Maribel held up a finger and disappeared from view. A moment later she returned carrying four clear plastic wineglasses, which Caitlin took and lined up on the railing as George expertly uncorked the bottle with a soft pop, careful not to spill a drop.
As George started to pour, Finn handed the bag to Maribel. She reached in and removed a CD with a stunning photo of Music Hall on the front, illuminated in all its LumenoCity glory. “The sound track to last year’s show!” she gasped. “I didn’t know this existed!”
“So you can relive that night whenever you want,” Caitlin said, almost shyly. Finn realized then how little he’d let any of his friends really get to know Maribel. He’d been keeping her all to himself. There would be plenty of time to change that, even though they were moving away. If anyone had the resources to travel on a whim, it was George and Caitlin. Besides, Finn and Maribel would be back often to handle the wedding arrangements. As much as they loved the mountains and wanted to make their life there, Maribel had insisted on having the ceremony here. “We can’t not invite Cincinnati to the party,” she’d told Finn. “She’s family.”
“Where did the guests of honor go?” Finn heard someone call from inside, but Maribel didn’t flinch. She was hugging Caitlin tight, her eyes glistening at Finn over his friend’s shoulder.
George distributed the glasses, and Finn raised his before anyone else had the chance. “To the everyones I really, really like.”
*
The sounds of the orchestra filled Maribel’s living room. The end tables were covered with picked-over trays of hors d’oeuvres, crumb-filled bowls, stained cocktail napkins, and empty glasses. “I’m going to hire someone to clean all this up for you,” Finn murmured seductively into her ear, “just as soon as I pick through the couch cushions to see how much spare change was left behind.” Maribel laughed and tilted her head back to look up at him as they swayed. He wasn’t sure how they’d ended up slow dancing in the middle of the chaos. They’d put on the CD from Caitlin and George while they started cleaning up, and the next thing he knew, they were wrapping their arms around each other, and the mess around them seemed to fall away. It was how every day with Maribel was, really.
“I’m more worried about whether or not I’m remembering this correctly,” she said, her eyes bright from too much champagne. She seemed to be making a great effort to enunciate clearly, as if to conceal her level of intoxication from him, something she often did when she’d had too many drinks. He’d never let on that he noticed it, because he was afraid if he did, she would stop. It was absolutely adorable. “Was our first kiss right around this point in the concert—” She cocked her head as the strings reached their crescendo, then leaned in and kissed him softly on the mouth. “Or maybe here?” she said into his lips a moment later as the percussion chimed in.
He buried his face in her shiny dark hair and breathed in the citrus scent of her shampoo. He could not remember the last time he had felt so at peace.
Life was good.
“You know, we need to give some thought to the honeymoon,” he said into her hair. “I want to take you on a trip you’ll always remember.”
“That’ll be easy,” Maribel said, “as long as the ocean’s involved. I’ve never seen it.”
He took a step back to see if she was kidding and almost stumbled into the couch. He was a little drunk himself. “Are you serious? Never?”
“Never, never, never,” she said, twirling in a circle with each word and giggling as she fell back into his arms.
Finn blinked at her. How was it that this had never come up? Their engagement didn’t seem particularly whirlwind to him, even though there had been a fair amount of teasing from their guests tonight to the contrary. Finn knew all he needed to know about Maribel. The fact that he still had so much to learn was just … well, it was exciting. He couldn’t imagine life with her ever becoming boring when she could manage at one moment to be the unfiltered, unapologetic woman he loved and then the next to reveal to him a facet he’d never seen before. What you saw was what you got with Maribel—but she didn’t show you everything. He wanted to uncover the rest slowly, a little every day, for as long as he could. Forever.
Finn dipped her down in a cartoonish simulation of a ballroom-dancing move, and she smiled up at him. “When was the last time you saw it?” she asked.
“George’s bachelor party,” he said. “Right before I met you.” And then he was picturing himself there, gazing down flirtatiously at the woman on the beach in her unassuming T-shirt and windblown ponytail, the sun reflecting off the water and illuminating the golden tones in her hair, even under the umbrella. He could still hear her low, appreciative chuckle when she laughed at something he said, still feel the way he’d instantly sensed that she was like him in some essential way—a kindred spirit. Someone worth looking for.
He jerked Maribel upright as bit more abruptly than he meant to. “Wait a minute,” he said. “How have you never seen the ocean? You answered the ad about having met a stranger on the beach.”
The symphony came to its end, and a conspicuously timed silence filled the room.
“On vacation,” Maribel said, looking a little hurt. “I answered the ad about having met a stranger on vacation. All this time we haven’t ever talked about the people we were looking for that day, and you want to start now? On this night?”
The light opening notes of the next symphony started, and Finn pulled her to him again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right. I guess vacation and the ocean are the same thing to me. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
A loud burst of percussion emphatically punctuated the end of his sentence, and they both burst out laughing. The moment of tension between them evaporated.
“I’d just gotten back from Gatlinburg,” Maribel said as they started to sway again. “Hey, they’ve got Dollywood! That totally counts as a vacation.”
By Cincinnati standards, it definitely did. It was less than a five-hour drive away, and in addition to the campy country-icon-themed tourist traps and the Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Gatlinburg was filled with secluded mountain chalets, eclectic music, food and drink festivals, and gorgeous hiking. It was also en route to Asheville. Finn had been there himself, and he resisted the urge to ask how Maribel had met her mystery man—in the hot tub of a resort, at a bar in town, on a mountain trail. Then he thought again of the woman on the beach and felt uneasy. She’d seldom entered his thoughts this past year, and yet somehow he kept finding her there on tonight of all nights. Suddenly it bothered him very much that he could still see himself watching the tide come in with her but had never shared that experience with Maribel. He felt an overwhelming desire not just to see it through Maribel’s eyes for the first time, but to be there with her, beside her, and to not picture himself anywhere without her, ever again.