Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

I used to think what my life would be like if I were your brother instead of your neighbor but then a while back I realized I don’t want to be your brother because then we couldn’t get married one day.”

“Listen to me, Kate. There’s enough trouble in the world without going out and looking for more.”

“She said she’d kill you if you went near her son. She said she shot Dad because if he died, that meant we’d have to move away, and you wouldn’t be near Peter anymore.”

“The thing is, Peter, grown-ups don’t know what they’re doing any better than kids do. That’s the truth.”

Finance didn’t interest him, plus there was a towel-snapping vibe in any econ seminar he’d taken that reminded him of the locker room

I promise you. Marriage is long. All the seams get tested.”

that was the story with men and women since the beginning of time. They never saw each other clearly until it was too late.

Kate thought about their wedding day as a conclusion to something, where he thought about it as a beginning.

not five seconds later. “You’re harsh, Kate. Everyone says you’re so strong, but what you are is harsh.” Practical. Level-headed. Mentally sound. Not harsh. Blunt, maybe. Honest. Not harsh. How dare he.

But things are meant to change, Peter said. Because life changes and people change. As long as we change together, we’re okay.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love him, he knew. It was that she loved him so much that it frightened her, loved him so much that she worried she might have to protect herself from it.