Chapter 1
"And they lived happily ever after."
"Tell me another one, Grandma!"
Jennie sighed. Her youngest granddaughter was just at the age when little
girls have an insatiable appetite for love stories. Well, maybe there were some little girls who never outgrew that particular trait.
"Let's see." Jennie said. "Did I ever tell you the one about the girl whose family forgot her sixteenth birthday?"
"You mean Sixteen Candles?" Her granddaughter rolled her eyes with impatience. "Yes, Grandma. I've seen it a hundred times. I want to hear a real story!"
"A real story?"
"Were you ever in love, Grandma?"
Jennie let out a gasp of indignation. "What do you mean, was I? Your
grandpops is right in the next room!"
"You were in love with Grandpops? But she's so old!"
"You know, she wasn't always so old," Jennie chuckled. "There was a
time when women in every single country on the planet were wildly in love with your grandpops."
The little girl crinkled her forehead in confusion. "Why?"
"Why what?" Lisa asked as she walked into the room.
"Your granddaughter wants to hear a love story," Jennie replied. She
followed Lisa with her eyes as Lisa sank down beside her with a groan on the well-worn living room couch.
"Love story, huh? I might know a few of those."
"Tell me the story of when you asked Grandma to marry you!"
Lisa looked at her wife with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "When I
asked your grandmother to marry me?" she said. "Do you remember?" Jennie grinned back at Lisa. "Which time?"
"That's true." Lisa confirmed. She pulled her eyes away from Jennie's
face and nodded at her granddaughter seriously. "Just one marriage proposal wasn't good enough. Not for your grandmother. No, I seem to recall at
least..." Lisa looked down and started counting on her fingers. "How many was it?"
Jennie pressed one hand to her cheek as she watched Lisa. "You remember very well." she said.
Lisa shook her head at Jennie. "I lost count. But now the first one - that was a thing of beauty. That was the stuff they pay the screenwriters big bucks for in Hollywood. You know there's a word for the kind of woman who would turn down a proposal like that one."
"There was no ring." Jennie said.
"No ring." Lisa closed her eyes for a moment and sighed.
"Tell the story!" her granddaughter demanded, bouncing up and down
with excitement.
"Well, let's see..." Lisa began. "It was a Sunday afternoon, as I recall..." "You really want to hear this?" Jennie gave her granddaughter a sceptical
look. "But you already know the ending."
"Oh, Grandma! Don't be dumb. It always ends the same anyway."
"Yeah, Grandma. Don't be dumb," Lisa said, taking Jennie's hand in hers.
Jennie looked up to see Lisa's eyes dancing with laughter, and she felt her heart constrict as she remembered a different time when Lisa held her hand - an afternoon 40 years ago, when the look in Lisa's eyes had been a different one entirely.
"Now, where was I?" Lisa said.
"It was a Sunday afternoon," the little girl prompted.
"Raining cats and dogs..." Jennie added with a wistful smile. She
squeezed Lisa's hand as she smiled back.
Chapter 2
June 2013
A neon signed blazed overhead - Fill 'Er Up in cursive script - casting the rain-soaked highway rest stop in red-gold monotone, like an old sepia photograph come to life. Jennie stood frozen in place, looking down at the person who knelt before her on one knee.
The water ran down her face in rivulets. Droplets dangled from the tip of her nose. Jennie watched the water trickle and fall, and she listened to the words she thought she'd never hear her say, the words Jennie thought were lost to her forever.
"Jennie, you're the one. I love you. Will you marry me?"
Jennie touched her on the cheek. Her eyes were locked with Jennie's, trying to read the answer on Jennie's face before she said the words. She was holding her breath - they both were - and Jennie felt the air escape from her lungs in a silent sigh.
"Lisa..." she said at last, tugging on the hand that was holding hers. "Get up."
Lisa dropped Jennie's hand and pressed her lips together for a moment before she rose to her feet. "I'm guessing that's a no, then?" Lisa said, her eyes on the ground.
"It's not a no. It's just..." Jennie shook her head. "Lisa, it's way too soon."
Lisa rubbed one hand across her eyes to clear away the rainwater. "Ok then." she said, nodding once. "Let's go." Lisa jerked her head towards the car and started walking towards it.
Jennie grabbed her arm, and Lisa turned back towards her. Lisa's gaze was directed somewhere just over her left shoulder. "I love you too." Jennie said. "There's just a lot we still need to figure out."
"Yeah." Lisa shrugged. "I get it. Totally." Lisa forced her eyes to meet Jennie's, and the sadness Jennie saw in them tugged at something deep inside her chest. "Lisa." she whispered.
