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Zadie’s father and Grey came back, having safely sequestered Grandma Davis with Helen and Denise’s parents in a booth. “She’s only got one real hip left. You’d think the woman would know not to tango in heels.” Sam sat down in a chair and hefted his Guinness.
    Grey put his arm around Zadie’s shoulders and looked at Mavis. “Do you mind if I borrow Zadie for a few minutes?”
    “Go right ahead.” Mavis thought Zadie was crazy for not looking at Grey as a potential husband. When Mavis and Sam met Grey on Intervention Day, Mavis had pulled Zadie aside and said, “He has a full benefits package and you just gave him to Helen?” Zadie wanted to explain to her mother that Grey once sent back a cheeseburger three times, but what was the point?
    Grey dragged her outside to the deck overlooking the marina. Zadie willingly followed. She would have driven to Detroit just to get away from her family at the moment.
    Grey looked at her, worried. “How are you?” Wow, the question of the night. Couldn’t anyone ask her the time? Or what she thought of the Iraqi situation? Or how many times she’d burped after eating the salmon?
    “For the ninety-fifth time tonight, I’m fine. How are you, groomto-be?” She said it with the proper ironic inflection, so as not to be cheesy.
    “I’m great. Ready to shit myself, but great.”
    “You look like you’re having fun.” She meant it. He did. No need for ironic inflection here.
    “I am. I can’t imagine why, but I really like your family.”
    “Well, don’t sign up for the fan club. You’re the only one.”
    “I’d introduce you to Mike, but something tells me you’re not in the mood.”
    For a brief moment, Zadie wondered if Mike was the guy in the green shirt, but it didn’t matter. She had no interest in meeting him.
    “You’re a wise man,” Zadie said. “Besides, this is your night. You’re not supposed to be worried about pairing off your friends. You’re supposed to be attending to your bride.”
    “Helen can’t stop smiling.” He looked proud of this fact.
    “Helen has never stopped smiling. She smiled the day I shot her in the knee with a BB gun.” That was a good day. Fourth grade. Summer picnic. The savage beauty of childhood.
    “Is that what that mark is?” Grey honestly looked concerned.
    Zadie rolled her eyes. “Christ, you’ve actually memorized her skin?”
    “That makes me sound pathetic, doesn’t it?”
    “You are pathetic.”
    Grey smiled at her. They clinked beer bottles and looked out at the marina. “Helen’s dad? Drug dealer. Colombian. Fifty kilos a day.”
    Zadie smiled at him, picking up the thread. “My Aunt Josephine? Call girl. Runs a few handguns on the side.”
    “Your Grandma Davis? Man in drag.” Zadie spit her beer over the railing of the deck and into the harbor. Grey started laughing. And all was right with the world again.
    “I’m happy for you, you know. I really am. Helen will never cheat on you, she’ll always stay beautiful and happy and you’ll have smiley little babies that will never need braces.”
    “You think she’ll put up with me that long?”
    “I guarantee you she’ll choose her own bed skirt, but aside from that, I think you’ll survive.”
    He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze as they continued to look out at the marina. At the end of the dock, a fisherman pissed onto the side of a yacht. It was a beautiful night.

five
    As Zadie sat through homeroom on Monday, she couldn’t help but obsess about the fact that Helen had actually asked her if she was afraid she might cry during the ceremony. Meaning cry in a bad way. Zadie hadn’t cried during her whole heart-wrenching fiasco. She’d waited until she got home and then she imploded. Grey as witness. The fact that Helen thought her own precious nuptials would set Zadie off incensed her. No, she wouldn’t fucking cry. She might puke, but she wouldn’t cry.
    And wasn’t it just like Helen to make Zadie hate