Page 107 of Someone Like You

It’s telling that my first thought was of my aunt – and not the bride and groom.

‘Yep,’ says Mom, adding a weary sigh. She didn’t even pick me up for swearing – this isreallybad.

‘Wait – it could melt, though, right? Before tomorrow?’ I ask.

‘KOMO news says no,’ Dad replies. ‘There’s more snow expected todayandfor the next three days. And Sea-Tac is restricting the number of flights in and out for the foreseeable future. Only one runway is open.’

‘So, yes to a white Christmas,’ says Mom, ‘but it’s unlikely this wedding is going ahead.’

‘What?’

Monica is standing in the kitchen doorway, a stricken look on her face.

‘Oh, hun,’ says Mom, climbing off her stool. ‘I’m so sorry – we were going to find a better way to break it to you than that.’

‘Break what? What’s happened?’

‘Hey, did you guys see outside?’ asks Issy, coming up behind Monica.

‘Outside?’ Monica rushes to the window and like I did a few minutes ago, cups her hands against the window and peers out into the darkness. ‘Well, fuck.’

She turns back to us, her jaw slack and her eyes unfocused.

‘It could melt,’ says Issy, obviously trying to be helpful.

‘Ah, no, sweetheart,’ says Dad gently. ‘More snow’s expected.’

‘We’ve just been watching the news and most of the city is shut down,’ Mom adds, her eyes locked on Monica.

‘But Brian’s parents are flying in today – from Kansas,’ she says, latching onto one of probably dozens of wedding details flying around her head.

She snaps out of her stupor and looks at my mom. ‘Oh my god. Mom is going tofreak.’

I’m about to tell her I said the exact same thing, but the landline rings – a jarring sound in this age of ubiquitous cell phones.

‘That’ll be Chrissy,’ says Mom, rushing to answer it. ‘Hi, Chrissy,’ she says, not even glancing at Caller ID.

The sound of my aunt’s howling fills the kitchen and Mom takes the handset away from her ear, her face contorted.

‘Oh, Chrissy, it’ll be okay,’ she says, but the howling only pauses long enough for my aunt to wail, ‘How?’

Mom turns away from us. ‘We’ll figure something out… I know, hun. Yep… Mm-hmm… Yeah, it’s devastating. I know…’

The rest of us listen to this one-side conversation, exchanging glances. My aunt does know this isn’therwedding, right? Shouldn’t she have called Monica to see how she’s doing instead of calling my mom?

‘You need to come over. Does Marv have chains for his truck?’ asks Mom. ‘Okay, well, you’ll have to walk. You’ve got hiking boots – put them on and get over here… Chris, it’s only three blocks…Becausewe’ve got a full house and it’s easier for you two to come here… Okay, see you in a bit.’

Mom ends the call and turns back to us.

‘So, that was your mom…’ she says to Monica, and I can’t tell if she’s saying that to be funny. Regardless, Monica starts laughing the maniacal laughter of a bride the day before her wedding in the midst of a Snowpocalypse.

26

GABY

It really puts my situation with Raff into perspective that my cousin’s wedding – an event that’s been on the calendar for nearly a year – may not go ahead. I’ve decided to shelve my crap to be dealt with some other time, and switch into professional mode.

On the surface, marketing may not appear to have much alignment with crisis management, but I haveskills. Raff does too. We’ve had more than our fair share of campaign-launch disasters caused by factors out of our control – and we’ve always come through for the client.

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