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Time For a Change

Chapter 12    The Future Unfolds

Getting engaged is the easy part.  Telling everyone that we are engaged and planning a wedding without everyone putting in his or her two cents worth is the hard part.  But you know what, I don’t care.  As long as at the end of the day Evangeline is my wife then I will suffer through cake tasting, tuxedo fittings and the like just to have my happy ending.  Whom do we tell first?  I will let Evangeline decide that.  

After I proposed we spent the rest of the evening simply basking in the joy of our love and that Sunday I met her at her church to give thanks to God for His goodness.  I went back to my apartment to change after church and then I returned to Evangeline’s apartment to start our deliberations on what needed to happen next.  We decided to do a group Skype video session to both of our mothers so that they will hear it at the same time.  That way they can’t complain that we told one mother before we told the other. We call and they both connect at the same time. Of course they know that something is up because we both appear on the screen and it is clear that we are in Evangeline’s apartment.  Although Mrs. Williamson already knows that I live in the same city as Evangeline she does not know that we have been seeing each other.  We did not tell anyone about our renewed acquaintance. So I anticipate some maybe not so pleasant reaction to our announcement.

“Hi Mom, how are you?”

“I’m fine Evangeline, how are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“Hello Mrs. McBain, how are you?”

“I’m fine Evangeline.  Hello John. What’s going on?”

“Hi Mom. Evangeline and I want to talk with the two of you about something.”

“All right son what is it that you want to talk about?”

“Excuse me a moment Mrs. McBain but I am a bit surprised to see your son with my daughter.  Evangeline I know that you told me that John lived in the same city as you but you did not tell me that you two were seeing each other again.”

“Yes Mom I know.  We did not tell anyone that we were seeing each other again.”

“John is that true.  Are you and Evangeline seeing each other again?”

“Yes Mom we are and we have more to say about that.”

Evangeline and I look at each other and then face the computer screen and say at the same time,

“We are getting married!”

“You’re what? That can’t be.  Evangeline how can you marry him after he hurt you so badly?”

“Mother I will say this once so please listen.  Yes John hurt me in the past but I also hurt him.  We have moved on from that hurt now.  He loves me and I love him.  I will marry him with or without your blessing but I would really rather have your blessing.  Please Mom.”

“John, son, are you absolutely sure about this.  You were involved with Natalie Vega after your breakup with Evangeline. Are you sure that this is what you want?”

“Yes, John are you sure?  You chose Natalie Vega over my daughter.  What is different now?”

“Mom and Mrs. Williamson both of you are right in asking me that.  What is different now is that I know that my feelings for Natalie were not sustaining.  Yes I felt something for her and at the time I thought that it was love but it was not a sustaining love.  I have been in therapy for some time now and it has helped me to see that I used the relationship with Natalie as a crutch to keep me from actually opening myself up to true love.  I didn’t want to be alone anymore and Natalie wanted me so I took what she offered.  Evangeline wouldn’t have anything more to do with me at the time so I took what was available. I was wrong then and now I know that.  I love Evangeline with everything within me.  God has allowed her to open her heart to me again and I will not take that for granted.  I want a life with her.  I want to grow old with her.  I not only want that but I need it.  I need it as much as I need air to breathe.  She is it for me.”

“Well John I admit that is some speech.  I see my daughter and I see the love in her eyes for you.  As long as you make her happy then I am fine with it.”

“Son, I am happy that you have found a true love.  You have finally opened up your heart to share your love with someone else and I am happy for that.  Evangeline I see that my son loves you and as your mother said I can also see in your eyes the love that you have for him.  I am happy for you both.  So when is the wedding?”

“Evangeline and I have not yet set a date.  We wanted to tell you two first.  But it will be soon.  We don’t want to wait too long.  Tomorrow is not guaranteed and we want to get married soon.”

“John’s right. We don’t want to wait too long so the wedding will take place before the end of the year.  Neither of us want anything too big.  We’re both fairly new to the city so we don’t know of wedding or reception venues here.  We have a lot to think about.  With work and planning the wedding we will have our hands full.”

“Evangeline and John, I’m sure that Mrs. McBain and I can help you even from our respective towns.  We can research locations for you and make a list and you two can review it and make a decision. Can’t we do that Mrs. McBain? And call me Lisa, Mrs. McBain since we will soon be family.”

“Yes Lisa we can do that.  And Lisa, call me Eve. I would love to help out in any way possible.”

“Well that’s just great ladies.  Evangeline and I can use all of the help that we can get.  We too will check on places here.  We can ask our coworkers for suggestions.  Can we check back later in the week with you two?”

“Sure John, Lisa and I will check back with you two on Saturday afternoon if that works for you two.”

“Saturday afternoon should work for the two of us.  Talk with you then.”

“Thanks for offering your help Mom and Mrs. McBain.  John and I appreciate it.  Talk with you on Saturday.

We end the Skype session and both breathe a sigh of relief.

“At the beginning I thought that they would fuss to no end.  I’m glad that they came around.  So we have much to do by Saturday.  Maybe it might prove useful to start on the guest list and then we will know how large of a place we need to have Evangeline.”

“Good thinking John.  Just call out names and I will write them down in this notebook”

We list Michael, Marcie, Nora, Layla, Bo, Antonio, our mothers, Professor Nolan, and so on.  By the time we finish we have maybe fifty names.  That’s a manageable number.  Not too many for a small  wedding.