The Wedding Read Free Page A

relentless.
    That's just stupid. Roger would have married me, if I'd gone to London with him. I just didn't want to. I had too much going on here.
    What makes you think he'd have married you? Dr. Green was like a little ferret, she got into every corner, and sniffed out every possible lead, particle of harmless-looking dust, or insect. Did he ever say so?
    We never talked about it.
    Doesn't that make you wonder, Allegra?
    What difference does it make? That was two years ago, she would say irritably. She hated it when Dr. Green would press a point till she wore it out with her questions. This is silly. She was too young to get married anyway, and too involved in her career at the moment to think of marriage.
    And what about Brandon? Dr. Green loved harping on him. Sometimes Allegra hated discussing him with her. She just didn't understand his motivations, or how traumatized he had been by having to get married when his wife was pregnant. When is he going to file?
    When they settle the questions about the property and the money, Allegra always explained sensibly, speaking as an attorney.
    Why don't they bifurcate the financial issues, and just get a divorce? Then they can spend as long as they like resolving the property issues.
    Why? What's the point of bifurcating? It's not like we have to get married.
    No. But does he want to? Do you, Allegra? Do you ever discuss it?
    We don't need to discuss it. We understand each other perfectly. We're both busy, we both have major careers. We've only gone out for two years.
    Some people get married a lot faster than that, or a lot slower. The point is she aimed her sharp brown eyes into Allegra's green ones have you gotten yourself involved yet again with a man who cannot make a commitment?
    Of course not, Allegra answered, trying to avoid the laser gaze, but never quite succeeding. It just isn't time yet. And then Dr. Green would nod, and wait to hear what Allegra would say after.
    The exchanges were almost always the same. They had been for two years, except that Allegra was no longer twenty-seven, or twenty-eight, but twenty-nine, and Brandon had been only separated for two years now. His daughters, Nicole and Stephanie, were eleven and nine, and Joanie still hadn't succeeded in securing employment. She was still dependent on Brandon for everything she needed. And like Brandon, Allegra explained it by saying Joanie had no training. She had given up college to have Nicky.
    In fact, Nicole's voice was the next one on Allegra's answering machine, telling her that she hoped that Allegra was coming to San Francisco with her dad that weekend. She said she missed her, and that she hoped everything was okay, and she hoped they'd have time to go skating. And oh ' that's right ' I love the jacket you sent me for Christmas. ' I was going to write a note, but I forgot, and Mom said ' There was an embarrassed silence as the eleven-year-old voice tried to regain her composure. I'll give you the letter this weekend. Bye ' I love you' . Oh ' this is Nicky. Bye. She hung up, and Allegra was still smiling, when she heard Brandon's message that he was working late, and was still at the office when he called her. His message was the last one.
    She turned off the machine, finished the Evian, dropped it in the garbage, and picked up the phone to call his office.
    She was sitting on the kitchen stool with her long legs wrapped around it as she dialed. She looked long and lean and beautiful, and she was totally unaware of her looks as she called him. She had lived in a world of extraordinary-looking people for so long, and hers was a life of the mind rather than the beauty of face and body. She never thought about it, which somehow made her even more attractive. One easily sensed about her that she didn't even care how she looked, she was totally focused on the people around her.
    Brandon answered his private line on the second ring, and he sounded busy and distracted. It was easy to believe he was working.