Page 4 of Green
Andrew’s a good guy. Canada’s a phenomenal country. This wasn’t about me not loving Canada, or Gemma not loving Andrew. I love Canada. But America is where you go for the big tech investors. Canada’s a great place for A.I., robotics and machine-learning, even e-commerce startups—that’s where the big venture capital bucks go up there. But I’m not in that space. I’m a fitness nerd. I develop fitness technology. I needed to be here to access the investors in Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach (the burgeoning Los Angeles tech community), and the footwear and sports apparel brands that are headquartered in Portland. I’m ambitious. I’m not going to apologize for that. But if I’m being honest, the real thing that I dreaded leaving behind wasn’t the potential for career and financial success—it was Gemma. She had quickly become the most important person in my life, and I didn’t want that to change.
It was March, and it was the day before I ran that year’s LA Marathon. Gemma had cooked an insanely delicious pasta dinner for my carb-load. It was beautiful out, both my parents had come down to cheer me on, and we all ate at the table on the patio with Ethan and Chloe. My parents brought up job possibilities for when I return to Toronto. Being here on a student visa, I’d have to go back once I graduated, unless I landed some amazing job that I was more qualified for than any American applicant. A work visa would have been my only option—not that I didn’t think it was a possibility—I mean, Iamawesome and I already had a bunch of unofficial offers from some big tech companies. But I was already obsessively developing my app for runners as a side hustle and didn’t want to be a cog in the wheel.
So that dinner was bittersweet for me, and Gemma picked up on it. After my parents had returned to their hotel and Chloe and Ethan had gone to bed, Gemma and I were loading up the dishwasher and she said: “Theo. I could marry you.”
Just like that. Could not have been any less sexy or romantic, but it rocked my world nonetheless.
“I could marry you before we graduate. You could get a green card. We’d have to stay married for just over three years. We’ve already been living together, so it won’t look fishy. We just have to take lots of pictures at the ceremony and convince an immigration officer that we did it for love. Nothing else would change.” She looked down at the pan she was scrubbing. “I don’t want you to leave.” She wasn’t even pouting, just stating a fact.
“You’d do that? What about Andrew?”
“What about him? It’s not like he and I will be getting married in the next three years. He’ll be so busy with law school. I’ll still go home every month or two to see him, he won’t care.”
“But you’ll tell him?”
“Yeah of course. We should also tell our parents and Chloe and Ethan. Well, I guess Andrew’s parents should know, otherwise they’d be mad that my parents kept it a secret from them. But everyone else can just think we’re best friends who live together. Which we are. Right?”
“Right. Will your parents be okay with it? I mean, Andrew’s like family to them, isn’t he?”
She shrugged. “They like you. They love that you asked me to live with you in your fancy house for such low rent.”
“I won’t let you pay rent or any of the household bills while we’re married. That way you’ll be able to start paying down your student loan.”
“Really? Wait ‘til I tell my parents that. They’ll shit themselves.”
So sexy and romantic, this girl. “Aww that’s so sweet.”
She laughed at herself. “My parents trust you, because I trust you. Besides…” she paused, and I waited for her to finish the sentence. I secretly hoped that what she was going to say was:“we all know I probably won’t end up marrying Andrew anyway.”
But she didn’t. She said: “Everyone knows I’ll never cheat on Andrew. I mean, we’d never cheat on each other. No one will care. They’re in Cleveland. Nobody really cares what goes on outside The Cleve.”
“If you say so,” I said. “How long have you been thinking about this?”
“Couple of days…I lied. I just lied. It’s been a couple of weeks. I did a little research.”
“You’d really do that for me?”
“I’d do anything to keep you here.”
I could have kissed her right then. Not in anI Want To Fuck Youway, but in aYou Are The Best Friend I’ve Ever Hadkind of way. She was so matter-of-fact about it. It really did sound simple. “Also we’ll have to have joint bank accounts and stuff like that to make it look more real.”
“Wow. It’s almost as ifyou’vethought about this before too”
“I haven’t. Honest. But I did know a guy in Toronto who paid a girl to marry him so he could get a green card. Actually, she had a boyfriend too, but she needed the money…” I threw her a side-glance.
“I don’t want you to pay me.”
“I would if you asked me to.”
“I’m not going to.”
“I’ll get you a nice ring, though.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Course I do. To make it look more real.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, if you insist. Then you should probably get metwonice rings. Engagement and wedding rings. If you really want it to look like the real deal.”
“I do,” I said.
I really did.
I had a feeling neither of us would ever really know how much.
I had no idea if this friendly love of ours would ever become a love story.
I just knew that the story of my life, from that moment on, would always somehow be about us.
