Happy Birthday: A Novel

The morning of the wedding, both April and Mike were extremely nervous. The tension of the day, and all its implications, had gotten to them both. He was getting ready at his apartment, and April was going to dress at her mother’s. Ellen came by in a cab and picked her up, and they went uptown together. April knew her mother had a hairdresser and manicurist waiting for her, and her dress was already there.

“See you later,” she said, and kissed Mike goodbye before she left. He had just cut himself shaving and had little bits of toilet paper stuck all over his face, glued there by blood. “Try not to kill yourself before the wedding,” she teased him as he glared at her and then burst out laughing.

“Okay, so I’m nervous. Get out of here, before I change my mind.” They were a classic shotgun wedding, with her nine months pregnant after a one-night stand. She couldn’t help laughing about it, and again with Ellen on the way uptown.

“He’s a good guy,” Ellen confirmed on the way to Valerie’s apartment. And Dawn was waiting for them. They had all gotten used to her looks by then and her extremely punky outfits, pierces, and tattoos. She had done the streak in her hair light blue for the wedding. Working for Valerie had not made her more conservative. Valerie didn’t care since Dawn was impressively efficient and had been a whirlwind helping with the wedding.

Ellen was carrying her dress, which was the same pale blue as April’s sisters’. But hers was short, like April’s, and her sisters’ gowns were long. Valerie had decided to wear mauve, in vaguely related tones. She had found a lavender organdy cocktail dress that she thought was suitable for the mother of the bride.

As April arrived at her mother’s apartment, Valerie was leaving Jack’s. He was still sound asleep and she left him a note, telling him that she loved him and she’d see him at the wedding. She wasn’t sure why, probably because of the pending decision about Miami, but she felt now as though every day they shared was their last. It was a depressing feeling, but she tried not to appear worried as she hurried the three blocks to her own apartment. She found April and Ellen getting their nails done in the kitchen. If you didn’t look at April’s stomach, she didn’t even look pregnant — the weight was all right there. And she had gained less than she was allowed.

“So, ladies, how are we doing?” Valerie asked them as her assistant handed her a cup of coffee. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with sandals and she looked almost as young as her daughter. She had called Alan Starr the day before for his reading on the wedding, and he said everything would be fine. She hadn’t asked him about Jack’s decision about Miami. She didn’t want to know and hear the bad news. She could guess all by herself without being psychic. He really had no choice but to go, and she was sure Jack knew it too.

April was having clear nail polish put on, and she was going to have her hair done in a loose braid with lily of the valley woven into it. Valerie looked in her refrigerators, and all the flowers for the wedding party were there. The rest had been delivered by the florist early that morning, and her living room was filled with white orchids and roses. The crystal and silver on the five tables gleamed. And there was a path through the living room for April and her father to walk when she went to stand before the judge with Mike. It was a very traditional little wedding, despite the unusual circumstances and the fact that she’d had only two weeks to organize it. But Valerie was good at that, and Dawn was a quick learner. The cake arrived half an hour later, followed by Heather and Annie carrying their dresses. Valerie put them in the guest room, and they bounded out five minutes later, looking for their sister. She was having a bath in her mother’s pink marble bathroom, and emerged like a very pregnant Venus as her sisters stared at her belly.

“My God, you’re huge!” Heather said with a look of amazement.

“Thanks, I know.” April laughed. “I just hope I make it through the wedding.” She’d had contractions all morning, but she was sure that it was just nerves. The baby knew something big was happening. Its parents were getting married. April said as much to her mother, and Valerie smiled.

“Just try not to have the baby before we cut the cake,” Valerie advised her, and they both laughed.

By eleven o’clock, all the women were in their respective rooms getting ready, and emerged right on time. Ellen and April’s half-sisters looked lovely in their dresses, and their hair was done simply. Valerie was bustling around in her lavender organdy dress, putting her pearls on, and Maddie arrived to see what she could do to help them, wearing sober navy blue. Dawn was standing in the background wearing a short electric blue dress and high-heeled platform shoes.

And then they all went into Valerie’s bedroom to see April. She looked absolutely beautiful in the white silk trapeze dress. The flowers were braided into her hair just as Valerie had suggested. And at ten to twelve, Dawn handed them all their bouquets.

The judge was there by then, waiting in the living room with a glass of champagne. He was an old friend of Valerie’s, and happy to do it for her. Five minutes later, all the men arrived. Jack, Pat, and Mike, and Jim and Ed from the paper. Dawn pinned a tiny white rose to each of their lapels, except Mike who got lily of the valley, just like those in his bride’s bouquet and hair. He looked scared stiff.

“Hang in, man, it’ll be over before you know it,” Pat teased him, and they all accepted a round of champagne as they chatted with the judge. Mike looked as though he needed it, and then Pat went to the back of the apartment to see his daughter.

The guests began arriving promptly at noon, and by twelve-thirty everyone was there. April and her father were chatting quietly in her mother’s bedroom then.

“You look beautiful,” he said to his daughter. She really did look like a bride, even in her condition, and she looked radiant. Everything had turned out well.

Valerie didn’t even have time to see Jack or talk to him once the guests started arriving. She smiled at him across the room, and for a minute wished the wedding were theirs. Then at least she could be sure she wouldn’t lose him. But even wedding vows didn’t guarantee that, as they all knew well.

At twelve thirty-five, the small chamber group began playing Handel’s “Water Music,” and April came out on her father’s arm, with her sisters in front of her. And Mike gasped when he saw her. April looked beautiful, and as she turned to him, she beamed.

Valerie, Pat, and Maddie were all standing together in the front row, with Jack just behind her. She turned to look at him several times, and he gently touched her shoulder and squeezed it. He leaned forward once and whispered, “Everything is going to be okay.” She didn’t know if he meant for April, or for them, but seated in the front row, and during the ceremony, she couldn’t ask. She nodded, and whispered something to Pat about how beautiful their daughter looked. And then after a few words, the judge pronounced them husband and wife, and they kissed. They greeted all their friends with smiles and hugs, and April and Mike were both wiping tears from their eyes. It had been a perfect little wedding.

“You did a beautiful job,” Jack complimented her when she turned around to face him after the ceremony.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at him with the weight of the past week in her eyes. He could see it and it touched him. “I’m not going to Miami,” he said simply, not wanting to keep her in suspense a moment longer. He had decided the day before, but wanted to sleep on it. He had called his agent and attorney that morning before the wedding.

“You’re not?” She smiled broadly at him. “Are you serious? But what about your career?” She was worried about him, and didn’t dare ask him what had made the decision for him. Not wanting to live in Miami, or them? It didn’t matter. He wasn’t going. She wanted to cry in relief as she put her arms around him and kissed him.

“My career will survive it. I’m not going to turn my life upside down at this point. I think it boils down to what we’ve both agreed on. There comes a time when you have to make sacrifices. I’ve always given up my personal life for my career. I just didn’t want to do that this time. It’s time to do something different.” She stared at him in amazement. He was telling her that he had done it for her, that he had given up a promotion and more money for her. And the worst part was that she didn’t know if she would have had the guts to make the same choice in his shoes. But Jack had done it. And maybe next time, if the choice was hers to make, she would too. Just as he had said, there came a time when there was more to life than just a career and blind ambition. And Jack knew, as he looked at her, that whatever happened between them in the future, he had made the right choice for him. And for her too.

“I was so sure you were going,” she said to him in a whisper. “I felt like I’d already lost you.”

He shook his head firmly as he looked at her. “You didn’t. And I’m not sure you could. We survived last December together, at the network. I didn’t go through all that to find you, and then throw it all away.” And as he looked at her, she wasn’t sure she would either. They had both grown up, and something in them had ever so subtly changed. Their ages no longer mattered, but their goals and values did. Jack was thrilled not to be going to Miami, and to stay in New York with her, and the network would live with it. They couldn’t have compensated him enough