Page 146 of Turnabout Is Fair Cosplay
“Actually, I have a lunch date with some lawyers from Halifax Studios. They’re in town for the opening of Adam’s new escape room, and I thought I’d meet some of my new colleagues. Hear their thoughts on AI. But I may need to run to FedEx first.”
“Right, then I’ll make this fast.” Mike scrawls his signature across the necessary documents before he rises and pulls me in for a kiss. My knees go weak. “I love you, Bea. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I can’t read Shakespeare without thinking of you, and it’s been that way since the night I met you in April. You inspire me, and push me, and you believe in me, and now you’ve saved me, my career, and this house.”
“Mike—”
“I have only this to say…” He smiles and presses the ball of paper he’s been fiddling with into my hand. Except it isn’t a ball anymore. It’s a paper ring. “Turnabout is fair play.” He kisses me breathless before I can speak. “I don’t know what turnabout for this will look like, but marry me and let me spend the rest of our life together trying to figure it out.”
Mike kneels and slides the paper ring onto my finger and kisses my hand before rising. I stare at the paper circle and feel the joy of a summer day, a morning waking up to the sound of the ocean, and the excitement of an opening night.
“How about it, Bea? What do you say?”
“Deal.” I smile before taking Mike’s hand. “I say deal.”
Epilogue
The London Underground is crowded this evening. Mom, Dad, and I are all huddled around the same grab bar.
“Were you able to nap after lunch?” I ask. I met my parents at their enormous Airbnb with boxes of our favorite Thai takeaway before my Zoom calls this afternoon.
“Some of us,” Mom says with a smirk. “Your father was snoring.”
“Why didn’t you just sleep in one of the other two bedrooms in the flat?” My mother insisted I find them a three-bedroom rental for the week that they’re here.
“Yes, Molly.” Dad grins. “Why didn’t you?”
Mom braces her hip with a fist. “Keep that up, and I’ll leave you home next time.”
We all sway and have to shuffle our stance as the subway slows for our stop.
“Mind the gap between the train and the platform,” the disembodied voice urges as we exit the Tube at Blackfriars station.
“Do you think that’s a voice actor or AI?” Mom muses as she takes Dad’s proffered elbow.
“I don’t know,” Dad says. “But if it is an actor, I know a good lawyer he could turn to if he isn’t happy about his contract.”
Cute.
“They’re called barristers here,” Mom corrects.
Dad frowns. “I thought they were called solicitors.”
We debate the finer points of British law as we make our way out of the Underground, turning up on Queen Victoria Street.
“How long before you got your bearings?” Dad asks. “I’m completely turned around. I thought the theater was the other way.”
Mike and I have been in London for the past three months and happily married for the last five. We figured a big wedding, on top of setting up house across the Atlantic and learning a new city with his rehearsal schedule, would be a bit much. So on New Year’s Eve, we met all our family at the courthouse and said, “I do.” It was the perfect wedding, complete with a gorgeous reception at the beach house.
As Mike and I were heading to the airport the next day (we honeymooned in London while also doing a little real-estate shopping), Mom had to admit that Portia had been on to something. She mortified Adam by telling him in front of Sarah that Hawaii or another courthouse wedding would be fine by her when it was their turn. She said she’d never seen Adam turn so red, but Sarah just laughed. She’s a keeper.
I pull my parents into step with me. “The theater is that way, but we’re crossing via the Millennium Bridge because the view is better.”
London is a gorgeous city, and this May evening, it’s even prettier than usual with picturesque pink clouds in the sky. Soft light bathes us in all the magic that comes with opening night.
“We’re not really going to stand the entire night, are we?” Mom asks as we enter the atrium of the Globe. I pose her and Dad next to the displayed Queen Elizabeth costume and snap a picture for Portia and Julie. Portia is at the no-fly stage of her pregnancy, and Julie has a newborn to contend with. But they were each up in the middle of the night to FaceTime us this morning.
“No, Mom. You have lovely seats in the Gentleman’s Box. And you don’t have to worry about anyone’s elbows, Dad, because the seats honoring Mike’s mom and grandma are on either side of you.”
“I still have to worry about your mother’s elbows,” Dad says with a smile.
