U-N-I Ch. 23

"I guess it did," I agreed, almost feeling remorseful.

She sensed it and spoke,

"Hey don't worry. I'm glad you dumped me. I'd probably still be waiting for you to propose to me," she joked.

I let out a laugh,

"How many kids d'you think we'd have by now?" I asked playfully.

"Umm," she thought. "I think three!"

"Three?" I laughingly exclaimed, shocked at the number.

"Yeah, two girls and a boy," she confirmed.

"Ok!" I said with a nod.

"And their names would be...," she looked up and thought.

"Yeah, alright," I interrupted. "you had everything planned, I get it."

We laughed.

"You're crazy," I teased.

"I am. Now aren't you glad you dumped me?"

"I feel so sorry for Damon. But I understand why he loves you," I told her and leaned in to give her a friendly peck on the cheek.

"Hey," she said, pointing her finger toward me, "talking about kids, you do not get to have a kid first!"

I let out a soft chuckle.

"I can make babies," she said, poking her chest. "I should go first!"

"Yes, you can definitely go first. I'll settle for being the cool uncle."

"Oh come on, you want kids, don't you?"

"Yeah. I don't know. I'll probably just fuck them up so bad," I said, shaking my head.

She grimaced,

"Or you'll give them everything you didn't have."

"Or I'll fuck them up so bad!" I repeated jokingly.

She laughed,

"You won't. Rob would love a kid!"

I rolled my eyes a little,

"Rob's such a woman," I joked, shaking my head, "one of these days, he's gonna tell me that his clock is ticking, and he won't even be kidding!"

She laughed,

"You know he will. And Jane? She'd be so thrilled!"

"I know, tell me about it."

"Oh, we have to call her. Call her right now!" she demanded.

"Hold on, I'm still not sure about this..."

"Oh please, of course you are," she interrupted me. " You already know you're gonna go through with this or you wouldn't have told me about it. I know you. You would've never told anyone unless you had made up your mind, not even me!"

I smirked at her and she looked at me with sassiness, knowing she was right.

I had to admit; she knew me well. I still felt so grateful to still have her in my life and to be able to share everything with her. Despite our history, we had no problem talking about our love lives. She was such a great friend, so empathetic, caring, quirky and intelligent.

"Call her!" she insisted.

"What about the time difference?"

"Uh, I think it's eight hours, so it should be," she looked at her phone. "about 7am."

I shrugged. "Well, if she's sleeping, this is a good enough reason to wake her."

I pulled my phone out and made the call.

Jane picked up, thankfully, already awake. After asking her how she was and apologizing for ringing her so early, telling her that I had a very good reason for doing so though, I went straight to the point.

"Jane, I've got a question for you."

"Fire away," she said.

"How would you feel about planning your son's wedding?"

"Wha...?" she uttered, clearly taken aback. "Say that again?"

I did and she started asking me a bunch of questions all at once, confused.

"Jane, Jane...," I stopped her.

"Yes, I'm calm...," she breathed.

"You've got four months!"

"Mark!" she exclaimed very loudly.

"Come on, I know you can do it!"

"I can!" She exclaimed resolutely. "Tell me everything."

I chuckled. "Aright, I don't know if Rob told you that we've added a date at the Bord gáis Energy Theatre on July 26th, after the Croke Park gigs."

"Yes. The charity event, isn't it? He said the venue had to be kept secret."

"Yeah, that's the one. It's kind of a hidden gig. The venue will only be revealed, like- 24 hours before we play. Tickets only go on sale like a week before, and then, I think, 200 tickets will be auctioned. Anyway, it's for the LGBT organization, belongTo..."

"Mark...," she said my name, beginning to understand why I was telling her all this.

"Yeah, you're starting to see what I'm getting at, aren't you?"

"And it doesn't even surprise me. You two just can't do anything normal, can you?"

"You know it," I giggled.

"Go on, say it out loud, I'm ready!"

Rachel and I giggled and I spoke,

"Are you sure?"

After a short silence, she was the first one to talk,

"You want to say 'I do' on stage, don't you?"

I didn't answer right away and Rachel and I looked at each other with a smile.

"What d'you think?" I finally asked.

She let out a huff,

"I couldn't think of a better place."

"Jane, listen, I want this to be a total surprise for him. He can't find out."

"Holy Mary, are you serious? You mean, this isn't even his idea?"

"No, it's mine. And it's gotta be a surprise. We have to make sure he doesn't know anything. I'm not sure when yet but I want it to happen during the concert and have someone there who can marry us."

"Sweet Mother of God Mark, do you have any idea how much he's going to love this!"

I laughed. "I think I do, yeah," I smiled, more and more certain that I wanted to do it, suddenly realizing that what was just a crazy idea minutes before had now become something that might actually happen.

There was another silence.

"What do you need me to do?" she said excitedly.

"Do you think there's any chance we could have a wedding reception the day after?"

"Do I think we can have a wedding reception? Do I think we can have a wedding reception? "she repeated in a more inquisitive tone of voice. "I'll get to wear my hat sooner than I thought," she laughed happily.

We talked for a long moment, Rachel and I grinning the entire time at all of her questions and ideas for the reception. Since we only wanted our closest friends and family members to be there, it seemed doable, albeit complicated. We knew that even though it was short notice, they wouldn't want to miss it for the world - and they'd all be at the gig.

Now, all I had to do was manage to find time to plan everything with the people I was going to ask for help without raising any suspicion. I was both nervous and excited. I could only hope that I would be able to pull this off and make it as special as I imagined it to be.

-------

Thanks for reading