Remember Me

23. Something New

Maya should be working, same as I should be studying for my upcoming exams. So why you may wonder am I getting bombarded instead with texts?

Because my wife is wedding dress shopping. Something that she told both my mother and Riley that she had no interest in but neither had listened and now I was getting the brunt of her annoyance. As well as pictures of her in some of the most ostentatious choices she was lying and saying she loved to annoy our family.

The last one she'd sent had feathers. I almost got kicked out of the library for laughing so hard.

I decide to finally bite the bullet and call her and am unsurprised when she answers up on the first ring. "Oh no, the house is on fire!" She exclaims immediately. I snicker, leaning back in my swivel chair but not far enough to where I'll accidentally tip; I'd learned that lesson the first week of classes and had the bruised coccyx to show for it.

"Maya" I chastise though unable to stifle my laughter. "Our house is not on fire."

"You're stuck inside!" She continues. I roll my eyes, imagining the hysteria she's causing.

"Matthews, put me on speaker." I demand. I wait until I hear her sigh of frustration.

"Joshua!" My mother's panicked voice crackles through the speaker.

"Mom, I'm fine. Maya was just kidding." I assure her, not wanting or needing my mother to come barreling into my home with the fire brigade on her tail. "How are you still shopping? It's been hours." Or at least, it seemed like it'd been hours. It may be a slight exaggeration, but I had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn't going to be able to get any studying done until they left the bridal studio so hopefully I could encourage them to speed things up a bit.

"Don't talk to us." My mother insists, obviously grabbing the phone as her voice raises in a sizable number of decibels. "Talk to your wife. She's trying on the most ridiculous things-."

"Hey! I liked the feathers" Maya lies. I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. I had a huge test tomorrow morning and I liked to keep my evenings open to spend time with Maya but if this continued much longer I was going to have to spend every last hour of my evening cramming.

"Ma, put my wife back on the phone." There's some rustling and then the background noise cuts out, cluing me in that I'm off speakerphone and have my wife's full attention. "Baby, why are you being so difficult? They're only trying to be nice."

"I know but-." She sighs and I can practically hear her exhaustion. "I didn't want this to be a whole, huge deal. I have that dress in my closet; it's white, modest in length and would be absolutely perfect. We don't need to go broke, and we certainly don't need your parents paying for anything."

"You'd really be okay wearing something lowkey?"

"Josh. We've done this once before. And no, I don't remember it but there are pictures. The old ones and the new ones that I remember taking." The ones in the album that now lived beneath our bed. Every one of those pictures absolutely stunning and one in particular a contender for the space above our bed. I still hadn't convinced Maya yet, but she'd come around...probably. If not, I'd settle for hanging it above my desk.

"I told you I didn't want a do-over. I want us the way we are now. Please, tell me you understand that." I did understand that. And it's not as if Maya hasn't been vocal from the very beginning about what she wanted; I just thought that if my mom wanted to do something nice then there'd be no harm. It's my fault for not listening.

"Okay baby" I relent. "Put my mom on the phone." Again, there's rustling and then my mother's sweet voice takes over the line.

"Hello sweetheart."