Snitch Leads to Getting Hitched

The Rainbow Café was one of the two restaurants, in the little town of Newton where you could order a full meal rather than just burgers or hotdogs. My family never went to restaurants, and it was the other restaurant that catered our high school banquets, so it might have been the only time I was ever in the Rainbow. My three friends from college and I settled into a booth and ordered. William had us all laughing about something amusing when who should walk into the café, but Evan’s brother, Rhomas. His eyes scanned the area seeing, but not acknowledging me. He seated himself at the counter. I knew he had seen me, but likely didn’t know how he should react. Sitting there with an engaged guy and two guys who were only interested in each other, I had no reason to feel I was doing anything other than talking to friends. However, from Rhomas’ perspective, I likely looked guilty of having been caught in the act of cheating.

Rhomas hadn’t been home from the Navy long, and I’d only been around him a few times, but I knew what he had seen wasn’t going to be something he would keep to himself. Evan would get his version of it at least by the weekend. I did get up and go speak to him, but telling him the guys were just casual friends from college wasn’t likely to soften the story when it got to Evan. I could almost hear him saying, “Your little girlfriend is cheating on you. I just caught her and a bunch of guys laughing it up in the Rainbow Café.”

I wasn’t at all sure my weekly Saturday night date would even take place. Since we had no phone, Evan had no way to cancel the date. At least, he had the decency not to stand me up. The second I saw the strange look on his face, I realized things were not looking good for our relationship. It was almost like he had suddenly turned into a stranger. I tried to explain. “Your brother saw me in the café the other day with some friends who had walked with me from college. He acted like he thought something was going on, but he was so wrong. Two of the guys I was with were a couple and the other one is about to get married. They’re just friends.

Evan just nodded his head, but his cool demeanor didn’t change. He was hurt, and he wasn’t sure if he should believe me or his brother. He seemed to have no desire to sit near me or kiss me. We barely talked at all. Any attempt I made at a conversation was answered in monosyllables. He had a convenient reason for canceling our usual Sunday date. “Are we still on for next Saturday night?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he answered with no enthusiasm.

Earlier in the year, a friend from high school, Elaine Dean, had invited me to fly to Detroit with her for a couple of weeks. Elaine had moved from Detroit when she was fifteen, and she wanted to go back to visit friends. She knew my uncle and his family lived there and I would have someone to visit. Since I’d never been out of the southern states, nor been on a commercial airliner, it was a trip I’d looked forward to for weeks.

Surprisingly, Evan continued to keep our weekly schedule, but it was very apparent things had changed between us. Our dates were awkward and painful. Each time we went out, I assumed it might be our last. It was as though he didn’t know how to break up, and was waiting for me to have enough of his cold seemingly uncaring attitude. The trouble was I had finally realized that I loved him deeply and couldn’t bear to let him go. I wanted things back the way they had been before Rhomas’ story had caused him to doubt me. My enthusiasm over my upcoming trip took a back burner. I had to do something about my failing relationship.

I wrote Evan a letter and told him things couldn’t continue the way they were going. I asked him to make a trip from Jackson on Thursday night, because we had to talk and it couldn’t wait until the weekend. I’m sure he thought we had come to the end, and I would put this painful courtship out of its misery. I didn’t know if he would come or not, but he did. We said very few words as I got into his car and asked him to drive somewhere. “Just find a spot somewhere and stop so we can talk,” I told him.

Once we parked, he waited for me to speak. “I love you, and I want to marry you”, I said. “Do you still want to marry me? Can we just get married?”

He might have said, ‘I don’t trust you and no longer want to marry you. I think we need to go our separate ways,’ but instead, what he said was, “When?”

“Whenever, it is up to you. I’ll do whatever you want to do.”

“Then, how about this weekend?” He was testing me.

“Okay, fine. If that’s what you want, we’ll go to a Justice of the Peace.”

At that point the ice melted. I could almost hear it cracking, or was that my ribs, because he pulled me into his arms and kissed me soundly. At some point, he realized there was a short waiting period after getting a license, so we settled on making it official in a month. The trip to Detroit was off. I had a wedding to plan. I was on cloud nine. I had won back the love of my life.

That weekend, I had back the guy that I knew was meant for me and he made sure I had a diamond on my ring finger.