Summary: Lewis realizes far too late he lost someone he thought he would have for forever.
The noise was like a siren today.
Lewis stirred awake, enough to shut off his 8:30 AM alarm. His back creaked as he sat up and moved out of his large bed. He tucked the bedsheets and blankets in, as per usual. As the saying goes: if you want to start your day right, make your bed.
His stomach growled, and he made his way to the fridge. He started his coffee maker and moved aside the bowl of beats to reach for the buckwheat waffles Gus prepared for him every Tuesday night. But it didn’t matter what he ate today, even if it was his Wednesday morning tradition; it all tasted bland today.
The waffles were left mostly uneaten, soggy with maple syrup, and the coffee lukewarm. Lewis didn’t even bother emptying the mug, but he did the bare minimum of throwing his waffles into the trash and placing the cleared dish in his sink.
He dressed slowly, but not so slowly as to be late. He wore his most formal outfit: the same tailored suit and bowtie he wore just two weeks ago for the Flower Dance festival.
Finally, Lewis left his manor. He pointedly looked away from the path towards the beach, and began trudging his way up the mountains.
~
In his yard, Lewis worked, concealed by his truck and his wooden fence. He had waited until all was still before working on his secret project. Quietly he sculpted the solid gold stone, until he heard rustling in the bushes. Without thinking, he quickly hid the project under a tarp colored like the bushes, and waited.
“Lewis? Are you out here?”
It was Marnie. He was pleasantly surprised; it had been over a month since they last fought, and their interactions since were limited to his weekly visits for collecting business tax. Marnie would quickly count out the amount due, give it to him, and disappear into her barn, tending to her animals. It was about time she came back to apologize and beg him to take her back. And of course, he would, and they would make love until dawn, and he would force her to leave before anyone else was awake and could suspect anything.
Lewis brushed off leaves and other debris, then made himself just visible enough to beckon her into his backyard. She took a step toward him, but did not enter the yard.
He nodded to her, anticipating her apologies. Instead, she gave him a sum of cash.
“It’s your business tax. I won’t be at the farm for a week.”
For a minute, Lewis was speechless. “Oh. Are you going on vacation?”
“You could say that. You’ll also need to find someone else to stir the Luau soup while I’m gone.”
Patiently Lewis waited for an invitation and apology, but before they could come, Marnie was already leaving. “Good night, Lewis.”
Marnie was already taking off, heading towards her ranch in the Cindersap Forest. Suddenly, Lewis was running after her.
“Wait!”
They were nearly at the bridge to the beach when she stopped and turned around. “Yes?” she asked expectantly.
“Aren’t you going to apologize?”
“For what?”
“Well, we were fighting.”
“Are you going to apologize?”
No, that was not how this worked.
Marnie scowled at his lack of a reply. “Ha! You’re just as arrogant as everyone has been saying you were and you’re not even sorry for it.”
“But–”
“No, no, Lewie. We’re through. Never again will you hear me asking you to take me back. Never again will I invite you to go public with me, only for you to say no because of some garbage reason about possibly marring your reputation.”
Lewis felt his face grow hot with anger. “So you’ll put your pride above what I need to be as a mayor?”
“Just so you’ll put my needs as a human being below your ambitions?”
“Now–”
“Cállate! I never should have to apologize for having honest feelings and my own dreams and desires. Good-bye.”
“Marnie, please!” Lewis grabbed for her hand as she turned around, then let go when he felt a sharp pain in the palm of his hand. Just before Marnie took her hand back, Lewis saw the perpetrator: a square cut diamond ring on her left hand.
Lewis’s mouth dropped. “What is this?” he asked angrily.
Marnie sighed with no sign of regret. “I’m getting married tomorrow, Lewis. To Marlon Ward.”
The smile that grew on Marnie’s face when she said Marlon’s name sickened him. “But I thought–”
“You thought what, exactly?”
That she would come back like she always did, but he knew that wouldn’t be the right thing to say. And he couldn’t argue that they were already together or that she cheated on him; to the public eye, they were never a couple, and even so, she had dumped him. The ill feeling in his stomach grew as he realized that his dream of finally retiring from being mayor, then surprising Marnie with a marriage proposal a week later, would never become reality.
He shook his head. “How could you move on so fast?”
“You make it sound like it was difficult.” Marnie shook her head. “Once I finally accepted that you wouldn’t respect me and what I want, it was easy.”
“Marnie…”
“It’s Marina. Marina Cabrera Armenta. But you never bothered to learn.” She scowled at him before turning away again. “And don’t you dare follow me.”
“Can’t I at least come to the wedding?”
“Only as a guest. It’ll be at the top of the mountains by the train station. I wouldn’t want to mar your reputation as mayor by forcing you to be absent, after all. But if you try to object to the marriage or make a scene, my nephew has permission from the officiant to escort you out with force if necessary. Good night, Lewis. I refuse to waste another minute with you.”
“But I love you!”
“Mentiroso! Vete al diablo!”
The last of Lewis’s hopes vanished with that statement, even without an understanding of her native tongue. She had thought of everything, and there was no persuading her to cancel the wedding. No persuading her to come back to him.
And it was in that defeated stupor in which she bade him good-bye once more, never again to be his lover.
~
Lewis had always imagined that Gilbert Ward would be the one to conduct Marnie’s marriage someday, but never like this.
His heart ached as Marlon stood where he ought to be standing, with Marnie’s nephew and Jodi’s husband Kent as his groomsmen. Jodi’s youngest son carried the ring box, and Marnie’s nephew’s goddaughter (Jess was her name?) threw fairy rose petals down as they walked together down the aisle.
Finally, that delinquent older son of Jodi and his two friends began to play the bridal march. Lewis watched with a painful, very false smile as Marnie walked down the aisle with a beautiful white gown designed by Emily with her bridesmaids Jodi and Leah walking with her to give her away.
Gilbert began the ceremony with a recounting of how Marnie and Marlon began their relationship. He kept the story short and simple, recounting with fondness and his unusual sense of humor when Marlon was hired last spring to tend to a threat in the woods that had wounded many of Marnie’s chickens and left some inches from death. Marnie then requested that Marlon teach her how to fight and defend, and their romance sparked from there.
How had Lewis not seen it when the two danced together at the Flower Dance Festival not so long ago?
Lewis glanced at the people sitting in front of him. When he could see a face, none were unhappy. Even his dearest friend’s grandchild, who had stumbled upon a secret meeting between him and Marnie a year ago, looked genuinely happy for them. He couldn’t help but to feel betrayed.
He couldn’t decide which was more agonizing: watching Marnie marry another, or hearing the town enjoy Gilbert as a wedding officiator more than himself. Even if Lewis didn’t have a history with Marnie, it makes more sense for Marlon’s uncle to conduct his nephew’s wedding, but it made the realization of how little the town valued him all that more torturous.
Finally, the sealing words.
“Do you, Marina Cabrera Armenta, take Marlon Ward, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
Marnie didn’t even pause to glance to see him in the crowd. Her eyes were only for Marlon. Without hesitation, she said yes.
“By the power vested in me as Pelican Town’s former mayor by the Ferngill Republic, I hereby declare you, Marlon, and you, Marina, husband and wife. Dear nephew… kiss your bride already.”
The others in town laughed and cheered as Marnie removed her veil and Marlon brought a hand to her cheek and they kissed tenderly. Marnie never looked so happy.
This Marnie was not the one he had known, but had he ever really known her at all?
And now Lewis has his whole empty retirement to ponder this.
