Language of Love

Ecclesia

I wake up at 5am and hop in the shower. I have no idea what to look like. Do I wear a dress? Or is it like that church off the lake where you just where your bikini off the boat? Do I curl my hair? Does my dress need to go down to my ankles? I FaceTime Fitz.

"What do I wear?" I ask.
"Well, not the towel. Just wear a casual dress." He says.
"Okay. Thanks." I say. I hang up and pick out a dress. I take a burgundy dress. It's long sleeves and goes to just above my knees. I find a pair of flats, they match the dress, so I hope they look okay.

Fitz knocks on my door around 7:05. I open the door. He's wearing a button up and dress pants.

"You look amazing." He says. I smile.
"So do you." I say.

He drives to the church. He smiles when we pull up. Lots of people crowd outside. He links arms with me, I look up at him. I'm so nervous. It's like I'm meeting his parents. He walks up to a group of people. There's an old couple and a few middle aged women.

"Oh, hello, Fitzgerald!" Says the old woman.
"Mrs. Arsenault, this is my girlfriend, Gray." He says. She smiles, she's adorable. Like grandma adorable, not baby adorable.
"Oh, you are so beautiful." She says and presses her hand to my face. I try not flinch when her wrinkly, cold, moth-ball smelling hand strokes my face.
"First girlfriend he's ever brought to us, you must be special," Says the old woman's husband, Mr. Arsenault.
"She is." Fitz tells. I smile.

"So, what do you do, darling?" Asks one of the middle added women.
"I'm a teacher," I answer.
"What do you teach?" Asks the woman.
"Latin." I respond.
"Really? So, you must be very close with God. That's why you learned Latin, right?" She asks.
"Yes." I lie. I'm pretty sure that's a sin, but it's not like I've ever read the 10 commandments. Or were there 12 commandments? I guess Oll find out.

We go inside and watch the ceremony. I think that's what it's called. Or was it a sermon? A family I didn't see earlier sits next to us. The pastor, maybe preacher??, asks for a man called Joseph McCormick to give a speech. The man with the family next to us stands up. His wife has a baby, two toddlers and a 4 or 5 year old.

I listen to his speech, it's about growing closer to the lord. I found it nice. Halfway through, the woman's baby spits up all over her. She tells the oldest child to stay in her spot and be nice to her sisters. Immediately after the mother leaves to clean herself up. The youngest child remaining begins to cry. Everyone looks back at her, I slide next to child and pick it up to sooth it. I didn't want her to disrupt the speech. The father, gives me a sympathetic look. I nod and he continues. I bounce the child a bit, calming it. The child quiets down and everyone slowly turns back to the front.

The mother returns and sees her baby in my arms. She immediately scoots past the other two.

"I'm sorry," she whispers.
"It's okay, here." I say and pass the baby back to her. She smiles.

After the complete session, both of the parents walk up to me. I had gotten separated from Fitz.

"I don't know you," says the woman.
"Right, Sorry. Gray Thorne. I'm
here with my boyfriend." I answer.
"Oh. Who's your boyfriend?" Asks the woman.
"Fitzgerald Kennedy," I answer.
"Good man," She says. "Thank you for what you did."
   "Of course!" I respond. "I should go find Fitz, it was nice to meet you."

✿✿✿✿✿

Fitz begins to walk up to a group of his friends. An old woman stops him.

"You better marry that girl," She says.
"I hope I get the chance too," He answers.

He continues before stopping once more. This time, he wasn't stopped. He over heard a group of people talking about Gray.

"Did you see the way she swooped in and took care of the McCormick's baby?"
"Yeah. She's born to be a mother. Fitzgerald better put on ring on it or she'll go to someone else."
"Shh, He's right there."

He continues along to his friends.

"Your girlfriend is pretty." says John.
"Yes." Fitz agrees.

✿✿✿✿✿

I find Fitz talking to a group of people around our age.

"There she is!" Says one of the men.
"Hi." I respond. Fitz slides over and gives me some room in the circle.
"Gray, right?" Asks a young woman.
"Yes," I reply. Fitz smiles and touches my arm.
"Will we see you next week?" Asks a man.
"Maybe, I'm not sure," I answer.

We get in the car and go to brunch afterwards. Before he pulls out of the parking lot, he turns towards me.

"They loved you. Four people told me to marry you," He says.
"Woah..." I mutter.
"So, that brings up something I've meaning to ask you." He says. I look into his eyes. "What kind of future do you want? How old do you want to be before you get married? Do you want kids? We haven't talked about this," He says.

"I don't really care how old I am when I get married. Um, I know you're almost 30, so I'm guessing you'd rather get married sooner than later, which I'm up for. I do want kids, maybe 2?" I answer.
"I want 2 or 3. And yeah, I'd rather not be much older than 30 when I get married." He agrees.
"Well that was easy," I say.
"I love you," He says.
"I love you, too." I answer.

We go to brunch. I was half expecting Fitz to say a prayer or something, but he clearly isn't that religious.

    The next day, it's job shadow day. The very few students who did not participate, we told to just pick one room and stay in there. I ended up with 12 kids—two of which I don't teach, but they were my student council kids, so I let them stay. Fitz had 8, so we decided to combine our classes into a whole 20 kids.

   I pull up the school's Netflix account and have the students pick a PG movie, we aren't allowed to show R or PG-13 without a permission slip. They pick Shrek. I sit in my director's style chair. All of the teachers got them, most has their names/initials sewn into it. I chose not to, I wanted to wait until I got married.

    Fitz sits in my desk. He props his feet up on the desk portion and leans back into the chair. He closes his eyes and crosses his arms. They snap open after 10 minutes.

    "To whoever just made that comment, shut up," He says. I heard the comment, but I'm used to it. It was something along the lines of "I wonder what position she takes it bed" I hear that shit all day, all year. It's annoying, but I'm used to it.

     "Wait aren't you two like dating?" Asks one of the boys.

Uh oh.