Mary and Halley (sequel to When Mary Met Halley)

thirty nine

"Will you be make me the happiest person alive and be my wife?" 

The words took me completely by surprise, and when the meaning of them hit me it literally took my breath away. Never mind that we knew no happy married couples, or that I had already planned one dream wedding that had ended badly. None of that mattered. We were unlike any other couple, and I realized how badly I wanted to be able to call her my wife.

Maybe I couldn't speak, but I could nod, my eyes filling with joyful tears. She slid the ring on my finger and I pulled her up, both of us crying as we hugged and jumped up and down a little and fireworks burst overhead, trickling colors in the night sky.

The cheering was still going on inside but all we could see was each other and there followed a lot of kissing.

Of course then my phone rang, and I really wanted to ignore it, but I groaned and pulled it out.  Ruby. I showed Halley the screen and then answered. "Hey, what's up?"

"Mary, I'm really sorry to bother you and Halley, I am, but I think there's a problem," she said with trepidation. "The little kids are fine," she added hastily. Ominously.

"It's okay, what's going on?" I put her on speaker so Halley could hear, and she huddled next to me in the cold. Someone shouted unintelligibly in the distance.

"I would just tell Leif but I'm pretty sure you would want me to tell you," she hedged. "And he's going to be really mad when he finds out, and I'll tell Char but first I thought I should call you and Halley."

I couldn't imagine what her news could be.

"Ruby, what is it?" Halley asked briskly. 

We could hear her sigh. "I think Gwen snuck out? With some guy she met online? And he's like eighteen?" Her voice dwindled toward the end of it.

"What?" we exclaimed. Gwen had said she had a headache and was going to bed instead of staying up to ring in the new year. The same Gwen who was barely fourteen years old. 

"Yeah," Ruby said, and I could picture her nodding. "I know. I just saw she wasn't in bed, so I read their messages on the computer. They were going to meet up right after you left." She was apologetic now. 

"Shit," I said, trying to wrap my mind around it. Smart, sensible Gwen, sneaking out with some older guy? It didn't make sense.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said again. "I know every time you guys try to go somewhere, something happens to ruin it."

"It's not your fault, you did the right thing," Halley assured her from us both. "We're on our way, okay? We'll tell Leif. See if you can find out anything else about him."

"I'm looking right now."

"Great, we'll see you in a few minutes, bye." I hung up and scrolled to Gwen's number as Halley opened the slider for us. It only rang. The fifth one cut abruptly to her voice telling the caller to leave a message. I turned away from Halley, who was thanking Natasha while explaining our abrupt departure, and cupped my hand over the phone to make my words more private. "You need to call me. Right now," I said in a way that left no room for interpretation, and hung up. 

I briefly added my social niceties to the conversation in front of me, and then we were out the door and back into the freezing night. "She must have lost her goddamn mind," I said in disbelief as we got in the frigid car. Belated fireworks whistled into the air and exploded with a muted boom. 

"Indeed," Halley said grimly, buckling her belt and turning the car around. "There will be much grounding, and the universe kinda seems to hate us having alone time, but she's not ruining this night for us." She side-eyed me, taking my hand and kissing my ring. "I'm your fiance now," she said, almost shyly.