“I will,” said Fletcher.
“Will you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?”
“I will,” said Annie.
Double weddings were a rare event in Hartford, and the bishop admitted that it was the first he’d ever conducted.
Senator Gates stood at the head of a long receiving line, smiling at each new guest. He knew almost all of them. After all, both of his childre
n were being married on the same day.
“Who would have thought Jimmy would end up marrying the smartest girl in the class?” said Harry proudly.
“Why shouldn’t he?” asked Martha. “You did. And don’t forget, thanks to Joanna, he also managed cum laude.”
“We’ll cut the cake, just as soon as everyone is seated at their tables,” announced the maître d’, “and I’ll need the brides and grooms in front, and the parents behind the cake when the photographs are taken.”
“You won’t have to round up my husband,” said Martha Gates. “If a flashbulb goes off, he’ll be on the other side of the camera within moments—it’s an occupational hazard.”
“How right she is,” admitted the senator. He turned his attention to Ruth Davenport, who was looking wistfully at her daughter-in-law.
“I sometimes wonder if they aren’t both a little too young.”
“She’s twenty,” said the senator, “Martha and I were married when she was twenty.”
“But Annie still hasn’t graduated.”
“Does it matter? They’ve been together for the past six years.” The senator turned to greet another guest.
“I sometimes wish…” began Ruth.
“What do you sometimes wish?” inquired Robert, who was standing on the other side of his wife.
Ruth turned so that the senator couldn’t overhear her. “No one could love Annie more than I do, but I sometimes wish they, well,” she hesitated, “they had both dated more.”
“Fletcher met lots of other girls, he just didn’t want to date them, and by the way,” said Robert, allowing his champagne glass to be refilled yet again, “how often have I gone shopping with you, only to find you end up buying the dress you first looked at?”
“That didn’t stop me considering several other men before I settled for you,” said Ruth.
“Yes, but that was different, because none of the others wanted you.”
“Robert Davenport, I would have you know…”
“Ruth, have you forgotten how many times I asked you to marry me before you finally accepted? I even tried to make you pregnant.”
“You never told me that,” said Ruth, turning to face her husband.
“You’ve obviously forgotten how long it was before you eventually had Fletcher.”
Ruth looked back at her daughter-in-law. “Let’s hope she doesn’t have to face the same problem.”
“No reason why they should,” said Robert. “It’s not Fletcher who is going to have to give birth. And my bet is,” he continued, “that Fletcher, like me, will never look at another woman for the rest of his life.”
“You’ve never looked at another woman since we’ve been married?” said Ruth after shaking hands with two more guests.
“No,” said Robert, before he took another gulp of champagne, “I slept with several of them, but I never looked at them.”
“Robert, how much have you had to drink?”