Most Ardently

by Susan Mesler-Evans

  “Mom, just because he’s cute doesn’t mean he’s worth our time,” Maria said. At seventeen, Maria was the middle child, and by far the most introverted. Having come along only eleven months after Elisa was born, they’d been mistaken for non-identical twins more than once. Elisa privately thought her parents were crazy for having another kid so soon, but of course she would never say that, especially not to Maria herself. “Most cute guys are huge dicks.”

  “You’re not the one he’ll be after, anyway,” Lucia said. Elisa kicked her under the table.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Lulu, there are plenty of men out there who would love a smart, dependable girl like Maria,” Julieta said, giving her an encouraging smile.

  “Smart, dependable…” Maria muttered. Elisa gave her a sympathetic glance.

  Mom made a valiant effort to keep the conversation on track.

  “You could at least give him a chance,” she said. “And we’re going, so that’s final.”

  Elisa and Maria groaned, exchanging a mutually exasperated look, but the other three seemed pretty excited about it.

  “Who’s getting married?” Julieta asked. “We should bring them a present.”

  “No one we know,” she said, clearly not getting why most people would deem this a reason to not go. “So…soap basket it is. That’s not the point. The point is to get a chance to introduce ourselves to Robert without it being awkward.”

  “And crashing a wedding isn’t awkward at all,” Elisa muttered.

  Mom whacked her on the back of the head with a spatula.

  …

  The wedding was being held in a park near Netherfield. Mom had insisted, much to Elisa’s aggravation, that they park the family minivan at least five blocks away. “If we show up in this thing, we may as well hold up a giant neon sign that reads, we’re broke,” she explained, forcing Julieta to drive past the park and turn around so they could find someplace to hide their sticker-covered, maroon-colored chariot of shame.

  “I thought the fact that we’re poor is the whole reason we’re doing this,” Maria said, voice strangled from where she was squeezed between Lucia and the window.

  “Yeah, but we don’t wanna let them know that,” Lucia said, in the “oh my God you are such a moron” voice only a self-centered fourteen-year-old could pull off.

  And right on cue, Camila echoed: “Yeah, obviously.” Despite being a year and a half older than Lucia and a grade ahead, she tended to copy her. Julieta and Elisa had, on separate occasions, tried to persuade Camila that she didn’t need to imitate Lucia, but she seemed to encourage it. She liked having someone want to be like her. It was nice to be admired, Elisa supposed, as Lucia reached over and squeezed Camila’s hand, grinning at her.

  Julieta found a place to park, and the family spilled out of the van. Elisa stumbled slightly as her feet hit the sidewalk, unaccustomed to walking in heels. Charlene, who had to wear them daily to work, grabbed her arm, steadying her a bit.

  “Think Mom would give me grief for taking these off for the walk over?” she asked.

  “I think she would decide that the sight of your bare feet would make everyone think you’re even poorer than you really are,” Charlene laughed.

  They could hear the wedding before they could see it. The actual ceremony wasn’t supposed to start for another half hour, but plenty of people had already arrived, and all their voices were blending together. It was impossible to pick out any individual words unless you were really working at it. As they got closer, Elisa could hear classical music playing from speakers set up for the occasion.

  “Whoa, did they rent out the entire park?” Maria asked as their mother presented their invitations to the man at the gate, who checked the guest list to make sure they weren’t party crashers. “I expected it to be in the gazebo or one of the shelters or something.”

  “We’re in rich people territory,” Elisa said, desperate to find a seat. Her feet were killing her. “They probably bought it.”

  Maria and Camila both laughed, but Julieta tossed her a pleading look. “Please don’t antagonize anybody before we’ve even talked to anyone.”

  “I’m not,” she said defensively.

  “Elisa…”

  “Okay, okay. I promise I will be the picture of perfect manners.”

  Charlene snorted. She elbowed her.

  Upon seeing the size of the crowd that had turned out for the wedding, Elisa suddenly understood how her father had managed to get them in so easily. There was simply no way the bride and groom knew all these people personally. When her cousin Vega had gotten married, her mother had forced her to invite every single distant cousin and friend of a friend of a friend. Vega had known maybe an eighth of the people at her own wedding. Elisa had the sense it was the same deal here, which at least took some pressure off. She probably wouldn’t be expected to pretend she actually knew the couple at all.

  “Look at the ice sculptures,” Lucia squealed, embarrassingly loudly, actually pointing. Ignoring the people glancing at them, Elisa turned to get a look.

  She was about to comment on how pretty the ice sculptures were, when something caught her attention.

  Darcy was here.

  Of all the people she would’ve expected to see, Darcy wouldn’t have even cracked the top twenty. Was she imagining this?

  She blinked. Nope. She was still there.

  “What the hell?” Elisa said aloud, before she could stop herself. Her face heated as a couple of guests gave her odd looks, but she was glad that Darcy was not one of them. She was standing by the sculptures, wearing a deep plum dress that she pulled off effortlessly, her wavy hair pulled back for the occasion. Her wealth seemed more much obvious here than it ever had at school. She seemed as displeased to be here as she did on campus, though. Her eyes flicked around the vicinity, apparently looking for someone.

  She cast her glance to Elisa, and a spark of recognition lit her eyes.

  Crap.

  Elisa politely waved at her, unsure what else to do.

  “Who’re you waving at?” Charlene asked. “Someone we know?”

  “I do,” Elisa said. “Darcy’s here.”

  “That snotty girl from your class?”

  She nodded. “She’s over there,” she said, gesturing as subtly as she could.

  Charlene turned to look, and she was glad to see that she was no longer looking at her. Instead, she was talking to a group of people, apparently having found whoever it was she was waiting for.

  “Who’re they?” Charlene asked.

  “No clue.”

  She didn’t think they were Darcy’s family—these people were all white, blue-eyed, and golden-haired. They were definitely related to each other, though. The entire group was tall, with round faces and cute, button noses. There was the mother, two twin girls who didn’t look like they were that much older than them, and…

  “Robert Charles,” Alejandra said, barely keeping her voice to a whisper.

  Robert Charles, the man her mom was determined to get one of her daughters to marry, knew Darcy Fitzgerald. And, judging by his smile and the way she allowed him to hug her, he knew her pretty well.

  It freaking figures.

  “Is that him?” Julieta asked, peering over the top of Elisa’s head to get a look.

  “Oh, he’s cute,” Camila said brightly.

  He was cute, Elisa had to admit. And he didn’t give off the snobby vibe that Darcy and his sisters did. He looked like the sort of guy who went to farmer’s markets, and who rescued cats from trees.

  Before Elisa could say anything, Mom was hustling Julieta over to where Darcy and Robert were, and everyone else followed, whether out of morbid curiosity or a desire to do damage control, Elisa was unsure.

  They were within ten feet of Robert, but he hadn’t noticed them yet.

  “Okay, honey, just relax and let Mama handle this,” Mom was whispering to her eldest daughter.

  “Handle wh—oof—”

  Julieta hadn’t f
inished her sentence when Mom gave her a nudge—well, more like a forceful shove—in Robert’s general direction. Julieta fell to the ground, more surprised than hurt, but it got everyone’s attention. Including Robert’s.

  Because just saying, “Hi, welcome to the neighborhood,” is too close to what normal people do.

  Eh, normal families are probably boring, anyway.

  Julieta hadn’t been on the ground for two seconds when Robert rushed forward, offering her a hand to help her to her feet. She took it, clearly embarrassed, but he just smiled at her.

  “Sorry, I’m so clumsy,” Julieta said. She wasn’t, but that would probably leave a better impression than “my crazy mother decided to manufacture an epic love affair between us.” Once she was on her feet, she was able to smile back.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Robert said. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

  “No,” she said, “not at all. Thank you.”

  “No worries. We haven’t met, have we?”

  “No—no, we, um, we haven’t. I’m Julieta Benitez.”

  “Robert Charles,” he said, as if they didn’t already know that. He finally let go of Julieta’s hand to gesture to the people with him, and that’s when Elisa saw it in Julieta’s eyes. A flicker of disappointment.

  Here we go.

  “This is my mother, Amelia, and my sisters, Cora and Louise,” Robert was saying. “And this,” he gestured toward Darcy, who’d witnessed the entire interaction with a scowl, “is my best friend, Darcy Fitzgerald. She’s like a sister to me.”

  “Pleasure,” she said, in a tone that indicated that it wasn’t. Julieta smiled graciously at each of them before introducing her entire “entourage.”

  “These are my sisters, Elisa, Maria, Camila, and Lucia, and Elisa’s best friend, Charlene Locke…and my mother—”

  “Alejandra Bello,” their mother announced, thrusting her hand forward. Elisa cringed a bit, but Robert didn’t seem to mind, shaking her hand politely. “We’re delighted to meet you, Mr. Charles.”

  “Don’t call me that, please,” he laughed. “Just call me Bobby. Being called Mr. Charles reminds me of work.”

  “All right, Bobby it is,” she said, looking elated to be on a first-name basis with him so quickly. Never mind that he probably told everyone to call him that. “So—bride or groom?”

  “Bride. Sort of,” he said. “She’s Darcy’s…uh…”

  “Second cousin,” Darcy said.

  “Second cousin. That’s right. Darcy asked her to let us tag along so we could meet people.”

  “How funny,” Mom said. “Julieta’s father got us invited to the wedding for the same reason.” Elisa nudged her in the side, but she ignored her. “He’s a friend of the groom but was unable to attend.”

  Probably because he barely knows him.

  “Truth be told, my Julieta barely knows anyone here outside of us,” her mom said.

  Of course, neither did her other daughters, or Charlene, but she didn’t seem too concerned with that particular detail.

  “I know how that feels,” Bobby said. “Everyone’s very nice, though. You know, if you don’t already have plans for the reception, you’re welcome to sit with us.”

  Her mom smiled. “We have no plans whatsoever.”

  Elisa couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for Bobby. He was trying to be nice, and had no clue what he’d just done.

  “Bobby,” Darcy said, a hint of irritation seeping into her tone, “the ceremony is supposed to start in five minutes. We should find our seats.”

  “Oh, right.” He gave the Benitez family one last smile. “See you at the reception, then.”

  As the Charles family and Darcy headed in, Mom did a little victory dance once they weren’t looking, her plan having gone perfectly.

  “Was shoving her really necessary?” Maria asked. “Life isn’t a dating sim.”

  “Your life may not be,” she said. “But that’s only because you don’t let me meddle.”

  “Mom, I think I speak for all five of us when I say I would literally rather eat cement.”

  Elisa tried and failed to fight a grin, even as Mom shot Maria her most withering look. “We should probably find our seats, too,” she said. She just hoped that they weren’t near Darcy.

  They weren’t. They were in the very back row, which she suspected was a side effect of being an afterthought on the guest list. She smoothed out the skirt of her pale-blue dress, trying to appear vaguely interested in the ceremony.

  Julieta, meanwhile, wasn’t even pretending. She was too busy stealing glances at Bobby.

  …

  The reception was beautiful. By the time the wedding was finished, the sun had begun to go down, the sky streaked with scarlet, and the park was lit with little twinkling lights. A string quartet had been hired to play for the guests, and there was even a little area to dance. Elisa could tell that her mother was hoping Julieta and Bobby would put it to good use, but they’d spent the entire reception so far back at Bobby’s table, talking to each other—and only to each other. A bridesmaid approached, reaching for Bobby’s arm and inviting him to dance with her. He got points for shaking his head and turning back to face her sister.

  “They are kind of cute together,” Charlene said. She and Elisa hung out by the fountain, watching the rest of the party. This was how they spent most parties they attended—off in a corner, watching the action unfold. Being alone in a crowd wasn’t so bad if you had a friend to be alone with.

  “Yeah,” Elisa admitted. “I haven’t seen Julieta that happy since before her last boyfriend dumped her.”

  “How can you tell?” It was a fair question—Julieta projected an image of happiness and friendliness at all times.

  Before Elisa could respond, her friend had grabbed her arm, a look of dread in her eyes. “Uh-oh. Incoming,” she whispered.

  Elisa looked up to see what she was talking about and barely repressed a groan when she saw Colin Burger headed toward them. He’d gone to their middle and high school and was Charlene’s age. He’d been determined to win Elisa’s friendship for years. And he was a huge pain in the ass, a fact that had always escaped him. The girls put up with him simply to avoid trouble. He wasn’t mean, really, or even truly harmful. He was just…Colin.

  “Charlene and Elisa—the dynamic duo,” he said upon reaching them. He immediately pulled them both into a big, inescapable bear hug.

  “Thanks for asking permission,” Elisa muttered into his shoulder. He didn’t seem to hear her. He hugged her so tight she could smell his cologne.

  Unearned Confidence and Desperation. He must have bought it by the case.

  “What—what are you doing here?” Charlene asked.

  “I just love weddings, don’t you?” Colin asked. “I have to admit, I usually prefer church weddings—there’s something about the tradition of it all. But this was just a lovely ceremony. You know, I’m majoring in theology at Gardiner University, and you learn all sorts of interesting trivia. Not just in your classes, but listening to other people talk. Like, for example, did you know that the original purpose of the best man was to fight to the death? Back when arranged marriages were normal, sometimes the bride’s actual boyfriend would turn up to ‘kidnap’ her, so the groom would hire the best swordsman he could afford to stop him. Isn’t that just fascinating? I think so, anyway. Wait— I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten the question.”

  “What. Are. You. Doing here?”

  “Oh, right. Well, it’s actually a family affair. The bride, the lovely Miss Hannah Rollins—or, as I suppose I should now be calling her, the lovely Mrs. Hannah Cooper—is actually my second cousin. I was unsure if I should take the time out of my busy schedule to pay my respects to a distant relative who I’ve only met once or twice, but my mother convinced me that it would be a good opportunity to relax and get to know my extended family a bit better. And she was right—well, she usually is. I’m really enjoying it.”

  They blinked at him. Leave it to Colin B
urger to answer a simple question with a novella.

  What did he just say? She rewound the convo in her head.

  “Wait, second cousin?”

  “Why, yes. Hannah and I are related through…let’s see, I believe our great-grandfather Lucas—”

  Elisa cut him off. Not to be rude but because with Colin, that’s what it took to get so much as a word in. “Do you know Darcy, by any chance?”

  Colin, for the first time since he came up to them, allowed the smile to slip from his face, ever so slightly. “Yes,” he said, noticeably less than pleased about it. “Her mother was my aunt. We saw each other pretty frequently when I was growing up, but, if I’m being honest…? She’s kind of…scary.”

  Elisa had to laugh. “I can see that. We take a class together.”

  “How are you enjoying college so far? I’ve found that it is so rewarding to be studying in a field that interests me. I did extremely well in high school, but it was so difficult to concentrate in a crowded classroom. My mother had wanted me to attend a private academy, but my father thought that public school would be good for me, since everyone at my elementary school was from the same background as me. I pride myself on mixing very well with people from different economic backgrounds, and now that I’m studying theology, I’m learning how to interact with people from various cultural backgrounds, as well—”

  “It’s great,” Elisa said, more than a little exasperated. “College is great.”

  “That’s good to hear.” Colin said. “Anyway, I was wondering if you would do me the honor of a dance?”

  He held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. Elisa’s brain basically short-circuited. Just say no. But she couldn’t. Colin was just tolerable enough that she didn’t want to insult him.

  “Actually, Elisa promised her mother she’d be available whenever she needed her,” Charlene lied. “Family stuff, you understand.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t keep her long.”

  “Still, Alejandra’s word is law.”

  “That it is,” Colin chuckled.

  “I would be happy to dance with you, though,” Charlene said, taking his hand.