by C. M. Newman
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH
“Of course I can watch him. Why, what’s going on?” Jenna asked over the phone. Vince had dialed her on his way to pick up Charlie from school. “Date night?”
“Not exactly. There’s a bigger purpose behind it. Listen, Jen…” Vince swallowed, licked his lips, and finally spit it out. “Angela and I are getting married tomorrow. We wanted to go out tonight and look for some rings.” His confession was met with absolute silence, to which he responded, “I’m not…looking for your approval or your blessing, so if you don’t like it, that’s fine. You don’t have to say anything.”
That had been the right thing to say to get Jenna talking, but the wrong thing to say in all other respects. “Well, I’m glad you appreciate what I have to say when I’ll be the one taking care of your son, what—four to six months from now,” Jenna said somewhat sourly.
Vince sighed and pinched his forehead at a red light. “That’s not how I meant it to sound. All I meant was that I don’t expect you to jump up and down and say you’re happy for me if you’re not.”
“Why wouldn’t I be happy for you?”
“Because you—no, you know what? I don’t even want to go down that road. Just forget I said what I said after I told you about the engagement.”
“Already forgotten. Since we’re springing things on each other, I was wondering if I could take Charlie to Madison with me this weekend. He hasn’t seen Katie’s and my side of the family in a while and I think it’d be good for him to get to know our cousins and their kids and our aunts and uncles a little better than he does.”
Vince felt as if he had dodged a bullet by delivering the news so tactlessly and not being that severely punished for it. He was almost compelled to agree with Jenna right away, even though he knew that Charlie visiting the Parsons family meant his mind being poisoned against his father, whom the Parsons blamed entirely for Kate’s death. He got past his excitement over escaping her wrath, though. “That sounds fine. Let me ask him if he wants to go.”
“He’s six, Vince.”
“And if he doesn’t want to go, then I’m not going to make him.”
“Why wouldn’t he want to? Besides, it’d give you and Angela the weekend alone. A honeymoon you wouldn’t otherwise take. Everybody’s happy.”
Vince pulled up to Charlie’s school and saw him running toward the car right away. “Angela and I aren’t looking for a way to have a honeymoon. Listen, I want to check with him first. That’s all I’ll say right now.”
“All right, all right,” Jenna said resignedly. “By the way, I am happy for you, I’m just not happy with how you told me. Stunned silence isn’t necessarily bad silence. Give me a little credit, okay?”
“I understand. I’m sorry.”
“Forgiven. Have you told Charlie yet?”
Just then, Charlie got to the car and opened up the back door. “Hey, buddy,” Vince said with a smile, partly because he was happy to see his son and partly because he got to cut Jenna off before she could give him more advice. “Hey, how about you talk to Auntie Jen? She’s on the phone and has a question for you.”
—
“I can’t believe you beat me to the punch,” Angela said with a little moan when she and Vince had a moment to themselves at home that evening; Charlie was in the shower.
Vince laughed. “I’m sorry. Harry just showed up at the door. As far as I knew, you’d made your mind up to tell him, so…” Vince shrugged and grabbed a carton of chocolate ice cream from the freezer.
“It’s okay, I’m not mad…I’m glad he took it well.”
“Me too. Oh, and he offered to throw us a reception Saturday night if you’re interested. It would probably be best if the other guests knew, though. Do you think you can handle telling everyone tomorrow after the fact or is that too much pressure?” Vince and Angela had agreed during their shopping trip not to talk about anyone but the themselves, which had provided them a rather peaceful evening. It also meant that they still had a lot of strategic catching up to do, though.
Angela’s face went a bit ashen but she shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Consider it done.”
“Good. Harry said he’ll take care of making sure everyone can come.”
“What about Charlie? Can Jenna watch him or should we bring him with us?”
“Charlie will be in Madison this weekend with Jenna visiting some extended family on her and Kate’s side. She’s going to pick him up after his counseling appointment Friday.”
“Oh. That’s kind of…last-minute.”
Vince offered Angela a bite of his ice cream before he dug in. She shook her head. “We’re getting married less than forty-eight hours after getting engaged. That’s not kind of last-minute?” he poked. “Besides…it’ll give us the weekend to live together like a normal married couple and figure out how to present this to Charlie.”
“You decided to tell him?” Angela asked.
Vince nodded. “I keep thinking of reasons and ways to hide it, but…why shouldn’t he know just how much we love each other, you know? And you’ll still see him plenty. It’s not ideal, but it’s the best we can do. I think it’d be good for him to have an example. He was too young to remember his mom and me being married. I want him to know about this. It took me a while to realize it, but I do.”
Angela smiled. “Good. Now we won’t have to sneak around.”
“Right.”
“So, what did Jenna think?” Angela’s eyes shifted to the top of the refrigerator, where Vince had set the boxes with their wedding bands for now. They had both been more than happy with simple and understated, which made the rather impulsive purchase hurt a little less on their bank accounts.
“I don’t really know. I kind of jumped the gun and assumed she wouldn’t be happy for us, which didn’t please her. She got a little snippy with me but I can’t say I blame her.”
“She got snippy with you?” Angela asked suspiciously.
“You kind of had to be there,” Vince said. “It was my fault. I was a jerk. She insisted she’s happy for us.”
“Okay,” Angela said, not entirely convinced. “How long has Charlie been in there?” she asked.
“Two or three minutes, why?”
“Just wondering when we have to shut up about it. I can’t believe we’re getting married tomorrow,” Angela marveled.
“One o’clock…seventeen hours,” Vince said with a grin, pressing his lips to Angela’s temple.
“I’m starting to get nervous,” Angela admitted, “which is silly since it’s not like we’re doing this in front of anyone we know. But I guess…you know…my life is about to change.” She shrugged. “I get to marry the man of my dreams. I have a right to be nervous, right?”
“A few butterflies in your stomach are perfectly fine. If it’s anything more—”
“It’s nothing more, I promise,” Angela reassured him before she touched her nose to his. “What do you think about me changing my name?” she asked out of nowhere.
“Uh, to be honest, I hadn’t even considered it.” Vince was almost telling the truth. A couple of times, the words “Mrs. Glasser” and “Agent Angela Glasser” had crossed his mind but had sounded too far-fetched. He hadn’t pinned Angela as a woman to give up her last name. But apparently she was thinking about it, and now he wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea. It went against his aim of making himself more forgettable, but then again, the wedding did, too. “Do you want to? A name change is a pain with all the paperwork, and getting used to signing it and hearing it…”
“Well, I work for the government, so paperwork does not scare me. And I only sign in scribbles anyway, remember? And yeah, Angela Glasser sounds weird right now, but in a good way.”
“It’s romantic for now, sure, but what about afterwards? Let’s be realistic here.”
“I’m trying to be. Look at it this way,” Angela said, leaning against the fridge as she held on to both of Vince’s hands, taking to kissing the tips
of his fingers. “I’ll already have the memories. Those will never leave me, even if I want them to, which I won’t. I want to do this because I love you.”
Vince’s face burned as he said, “And I love you, but…what about when you meet the next man of your dreams? How would he feel about you having already been married, anyway?”
“That is nowhere near relevant. Whom I’m going to marry or whether I’ll remarry is the furthest thing from my mind right now. If you don’t want me to do this because you don’t like the way it sounds, or because you don’t want anyone else to replace you as Agent Glasser,” she said with a grin, “then tell me and I’ll drop it. Otherwise…”
“Can I think about it?” Vince asked.
Angela hadn’t expected that, but she nodded. “Sure, sure. It’s your last name. I can’t just…take it without permission. Oh, hey, did you tell your brother?”
A pleasant smile crossed Vince’s lips and he nodded. “He’s pretty excited. I talked him out of bailing on work for the ceremony, but I told him there might be a party this weekend and he said he’ll try and make that.”
With a heart warm at being well received, Angela melted back into Vince’s arms and basked in the peace and quiet. Even though she was outwardly calm, her insides still buzzed frantically, as did Vince’s, in anticipation of the step they were about to take.
“Hey, can you wear that dress you wore on our date?” Vince asked, noting to himself how pathetic it was that they’d been together a month, were now engaged, and had only gone out on one real date.
“I can. Are you saying you don’t want to get married in jeans?”
Vince laughed and played with the ends of Angela’s hair. “Can you honestly picture me getting married in jeans?”
“No, but a month ago I never would have pictured this, either,” Angela pointed out.
“Good point.”
“I have no problem wearing that dress. Since you picked that, can I pick out your tie?”
“Be my guest,” Vince said. A sultry laugh was the last sound she made before he kissed her.
“Daddy, can we watch a movie?”
In a hurry, Vince and Angela broke apart as if hiding their relationship altogether. Charlie was standing before them wrapped up in a bath towel, shivering.
“It’s a little late for a movie. It’s almost your bedtime. But how about a TV show?” Vince offered. Charlie nodded fervently and ran off to get dressed.
“I’m gonna miss him this weekend,” Angela confessed with a pout.
“Me, too.”
“Then why are you letting him go?”
Vince shrugged feebly. “Jen thinks it’ll be good for him to get to know that side of the family better. I can’t argue with that. Even though the last time he saw them, he came home asking what his great aunt meant when she’d said I’d never loved his mom.”
Angela’s mouth fell open. “She did not.”
“I wasn’t a favorite with the Parsons while we were married. Her death kind of solidified their hatred toward me. I can’t say I blame them.”
“Stop that,” Angela said pityingly. “You keep letting people walk all over you. That’s not the Vince I know.”
“I have to do what’s best for Charlie,” Vince said. “He’ll need the support, the distraction. I have to be okay with him being there.”
“That doesn’t mean you need to be okay with…people saying things about you behind your back to your very impressionable son.”
“Like I said, being unwelcome in any Parsons’ residences isn’t exactly a new development. Trust me, I’m fine. And Charlie never seemed to have bought into their attempts to brainwash him. Everything’s just fine.”
“Okay, I’m ready!” Charlie announced, trotting down the hallway and straight to the couch. Though neither had any interest whatsoever in whatever mind-numbing cartoon Charlie chose, Vince and Angela sat down on either side of Charlie and enjoyed the next twenty minutes all the same.
—
“Are you feeling all right?” Sophie asked Angela the next day around noon. Angela was planning to go back to Vince’s apartment to pick him up in a few minutes. Her stomach was gnarled into a giant knot, growling in hunger because of the breakfast and lunch she’d skipped due to nerves.
“Yeah,” she lied through her teeth, “why?”
“You look extra pale and you’re kind of fidgety. And you’re picking at your nails.”
“Extra pale? Thanks,” Angela said with a short laugh. “I’m fine, though.”
“Hey, Angela, got a sec?” came Harry’s voice. He stood in the doorway to his office, leaning against the frame. She hadn’t spoken alone with him since Vince had revealed the big news. She nodded and followed him into his office, wondering if the positivity of his reaction was everything Vince had said it had been.
Predictably, Harry shut the door behind Angela. “So,” he said with a smile that made his eyes twinkle. “You ready?”
She let out a mousy laugh and shrugged. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Nervous?” Harry asked, sitting in one of the visitors’ chairs.
“About being married?” Angela asked, following suit. “No. About the wedding? Stupidly, yes, very much so.”
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I’m surprised you even came in today.”
“I can’t keep…bailing on work like this.”
“Why not? It’s your vacation time. You earned every hour of it.”
“People worry.”
“Because they don’t know why you keep calling in or leaving early or coming in late. Vince said he’d see if you’d be okay with telling Marshall and Sophie tomorrow. Are you?”
Angela puffed up her cheeks and clapped her hands on her thighs. “I don’t know. I want them to know so they don’t have to worry, but at the same time, I feel like both of them might worry even more, or that they’ll feel like I let them down by not telling them sooner. I should have told them a long time ago, I know I should have. I do fully plan on telling them tomorrow, though, no matter how anxious it makes me. But…today I don’t really want to think about that.”
“Of course. Today’s your big day.”
“Yeah.” Chills overwhelmed Angela and she checked her watch. “Actually, I’d better get going.”
“Of course. This is one thing you don’t wanna be late for.” Harry rose and held his arms open for a hug, one Angela gladly took. “Promise me something,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“If you need time off for any reason whatsoever—even if it’s to spend the day in your pajamas watching TV with Vince—you take it. And I’m sure you understand what you’re entitled to legally once you’re married…” he said cryptically.
“What do you mean?”
Harry seemed to have thought better of himself. “Never mind that. Go on now, marry that idiot.”
With a dutiful nod and a suppressed laugh, Angela moved to leave.
“One more thing,” Harry said. Angela turned around. “Congratulations, kid. Tell Vince for me, too.”
—
So far, so good.
Vince and Angela waited in the narthex of the church, their marriage license in hand and ready to be used. Vince patted his suit jacket pocket and felt both rings. No hiccups yet.
At the same time, they both checked their watches. Pastor Fenwick was busy with a couple of congregants in his office. Vince gave up on appearing formal and sneaked an arm behind Angela to give her opposite shoulder a calming caress. She lay her hand over his and let herself lean into him a bit while they listened for the pastor’s office door to open. Vince squeezed Angela’s clammy hand in his own and made a fruitless attempt at swallowing his jitters away—his mouth was completely parched.
Finally, the pastor’s office opened up down the hall and the women who’d pushed their wedding back exited the church.
“So sorry to keep you waiting, had to meet with our youth ministers,” Pastor Fenwick called down the hallway. “
I’ll be right with you. Do you have witnesses?”
“Witnesses!” Angela said behind her hand. “I completely forgot to look into it. How many do we need?”
“Two,” the pastor said, finally appearing.
Vince trotted out the door. “On it.”
Angela shivered as she stood up. “Wow, this is it,” she said. “So we don’t have to go through…premarital counseling or anything? Aren’t pastors supposed to make us do that?”
“We are,” Pastor Fenwick said, shrugging on his robes. “I’ve already talked to Vince about it, so I’ll give you a quick session, too. How do you feel?” he asked her.
“Excited,” she said.
“Excited to make this promise to each other and before God?”
She nodded.
Pastor Fenwick smiled cheerily. “And do you take this lightly?”
“Not at all.”
“Then let’s get this show on the road. I don’t remember the last time I was so excited to marry a couple. Not that you should do this for anyone but yourselves, mind you…”
Angela gave Vince a look through the glass doors while the lights in the sanctuary flickered on. Vince just smiled, glad that he’d caught their two witnesses in the parking lot.
“Do you have rings?” the pastor asked before the altar. Vince nodded. “Are you ready?” This time they both nodded, quite eager to get past the fumbled speech and sweaty, shaking hands.
“Oh, wait,” Angela whispered. “Does it matter which one of us goes first?” she asked.
“Not to me,” Pastor Fenwick said.
“Do you mind if I do?” she then asked Vince. “If you go first, I’ll lose it and I’ll be mush.”
“I don’t mind,” Vince replied.
Pastor Fenwick double-knotted the belt on his robe and revered the altar before they all stepped up. He spoke at a normal pace, not drawing his words out theatrically, but not rushing, either. “We are gathered here today to witness the union of Angela Hawkins and Vincent Glasser in holy matrimony. Now, I know you said you wanted to keep things simple, Vince, but I couldn’t help myself. I did pick some scripture. I hope you’ll both find it valuable.”
Vince locked eyes with Angela and smiled as the pastor read.
“First, from Song of Solomon: ‘Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.’
“And from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: ‘If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.’”
Vince’s writhing heart almost stopped when Angela’s lips pursed and her eyes went glassy. He started to choke up as well. For years now, he had felt like a failure of all things romantic. He had let Kate down in every possible way and hadn’t felt even remotely deserving of a second try, yet here he was, getting one. He had the opportunity to do things the right way, and he stood hand-in-hand with a woman who was more than happy to be the one to give him that chance. She was one of the few people he knew who had been drawn closer, not repulsed, by the news of his fate.
“Angela, repeat after me. I, Angela …”
Angela collected herself and sucked in a deep but quiet breath. “I, Angela…”
“Take thee, Vincent…”
“Take thee, Vincent…”
“To be my lawfully wedded husband…”
“To be my lawfully wedded husband…”
“To have and to hold from this day forward…”
“To have and to hold from this day forward…”
Angela’s stomach growled audibly over the pastor’s next words, setting her cheeks bright pink as Vince pinched his lips together to keep from laughing.
“For better or worse…” the pastor led.
Angela gave Vince a poignantly loving smile as the humor dissipated into thin air. “For better or worse…” And then, out of nowhere, her stomach grumbled again, this time with twice the volume. There was no doubt that everyone was privy to her raging hunger now. Her smile was replaced quickly by a grimace, which made Vince press his lips together in another attempt not to laugh. He almost made it, but the pastor paused for just too long, giving him enough time to let out the smallest of chuckles that proved contagious—Angela giggled almost painfully right along with him. “Sorry,” she whispered again.
“For richer or poorer…” the pastor went on with a smile.
“For richer or poorer…” Angela repeated, her mouth set in a soft curve again.
“In sickness and in health…”
Back came the tears, this time with a vengeance, two of them spilling down Angela’s cheeks before she could follow. “In sickness and in health.”
“To love and to cherish…”
“To love and to cherish…”
“Until death do us part.”
“Until death—until death do us part.”
Before the pastor could turn to Vince and start helping him through his vows, Vince freed his hands from Angela’s and used each thumb to collect the tears from her burning cheeks. He then held his hands out for her to take again.
“Repeat after me. I, Vincent…”
“I, Vincent…”
“Take thee, Angela…”
“Take thee, Angela…”
“To be my lawfully wedded wife…”
“To be my lawfully wedded wife…” He hadn’t remembered the weight, the power, the pure magic of that word until he said it right now, in front of her, a pastor, in front of God in His house.
“To have and to hold from this day forward…”
Vince fully enveloped Angela’s hands inside his own again, squeezing them firmly. “To have and to hold from this day forward…” he echoed, letting himself wonder just exactly how far forward that would be.
“For better or worse…”
“For better or worse…”
“For richer or poorer…”
“For richer or poorer…”
“In sickness and in health…”
Vince wasn’t sure how Angela had said it without stumbling. She was the one who was making a real promise with these words. He was the one who was sick and she was the one who was promising it wouldn’t matter. Why was it that he couldn’t return the vow without having to gather himself first? “In sickness and in health,” he finally said with no steadiness whatsoever, his eyes finally dropping a few tears of their own.
“To love and to cherish…”
“To love and to cherish,” Vince said, now with more poise.
“Until death do us part.”
Vince sucked on his dry lips, still staring deep into Angela’s eyes—what he could see of them, anyway. “Until death do us part.” His words bounced around the sanctuary.
“Rings?” the pastor asked Vince, who took them from his pocket, giving his to Angela.
“Angela, place this ring on Vincent’s finger and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed.”
This came much easier to Angela—what almost caught her was remembering which hand was Vince’s left. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
“And Vince,” the judge said. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
As Vince slipped Angela’s ring onto her left ring finger and kissed it, he declared, “With this ring, I th
ee wed.”
Pastor Fenwick led the couple in a recital of the Lord’s Prayer, then closed up. “What God has joined together let no man put asunder. I now pronounce you man and wife. Vincent, you may kiss your lovely bride.”
Before severing the gaze they had maintained for such a lengthy few minutes, Vince told his wife that he loved her and closed his eyes.
Angela supposed that first kiss as husband and wife couldn’t technically count as a best kiss since it had too much of an advantage to be fair, but she sure thought this one topped their first kiss as a couple. With that kiss, she had said to him that she wanted to be there with him until the very end, but she hadn’t had a fraction of the understanding then that she did now. She hadn’t known just how complicated things would get with Charlie or with their friends, just how afraid she would be of losing him, or just how hard it would be to watch him get sicker. With this kiss, though, after an exchange of vows and rings, she was telling him that there was nothing that life—or death—could throw at them that could possibly sway her.
Things would get worse. They would get far worse. But for now—in this very moment—things were definitely better.
“It is my distinct pleasure to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Glasser,” Pastor Fenwick said with open arms. Besides the two politely clapping ladies, the only other thing in the sanctuary that moved was the dust, showing only in the light that sliced through the windows. “Oh—I forgot to ask, just assumed—are there any name changes?”
Vince just smiled giddily as he and Angela stood nose-to-nose, forgetting about their company for a few seconds. “I wasn’t a hundred percent sold when you talked me into it last night,” he said to her and her alone, “but after hearing someone else say it…I do love the way it sounds.”
