastes like sweet, chalky cardboard. “Is she being bullied, or was it just some random thing?”

“How can a flying rock be some random thing? Rocks don’t just fall from the sky—not even in the Middle East. Or are you asking if in Jordan people throw rocks all the time because they’re all just a bunch of violent barbarians and Sarina got caught in the crossfire?”

“Don’t be mad at me, Mo. I’m just trying to understand.”

“Sorry.” Mo separates the Pop-Tart halves again, dips one in the chocolate milk, and takes a bite. Since we’re having a serious conversation, I don’t tell him how disgusting that is.

“Your mom must be freaking out.”

Mo snorts. “If only. She was all denial and excuses. She made it sound like it would work itself out. Something about the way she said it, though, it’s like she thinks Sarina just needs to work at fitting in and everything will be fine.”

“So you don’t think she’ll adjust?” I ask. “Like you did here? I mean you said before that she is wearing a hijab and going to mosque and stuff.”

Mo doesn’t move or say anything for a while, and I know I’ve said the wrong thing. And stuff. Why did I say that and make it sound like a grocery list? And why am I always on the verge of insulting his nationality or his religion or his cultural whatever when I’m only trying to be nice? He’s too sensitive or I’m too clumsy. It has to be one or the other. Or maybe it’s just impossible to talk about—so neither of our faults.

“I don’t know. She’s too American and not American enough. I mean, according to my dad, lots of Jordanians like Americans, but I can see how Sarina would seem like a poseur. A Jordanian who thinks she’s American. It was different for me moving here. I was supposed to be different from everyone else. She’s not. Plus I had you.”

I picture Sarina, with her dreamy look and soft voice, so much like Mo but with all the hard edges smudged.

“Wouldn’t have happened if I was there,” he says, so quietly I can barely hear him.

“Don’t think like that,” I say.

“Why not? It’s the truth.”

“You have no way of knowing that. Besides, it’ll drive you nuts.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Nuts as in curl into fetal position in someone else’s bed and sob like a baby?”

“Exactly. Nuts as in dunk your Pop-Tart in chocolate milk. That’s disgusting, by the way.”

“I knew you were thinking that. That’s why I kept doing it. Do you want to watch SpongeBob ?”

“No, but I will.”

We watch two episodes before I turn it off and force Mo to go put on his suit and tie. “Stop whining and do it,” I say, lifting my foot threateningly. “I’d hate to have to kick you out of bed again.”

But there is no element of surprise this time, and he pushes my foot away and pins me before I can blink.

“You didn’t seriously think that was going to work twice, did you?”

“Um . . .” I’m trying to wriggle free, but getting nowhere. “Neither attempt was all that calculated, actually.”

“Say we can take pictures tomorrow and I’ll let you go.”

“I don’t want to do it either, but we have to do it today so I can get Kristen’s dress back to her. All you have to do is put a suit on. I’m the one who has to hassle with hair and makeup, and you don’t hear me complaining.”

He lets me go. “Fine. You shower first.” He flops back onto the pillows and picks up the remote.

Neither of us has a clue about wedding picture venues, so we end up in the woods behind the apartments like I suggested, Mo’s camera propped on a tree stump, me standing on a huge rock trying to look . . . I’m not sure. Romantic?

“Say cheese,” Mo says, pressing the button and taking off sprinting through the ten feet of scrub brush and fallen trees between us.

The camera light blinks . . . and blinks . . . and blinks . . .

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” I shout for no reason but to stress him out as he’s scrambling up the rock. We still have three more blinks by the time he’s behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, putting his chin on my shoulder.

The picture takes.

“We have got to be almost finished,” he says, taking a step away.

“We probably have at least ten good ones. That has to be enough. Help me down.”

He jumps off the rock, then turns around to reach up for me. “I swear, you put on that dress and turned into a bridezilla. Mo, do this, Mo, do that. Mo, get me off this rock. Mo, massage my bunions. ”

I crouch. “Returning the dress a day late I can explain—moss and dirt stains, probably not. And I don’t even know what bunions are, so just help me down.”

“Fine.” He reaches up, but looks at me like I’m a porcupine—all quills, nowhere to grab.

“Oh, come on,” I say. “Just pretend you’re pulling luggage off a conveyer belt.”

He grabs me by the waist and plants me on the relatively clear footpath. “We should’ve taken pictures inside,” he mutters.

“Where? People don’t take wedding pictures in front of their refrigerators. Besides, it’s pretty out here in the morning.”

He walks over to the camera to examine the pictures. “That last one was actually pretty good. Seriously, when did I get so hot?”

“Uh, sometime next year? Let’s go change. I’ve got to go to work.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to have to work weekends.”

“I’m not,” I hear myself say. My voice sounds casual, perfectly even. “I’m filling in for someone.”

“I’m surprised they’re even open on Sunday.”

“They’re not. We’re doing inventory or something.” It’s scary how easy the answers come to me. I hike the tulle skirt up and start making my way back up the footpath. “Tell me if it looks like I’m dragging this through dirt.”

“And if it looks like the chicken you’re wearing has been electrocuted—should I tell you that?”

I snort appreciatively. “I know. I’m dying to ask Kristen what she was thinking.”

We make our way back up the footpath to where it connects with the paved running path and eventually up the lawn to Wisper Pines.

“Do you need your phone this afternoon?” I ask once we get to the apartment.

Mo puts the camera on the coffee table. “Maybe. Why?”

“If you don’t need it, I want to call home before I drop by for a couple of boxes. Just some shoes and stuff.”

“I thought your parents were on a cruise.”

I wander into my room, trying to reach the dress hook-and-eye, but it’s midback and I can’t quite get it. “They’re supposed to be,” I call. “But it’s been a few weeks, so . . . I don’t know. I assume they’re gone, but I want to call and make sure.” I don’t tell him I want to call Sam too. He’ll make a big deal about it—or he’ll worry, and he doesn’t need to worry. I just want to ask her some questions.

“But . . .” Mo pauses, the corners of his mouth turned down like they do when he’s thinking. “Just make sure you answer it if it rings. I’m expecting a call.”

I come back out of my room. “Okay. Can you unzip me?”

He sighs dramatically. “Bridezilla.”

“I’d like to see you try to get out of this on your own.”

“We should’ve arranged for a fake maid of honor too,” he says, fumbling with the closure at the top. “Who makes these things? This is insane.”

“So, who are you expecting a call from?”

I feel the zipper slide open and his fingers brush my spine.

“Mo?”

“What?”

“Who are you expecting a call from?”