Gio opened his eyes to find himself once again on the white plain.
Alex was standing before him in the gray mist, holding the rings in his hand. The rings Gio had bought for them. He watched in awe as something he’d never expected to see in his life happened: Alex knelt before him and said, “I’m yours, if you will have me.”
The mist was suddenly gone. Everything began to change around him. All the stories Alex had told him, the memories he’d viewed, began to stitch together in time, each connected to the others by a series of other events. They filled him up like a sponge absorbing water. Each one was connected to him, a part of who he used to be and who he was now—who he would become.
He opened his eyes.
Chapter Seven
Monday, September 28
“ALEX,” SOMEONE said, shaking him awake. Alex was too far gone in his misery to recognize who it was.
“Alex!”
He opened his eyes, his chest heaving. He squinted at the clock on the wall. It was 11:00 a.m. He must have fallen asleep in the waiting room outside of Gio’s room. “What happened?” he said blearily.
“It’s Gio,” Oscar said. “Come on!”
Alex followed Oscar, afraid to hope, afraid to even think. He entered Gio’s room and stopped, stunned. Gio’s eyes are open.
He was at Gio’s side in a flash. “Oh my God, Gio. Can you hear me?”
Gio’s lips moved, but no sound came out.
“Get me some water,” Rosalind called, and one of the other people rushed out of the room. “Alex, help me prop him up.”
She lifted the head of the bed, and they managed to get Gio into a sitting position.
The water arrived, and Rosalind gave Gio a few sips.
Finally Gio opened his mouth to speak again. This time his voice was firm though still soft. “Yes.”
“Yes, what? You can hear me?”
Gio laughed softly. “Yes, I’ll marry you, you idiot.”
Alex hugged him as tightly as he dared. It was a long time before he let go. When he did, he found Cinzia staring at him. “Look, I know you don’t approve—”
She cut him off with a hug. “Mi hai riportato il mio bambino,” she said. Then she turned to hug Gio herself.
“She says you brought back her little boy,” Stefani said.
“I got it.” He turned to Oscar. “I need a wedding officiant. Someone who can come down here as soon as possible.”
“You’re gonna get married today?”
Alex grinned. “No time like the present.” He wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass him by again.
Oscar rubbed his hairy chin. “Janine Rogers is an officiant, and she’s a friend of mine. I’ll call her.” He put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes. Never been surer of anything in my life.”
“Okay. You’re gonna need a license. Usually both of you have to go down to the courthouse together, but they make an exception for inmates and hospital patients.”
Alex laughed. “Well, Gio fits one of those.”
“Hopefully not the convict one,” Oscar rumbled with a big belly laugh. “Janine can bring a marriage application and notarize it for Gio here. But then you’ll have to take it into the Superior Court office to get the license.”
“Got it.” Alex would fit that in somehow.
Oscar nodded. “I’m so thrilled for you guys.” He gave Alex a bear hug, then left the room to make the call.
Everyone else was chattering excitedly.
“Not here,” Gio said clearly, cutting through the noise and activity.
Alex turned back to his fiancé. “What?”
“I don’t want to get married in a hospital room.”
Alex sat down on the bed, deflated. “Well, I guess we can wait—”
“No,” Gio said firmly, “I’m not letting you get away. I want to marry you now, today. Just not here.”
Alex looked up at Rosalind.
“You guys could get married on the roof tonight. Under the stars. I heard it’s going to be beautiful out this evening.”
Alex looked back at Gio with one eyebrow raised.
“That will work.”
The activity started up again. “Rosalind, can you get things ready up there?” Alex asked. “It should be romantic. Well, as romantic as a hospital roof can be.”
“Got it. What will you be doing?”
Alex leaned in and kissed Gio. “I have to go get my mom, and then we need to get the license.”
“Go,” Gio said. “I’ll be here waiting for you.”
ALEX HAD never made the trip across the valley so quickly. The lights on Speedway were all green for once, and not a cop in sight. He was there in twenty minutes. As he pulled into his mother’s driveway, he was almost on the verge of tears.
He pounded on the door. “Mom, it’s Alex!”
“Hold your horses. I’ll be there in a minute,” she called out from inside.
The door swung open, and she stood there before him in her robe and slippers, her hair rolled up in curlers. His tears dissolved into laughter.
“Alex, what’s happened?” She pulled him inside, and they sat down on the Santa Fe print couch together. “Is everything okay?”
“He woke up. Mamma, Gio’s awake!”
She threw her arms around him, and this time he did cry, or rather, they cried together.
“Oh my, that’s wonderful news, sweetheart.”
She smelled of roses and hand lotion, and for a minute he was five years old again.
They separated, and he wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, offering a Kleenex for hers. “There’s more, Mamma. I’m going to get married.”
The sound she made could have shattered glass as she jumped up into the air and did a little dance. “Oh, sweetheart, I have waited so long for you to say those words to me. Y’all have no ideah.” Her Southern accent slipped out, just a little. “When? I’ll make sure I’m free…. Hell, I will be free.”
“Um”—he looked down at his feet—“tonight?”
“Are you kidding me?” She looked herself up and down. “I can’t go like this.”
“You look beautiful to me,” he tried, but she was having none of it.
“Give me five minutes to whip myself into shape. I will not go to my only son’s wedding dressed in a robe, bunny slippers, and curlers.”
An hour later they were on their way.
The officiant met them in the garage with Gio’s notarized application, and after a short delay at the clerk’s office to verify all the paperwork was in order, he had his marriage license.
THIS TIME Oscar and Dax met them in the lobby. “Ms. Gutierrez, Dax will escort you to the wedding venue,” Oscar said.
Dax was dressed in a shirt and tie. Where he’d gotten them in such a short time, Alex had no idea.
Oscar took him by the arm. “Alex, you’re coming with me. Can’t see the bride before the wedding.”
He led Alex down a hallway to an abandoned office, closed the door behind them, and presented his surprise.
It was a beautiful crisp black tuxedo. With a white shirt.
Alex was on the verge of tears again. It was gonna be one of those nights. “How did you—?”
“It was Peter’s. Should fit you well enough. He would be thrilled that someone was getting such a good use out of it.”
He shook his head. “Oscar, I can’t.”
“You can and you will, and you’re gonna be fucking grateful. Now get out of those clothes.”
“On my wedding night? Really?” He shot Oscar a sly grin.
Oscar laughed. “Come on. Your groom awaits.”
Alex did as he was told. The shirt and jacket fit well enough, finished off with a classic black bow tie. But the pants were too loose, and there was no belt.
“Hang on just a sec,” Oscar said, rooting around in the desk. “Ah, here we go.” He displayed his prize, an oversized binder clip. He spun Alex around, doubled the wa
ist of the pants in the back, and slipped the binder clip over them to hold them tight.
“Oooh, that’s cold.”
“Nope, cold would be turning down a gift from your best friend on your wedding day.” Oscar pulled down the jacket’s tails to cover up the clip and spun Alex around again. “Almost perfect.” He took a bottle of hair gel out of his backpack and smoothed it through Alex’s hair, styling it to his satisfaction.
Alex laughed, unused to being primped like that. “How do I look?”
Oscar stood back and gave him a critical once-over. “One last thing.”
There was a red rose lying on the desk. He picked it up, snipped off the stem, and used a paper clip to fashion a boutonnière attached to Alex’s lapel. “Courtesy of Mrs. Nivens in 201C.”
“Oh my God. You’ve gone and gotten half the hospital involved in this little affair.”
Oscar shook his head. “It wasn’t me. It was the nurses. They’ve taken a shine to you two. Now come on. You’ve got a date to keep.” He hustled Alex out the door.
Before I can change my mind, Alex thought with a grin.
GIO GOT the star treatment—a private sponge bath from a hunky male nurse who also washed his hair, a mouth washing with Scope, and a firm tooth brushing administered by his mother.
Guess that’s the bachelor party.
Someone had found him a tux coat and shirt and cut the sleeves away so they wouldn’t rub painfully on his burned arms. He managed to get some sweatpants on with his mother’s help over the dressings on his legs. He’d finally gotten the chance to look at his burns. His forearms and shins ached, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle.
The whole time, his mother sat next to him, even when he tried to shoo her out during his bath.
“Ho visto il tuo corpo per prima,” she said.
Yes, you’ve seen my naked body. But not since I was six.
When Gio was ready, Cinzia whisked the others out of the room and closed the door. She sat on the bed again, taking his chin in her hands. “Are you sure?” she asked in Italian. “Do you love him, truly?”
“Of course I love him,” Gio said. We’ve been together for ten years, after all. But he didn’t say that part.
She sighed, then seemed to come to a decision. She took off the necklace around her neck, and Gio saw what hung there. It was Papa’s ring, a beautiful, simple, heavy gold band.
“Then I want you to have this. For Alex.”
Gio was speechless. Clearly things had shifted between Alex and his mother while he’d been gone. He accepted the ring, then hugged her gently but fiercely. “Thank you, Mamma.” For more than just the ring.
There was a polite knock on the door. Dax popped his head in. “Cassandra’s here.”
Gio nodded. “Send her in.”
Alex’s mom entered, looking like she’d just stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine.
How she’d been able to accomplish that in the little time she had had, Gio had no idea. “Cassandra, this is my mother, Cinzia. Mamma, ti presento Cassandra Gutierrez, la madre di Alex.”
They embraced. “I am so pleased to meet you,” Cassandra said. “I have so many things to talk with you about.”
Gio translated.
His mother nodded.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Cassandra said to Gio, giving him a careful hug.
“Thanks.”
Here we go….
Dax popped in again. “Time to go.”
Several of the nurses came in to take Gio up to the ceremony. One of them brought a wheelchair and transferred him into it along with his IV. There were garlands and flowers wrapped around the armrests and wheels.
Where the hell did they find all these things?
THE ELEVATOR doors opened. Alex stepped out ahead of Oscar and stopped, dumbfounded.
A crowd packed the rooftop. Two sets of chairs lined a central aisle that was scattered with rose petals. Two hundred people turned to look at him, every last one of them smiling.
Along the edges of the rooftop on either side, little Bunsen burners cast their flames, giving the scene an amber glow.
There were flowers everywhere. His friends and the hospital staff must have raided the flower shop and most of the rooms in the place to come up with so many bouquets.
Above, the moon hung in a sky full of stars, beautiful and full.
Like the night we first met.
Gio waited for him up in front, looking as handsome as he’d ever been, even if he was in a wheelchair. Someone had set up an arbor for the two of them, wound with garlands and flowers. He laughed when he realized it was made out of bed frames.
“How did you do all of this?” he asked Oscar, who was standing beside him.
“You have a lot of people who love you.” Oscar grinned. “Plus a lot of the hospital staff turned out.” He directed Alex’s attention up to the front. “I think your moment is here.”
On that cue, the wedding march began, played on someone’s phone. Alex’s mother appeared at his side and took his arm in hers, looking up at him, fiercely proud. They walked up the aisle together, one measured step at a time.
After all his misgivings, fear, and shame, this finally felt right.
GIO WATCHED Alex approach. It was surreal. He’d spent so much time these past few weeks in bed, watching life happen in disjointed scenes around him, that he had to pinch himself to be certain it was real.
Then he looked up and saw the full moon hanging above them on this warm September night and knew they had come full circle.
His mother stood next to his wheelchair. Gio glanced at her. She was crying. He hadn’t seen his mother cry since his father died, all those years ago. He squeezed her hand, and she smiled down at him.
Alex arrived, and Gio’s mother let go of his hand, whispering, “Tocca a te, caro,” as she joined Alex’s mother in the front row.
My turn, indeed.
One of the nurses started to turn the wheelchair around to face the officiant, but Gio shook his head.
“No, thank you. I’ll stand with my fiancé.”
Rosalind lowered the footrests. With Alex’s help, Gio stood but almost immediately fell back into the chair. He smiled sheepishly.
“Maybe I better stay in the chair.”
Alex smiled and whispered so only he could hear. “We’ll just say it’s your throne.”
“Dearly beloved,” Janine, the officiant, said, “we are gathered here to witness this couple as they enter into holy matrimony in this most unusual of circumstances.”
She winked at them, and Gio squeezed Alex’s hand.
She spoke to them about life and love and commitment, but all Gio noticed was the rise and fall of Alex’s chest. Alex was here, in the flesh, in front of him, and Gio didn’t intend to ever let him go.
Suddenly he realized that everything had gone silent. “What?” Gio looked around in confusion.
“He just came out of a coma, so we’ll cut him a little slack,” Alex said to the assembled crowd, kissing him on the cheek. “Your vows?”
Gio shook his head. “You go first. I’m still working on them.”
The assembled crowd laughed.
Alex took a deep breath. “Okay, here it goes. Giovanni Montanari, I’ve loved you since the day we met, on a mountaintop under a full moon.” They both looked up at the sky above them. “I was too scared to take the next step. I didn’t think I was worthy.
“But life is short. I’m ready, if you are, to spend the rest of my life with you, husband and husband. I’ll never let you fall again.”
Gio’s heart swelled. It was his turn. “Alex Gutierrez, these last couple weeks, I was literally lost without you. I almost gave up. You have no idea how close I came to walking into the light. Then I heard your voice, really heard it for the first time in weeks, and I knew I had to come back. I don’t ever want to leave you again.” He felt a tear on his cheek.
“Alex, do you promise to take care of Gio for the rest of your l
ife, when he is sick and when he is well, whether you are rich or poor, in sunshine and under the light of the moon?”
“I do.”
“Gio, do you promise to take care of Alex for the rest of your life, when he is sick and when he is well, whether you are rich or poor, in sunshine and under the light of the moon?”
Gio looked into Alex’s eyes and saw home. “I do.”
“You may now exchange rings.”
Alex took Gio’s hand and slipped on his white gold band. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
Gio held up Alex’s matching ring and then set it aside. Alex looked at him quizzically.
Gio reached into his pocket and pulled out another ring. It was a wide solid gold band. “This was my father’s,” he whispered.
The two of them looked over at Cinzia, seated in the front row. She nodded and smiled.
“With this ring, I thee wed.” The ring slipped over Alex’s ring finger perfectly. Gio’s chest tightened with emotion—he could feel his father’s presence.
The officiant put her hands on their shoulders. “Then by the power vested in me by the State of Arizona, I declare you husband and husband.”
The audience cheered, and someone called, “Go ahead. Kiss the groom!”
Gio did, and Alex’s lips had never tasted sweeter.
THAT NIGHT, they celebrated until Gio needed to go take a nap. “I’ve had enough sleep to last a lifetime,” he murmured to Alex, but he fell asleep almost instantly when they laid him down in bed.
Tucked in Alex’s arms, he woke up in time to watch the sun rising over the Tucson Mountains through his hospital room window.
Epilogue
Monday, October 5
A WEEK later, the doctor officially discharged Gio, giving him the okay to go home with Alex. Not that they had a home to go to really, but the insurance agent had set them up with an extended-stay hotel while their claim was processed.
It was a start.
A More Perfect Union Page 8