Chapter 9 - The Wedding Nanya Negotiated
Alex proposed at the market.
Bad idea.
Nanya had opinions.
He waited until closing.
Nora was counting receipts.
Nanya was arranging peppers.
Alex came carrying one small box.
Nanya saw it first.
Her eyes widened.
Then she whispered:
“Do not do a speech.”
Alex stared.
“I have a speech.”
“No.”
“Nanya.”
“Mom hates public speeches.”
Nora looked up.
“What are you whispering about?”
Alex sighed.
“Apparently my proposal is being managed.”
Nora burst out laughing.
He walked around the stall.
No knee initially.
He had learned something about theatrical gestures.
“Nora.”
She looked at the box.
Then at him.
“Alex.”
“I’m going to ask something.”
“Apparently.”
Nanya watched intensely.
Alex continued.
“You do not owe me yes because we have Nanya.”
“Good start.”
“You do not owe me yes because I changed.”
“Also good.”
“You do not owe me yes because I waited.”
Nora’s eyes filled.
“I want to marry you because the person I am now loves the person you are now.”
Silence.
“And if you say no, tomorrow still happens.”
Nora stared.
“What happens tomorrow?”
“I take Nanya to school.”
Nanya nodded.
“He promised pancakes.”
Alex smiled.
“Exactly.”
Then he opened the box.
Simple ring.
No massive Gene-family diamond.
Nora noticed.
“What happened to your mother’s ring?”
“In the trust vault.”
“Why?”
“It belongs to history.”
His eyes held hers.
“This is for us.”
Nora cried.
Then said:
“Yes.”
Nanya screamed.
Not elegantly.
Tony appeared from behind a produce truck.
Nora stared.
“You invited him?”
Alex looked guilty.
Tony spread his hands.
“I was security.”
“You were hiding.”
“Professional overlap.”
The wedding happened six months later.
Small.
Market pavilion.
Obviously.
Nanya designed the vegetable arrangements.
This became a problem because she considered flowers economically irresponsible.
“Peppers are colorful and edible.”
Nobody defeated that logic.
Tony walked Alex to the ceremony and announced:
“If you screw this up, I’m taking Nora’s side.”
Alex nodded.
“Reasonable.”
Nora wore a simple ivory dress.
No huge spectacle.
No mafia guests demanding respect.
Just people who mattered.
Market vendors.
Old friends.
Federal counsel who had somehow become friendly after years of paperwork.
Nanya stood between them during vows.
She had insisted.
“Technically I started this.”
Also difficult to dispute.
Alex’s vows were simple.
“I cannot return the years I missed.”
Nora’s eyes filled.
“I cannot make what happened harmless.”
Silence.
“I can only promise that every choice from here forward is yours to make beside me, not beneath me.”
Nanya whispered:
“That was kind of a speech.”
People laughed.
Nora’s vows:
“I spent years believing safety meant distance from you.”
Alex swallowed.
“Then I learned safety can also mean being with someone who respects your ability to leave.”
His eyes filled.
“I choose you.”
They married.
At the reception, the bell peppers became famous.
People took photographs.
Tony accidentally knocked over one basket.
Nanya gasped.
Everyone froze.
Tony looked terrified.
Alex smiled.
Nanya pointed.
“Pick them up.”
Tony crouched immediately.
The whole market laughed.
Later, when music began, Nora and Alex stood alone near the stall.
“Happy?”
He looked around.
Nanya dancing badly.
Tony arguing with a baker.
Nora’s friends.
Normal noise.
“Yes.”
“Richest man in New York?”
Alex smiled.
“No.”
Nora looked surprised.
“What?”
“Just lucky.”
Better answer.
She kissed him.
Across the pavilion, Nanya shouted:
“STOP BEING GROSS.”
They laughed.
May you like
And for the first time, the Gene name sounded like something that might survive without fear attached to it.
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