The Road to Amazing Read Free Page A

stupid."
    Out in the front room, we both sort of
stopped and looked around, taking in the awesomeness of the house,
and the fact that we'd been able to rent something so cool. I was
twenty-five years old, and I'd long ago stopped thinking of myself
as a kid, but I didn't really think of myself as an adult either.
Seeing this great house, knowing we'd somehow managed to get it for
our wedding, was making me feel more grown up than a checking
account or a credit card ever had.
    "It's really happening," I said,
feeling a little dizzy. "We're really doing this."
    "I know," he said. "Can you believe
it?"
    By the way, I don't think I described
Kevin. Basically, he was Zac Efron hot, with dark hair and a cute,
impish grin. He was clean-cut and sensitive, and he wore contacts,
and sometimes black-rimmed glasses, which I always said made him
look like a hot TV nerd. None of this was the reason I was marrying
him, but let's face it, it sure didn't hurt.
    Kevin stepped up in front of me — he
was a little taller than I was. I put down the groceries I was
carrying, and he took me in his arms. He bent his head down,
nuzzling his face in my neck.
    "Mmmm," he said, "you smell like
Russel."
    "You smell like Kevin," I said, and he
really did: clean and masculine.
    "I love you."
    "I love you too."
    Then we kissed, and I
thought to myself, I am the luckiest
person alive . I definitely didn't feel
dizzy anymore.
    You're skeptical, aren't you? You're
thinking back over all the things I mentioned in this chapter — my
reluctance to mention the wedding at first, the little moments of
tension between Kevin and me, our disagreement over having kids —
and you're thinking, "Something's going on. There's something he
isn't saying."
    You might also be
thinking: "There has to be something going on, because Russel is a neurotic nutbag
who always over-thinks things. And now here he is doing the whole
'doth protest too much' thing, saying the opposite of what he
really means."
    That's it, isn't it? You
think I'm being an unreliable narrator. You know, when it turns out
the person telling a story is lying? Sometimes they're not
even aware they're lying.
    Well, you're wrong. There's nothing
I'm not saying, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't being
neurotic. The fact that the chapter opened with a dead end doesn't
mean anything either. It wasn't a metaphor — it wasn't even a dead
end. Remember? It turned out to be the parking lot of the place
that was exactly where we were supposed to be.
    This wedding was exactly where I was
supposed to be. I really did love Kevin with all my heart, and I
had absolutely no doubts or hesitations about marrying him. Kevin
was a little anxious, true, but I knew he didn't have any doubts
about marrying me either.
    Of course now you might
thinking: "If they don't have second thoughts about getting
married, why is this a story? Why should I keep reading?" I told
you earlier that I've been trying to make it as a screenwriter, and
I know all too well that a good story requires conflict and drama.
No conflict means no story. A happy, uneventful wedding is a boring wedding, except
maybe to the people involved.
    Okay, this is a better point.
Honestly, you should have started with this point and not accused
me of being neurotic.
    But this is a different
kind of story. Oh, plenty happens — you don't have to worry about a
lack of drama. But it's also a story where the main character isn't
conflicted (and isn't neurotic).
    Or maybe I am lying. If I really am
a neurotic unreliable narrator, you can't believe anything I
say.
    I guess you'll have to keep reading to
find out.

 
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    A half hour or so later, the doorbell
rang, and I went to answer it.
    Speaking of friends with quirks, the
first of our guests to arrive were Gunnar and Min, two people who
had known Kevin and me since high school. Min was with her new
girlfriend, Ruby, who I'd never met before.
    "You're here!" I said to the three