Page 60 of In a Pickle
“You got engaged?!” someone shouted, and Liana turned to see Jessica Barnes ogling her.
“Yes,” said Liana, smiling.
“To me,” James cut in, “in case it wasn’t obvious.”
“But —” Jessica stammered, staring at Liana, “the last time I saw you, two years ago, you said you had just moved back intotown. And you didn’t mention a boyfriend. In fact, you seemed very single. Almost forlorn.”
“Gee, thanks, Jessica,” said Liana sarcastically, glancing down at Jessica’s hand and noticing it was free of any rings. Hadn’t Jessica gotten engaged to some crypto bro named John? Johnny? Well, it didn’t seem like they were together anymore. Liana decided not to ask Jessica about him. Despite Jessica’s rudeness, Liana didn’t like kicking people when they were down.
“Liana, darling,” came a new voice. Liana never thought she’d ever be happy to see Mary Grace, but here she was, happy to be rescued from Jessica by her erstwhile self-proclaimed rival.
Mary Grace looked Jessica up and down and wrinkled her nose almost imperceptibly. “Julia. Nice to see you. I’m going to steal Liana and James for a second.”
The next thing Liana knew, she was being dragged through the crowd, desperately trying to hold onto James’ hand as they fought their way through couples taking selfies with the balloon arches. “Ah, here we are,” said Mary Grace, stopping in front of a couple. The woman looked vaguely familiar.
“Liana, James,” said Mary Grace. “You may remember Gigi. And this is her partner, Connor.”
“Hey, Gigi!” James said. “Great to see you. And it’s good to meet you, Connor, man.” Liana was glad James was taking the lead with introductions, since she couldn’t say she remembered Gigi.
“Gigi and Connor just moved to Miami,” Mary Grace said. “Well, Gigi just moved back, obviously. But they’d been living in LA for the past few years. And I thought you two girls would havea lot in common — not just the LA thing. I pictured you all being couples friends, and I wanted to make sure you connected.”
“Thanks, Gracie,” said Gigi and threw a warm smile Liana’s way. “Can I get your number?”
As Liana typed her number into Gigi’s phone, Mary Grace studied the group like a proud mother hen. “Gigi was friends with me when I was in my mean-girl era, but I promise she was never a mean girl.” Gigi laughed nervously. Liana threw an arm around Mary Grace’s shoulder and joked, “You mean, you’re talking about your mean-girl era in the past tense? It’s over?”
Mary Grace rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”
While Mary Grace and Liana weren’t best friends, they were more than acquaintances. True to her word, Mary Grace had put in a lot of work on herself. She was being nicer to Tori, and Tori and Liana had started inviting her to hang out occasionally. Mary Grace wasn’t in a huge hurry to hang out with James, though, a situation Liana could understand but which meant Liana didn’t see Mary Grace too often.
“I love your ring,” said Gigi to Liana with genuine warmth. “If you don’t mind my asking, did you have any input into the design?” She glanced at Connor and blushed. “It’s just, we’ve been thinking about taking that next step, and I told Connor I should have some say in the ring, since I’ll be the one wearing it.”
“A girl after my own heart,” said Liana, and James laughed. “Yes, we went ring shopping together a couple of months ago. I didn’t know the exact one James was getting, but he knew which designs I liked.”
“See!” Gigi elbowed Connor. “And, if you don’t mind my asking, did you know when he was going to propose?”
Liana grinned. “Not at all. It’s kind of hard to surprise me, since we live together and all, but I was completely surprised.”
“Oh, amazing!” Gigi gushed. “How did he do it?”
“He told me he had a party to go to at the Faena Hotel, on Miami Beach. He asked if I would go with him. I said sure. I genuinely thought it was a party James was throwing.”
James still had three jobs. He was still a pickleball instructor twice a week, but he now had a full-time job as Head of Partnerships for a large video game company. James’ role was to network with athletes and negotiate featuring the athletes in sports video games. There was even a new pickleball video game James had a heavy hand in producing. The other part of James’ job was hosting large parties and launch events for new video games. James was thriving in his role.
And in an unpaid position, he was now vice president of their synagogue, a position that James loved because he led the volunteer programming. He had expanded their congregation’s partnerships with the homeless shelter and a number of other charities and had added focus groups for political action and for discussions with the previously incarcerated. James worked hard but at least for now, James was happy having a hand in three different pies.
Continuing the story of their engagement, Liana said, “I still wasn’t suspicious when James took me to the hotel wing, rather than the residential wing, of the Faena. I was too busy ogling all the art. I love the Faena. If you haven’t been, Connor, I highly recommend going to see the art in the lobby. Anyway, James had somehow already secured a key to our hotel room.”
James nodded. “I drove to the Beach early that morning and got the key so we wouldn’t have to wait for hotel check-in. I got stuck in thirty minutes of traffic on the bridge on the way back to get Liana. It was worth it.”
Liana felt a shiver of warmth run through her as she recalled the hotel room setup. “When we walked into the hotel room, I kind of realized what was going on. First of all, nobody else was there, so I knew it wasn’t a party.”
Gigi laughed. “What did James say about that?”
“He tried to pretend we were early. He even pretended to yell ‘Hello?’ to see if our host was there. But then, our cat came into the room and ruined the ruse.”
“Your cat?”
“In Harry’s defense,” said James, “it wasn’t his fault. He just heard his mama’s voice and got excited.”