Page 81 - In Five Years

“No, I mean. We’re going to get married this time. For real. In December.”
Bella’s eyes widen. Then they flit down to my hand and back up again. “Holy
shit. For real?”
“For real. It’s time. We’re both just so busy and there’s always a reason not to,

but I realized there’s a really big reason to do it. So we will.”
The waiter comes over, and Bella turns to him abruptly. “A bottle of

champagne and ten minutes,” she says. He leaves.
“He’s been asking me to set a date for a long time.”
“I’m aware,” Bella says. “But you always say no.”
“It’s not that I say no,” I say. “It’s just that I haven’t said yes.”

“What changed?”
I look at her. Bella. My Bella. She looks so radiant, so high on love. How can

I tell her that it’s her? That she’s the reason.
“I guess I just finally know the future I want,” I say.
She nods. “Did you tell Meryl and Alan?”

My parents. “We called them. They’re thrilled. They asked if we wanted to do
it at The Rittenhouse.”
“Do you? In Philly? It’s so generic.” Bella wiggles her nose. “I always saw

you doing something very Manhattan.”
“I’m generic, though. You always forget that.”
She smiles.

“But no Philly,” I say. “It’s just inconvenient. We’ll see what’s available in the
city. “
The champagne comes, and our glasses are filled. Bella holds hers to mine.

“To good men,” she says. “May we know them, may we love them, may we love
each other’s.”
I swallow down some bubbles.

“I’m starving,” I say. “I’m ordering.”
Bella lets me. I get a Greek salad, lamb souvlaki, spanakopita and roasted
eggplant with tahini.

We sink into the food like a bath.
“Do you remember the first time we came here?” Bella asks me. We rarely
make it through a meal without her repurposing some memory. She is so

sentimental. Sometimes I think about our old age and it seems intolerable to