You know that part in weddings where they ask if anyone objects?
My mother took that way too seriously.
She stood up, full of fake tears, and tried to wreck my marriage before it even started.
But she didn’t know my fiancé had the ultimate mic-drop moment waiting.
I met Brian in the most unexpected place — the metro. It was nearly midnight, the train car practically empty except for a handful of exhausted commuters…
I slumped in my seat, my feet aching from a 12-hour shift at the hospital where I worked as a nurse. That’s when I noticed him sitting across from me, completely absorbed in a dog-eared copy of “The Great Gatsby,” his brow furrowed in concentration.
There was something captivating about how he sat there in his faded navy hoodie and worn sneakers, utterly unconcerned about the world around him.
I couldn’t stop stealing glances.
When he finally looked up and caught me staring, I quickly averted my eyes, heat rushing to my cheeks.
“Fitzgerald has that effect on people,” he said with a soft smile. “Makes you forget where you are.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted. “I’ve never read it.”
His eyes widened.
“Never? You’re missing out on one of the greatest American novels ever written.”
I shrugged. “I guess I don’t have much time for reading these days.”
We didn’t exchange numbers that night.
I figured he was just another stranger on the train… a brief, pleasant conversation that would fade into memory.
“Maybe our paths will cross again,” he said as he stepped off at his stop. “If they do, I’ll lend you my copy.”
“I’d like that,” I replied, not believing for a second it would happen.
“Sometimes the best stories find us when we least expect them,” he said with a wink before the doors closed between us.
A week later, fate intervened.
The metro was packed with people rushing home during evening rush hour.
I stood clutching the overhead rail, trying to maintain my balance as the train lurched forward. That’s when I felt a sharp tug on my purse, and before I could react, a man had yanked it from my shoulder and was shoving his way toward the doors.
“Hey!
Stop him!” I shouted, but no one moved.
No one except Brian.
He appeared out of nowhere and lunged past startled passengers. The doors opened at the next stop, and both men tumbled onto the platform. I pressed my face against the window, watching in horror as they grappled on the ground.
By some miracle, I managed to squeeze through the closing doors.
By the time I reached them, the thief had fled, but Brian sat on the ground, my purse clutched triumphantly in his hands, a small cut bleeding above his eyebrow.
“Your book recommendation service is very dramatic,” I said, helping him to his feet.
He laughed, handing me my purse. “I still owe you a copy of Gatsby.”
We went for coffee to clean up his cut. One coffee turned into dinner.
Dinner turned into walking me home. Walking me home turned into a kiss at my doorstep that made my knees weak.
Six months later, we were head over heels in love. But my mother, Juliette?
She never liked him.
“A librarian, Eliza? Really?” she said with a grimace when I first told her about Brian. “What kind of future can he provide?”
“The kind filled with books and happiness,” I shot back.
She rolled her eyes.
“Happiness doesn’t pay the bills, darling.”
My family is upper middle class, but my mother has always tried to convince everyone that we were wealthy. She name-dropped at dinner parties, stretched the truth about our vacations, and meticulously curated our lives to appear more luxurious than they really we
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