Love Is All Around
On Sunday, her dad and brothers play Tetris loading boxes, suitcases, and bags into her VW Beetle. All the while, her dad hums the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show – Mary's song, Mary Taylor's namesake – until the whole family is singing along.
She leaves for Chicago on Monday morning, but before she does, she kisses Fred at the end of her driveway. A slow, lingering kiss that she presses six years of complicated feelings into. They smile against each other's lips and she tells him she'll see him at Christmas. As he pedals away on his bike, she wonders if things will ever be the same between them.
She drives the eight hours to The University of Chicago on her own. Her roommate is painfully shy and, for the first time in her life, Mary gets to be the dominate friend. The one who decides where they go and what they do. Years of playing second fiddle to girls like Hermione Nichols and Alice Smith prepare her for this role and she's a little disappointed, but not surprised, that the part isn't as rewarding as she hoped. If there was a cheerful one of their bunch, it had always been Mary, not Hermione or Alice.
Every week Fred sends her a letter and actually calls on her 19th birthday. She's only been gone a month, but the ten minute conversation might as well be with a stranger. They suffer through small talk and she makes an excuse to hang up. She rereads his letters in bed that night, wondering why things couldn't be as simple as they were in words. She's sure this is how she loses him. Not with a bang, but with an uncomfortable phone call.
When she goes home for Christmas, he turns up at her house one night and drags her to Pops in his new Ford pickup that he'd brought preowned from Mantle's Used Cars. They sit in Pops until the early hours of the morning, laughing over old times and sharing milkshakes. Things feel the way they used to that night. When he drops her off, they shared a chaste kiss. She goes back to school a week later.
Her second semester, she loads up on classes, determined to graduate in three years instead of four. (Why else had she suffered through all those AP courses senior year?) She drags her roommate to a corny Valentine's Day party in the next building over. She meets Todd there and goes on three dates with him before deciding it was time to lose her virginity.
It's quick, a little painful, and totally uncomfortable. Pretty much everything Hermione assured her it was be all those years ago. (Alice insisted her first time was magical, but even Virgin Mary called bullshit on that one.) They go on two more dates before Mary gathers up the nerve to break it off with him.
At the end of the semester, she meets Brian at the library and they hit it off. They agree to be exclusive over the summer, even though they probably won't be able to each other. Mary goes back to Riverdale and spends another summer at Fred's side. She tells him about Brian and he tells her about the couple of girls he's dated and she's genuinely happy for him. She hopes he's happy for her as well.
The go see Forrest Gump at the Bijou one night and they both end up crying during it. They laugh in the car over what softies they both are. Fred shoots her that look and it takes all her power not to melt into him. When the moment passes, he drives her home without another word about it.
And that, she thinks, it why she's always loved him. He never pushes her into anything, even when she knows he wants it.
She sees Hermione a few times before she goes to spend a month in London with Hiram Lodge. If it hurts Fred that Hermione is still in Riverdale with him, he doesn't let on. He swears they're friends now. Better friends than they were before they dated.
Alice and Hal don't come back for the summer from Boston. From what she pieces together, something about Hal's parents finding out they were living together instead of dorming. Mary feels guilty about how shitty she left things with Alice the previous summer and calls her. Alice talks her ear off about how wonderful Boston is and how she takes class in the morning and works as a waitress at night (and how Hal works in at a garage in the morning and takes classes at night) and how they've settled into domestic bliss and honestly, Mary, I just don't see us ever going back to Riverdale.
Mary relays this information to Fred and FP one night over dinner at Pops. The two roll their eyes at one another, but don't say a word. Mary silently wonders how many bridges Alice (and by extension Hal) burned before they left town.
She goes back to Chicago in September and keeps up her relationship with Brian. He's sweet and she likes spending time with him. They have sex and it's so much better than it was the two times with Todd. When Forrest Gump comes out on VHS, they rent it and watch it at Brian's friend's apartment. He and his friends call it "feel good trash" and want to watch it again to roast it. When Mary speaks up about enjoying it even more the second time around, they all shoot her a condescending look, including Brian.
She decides she really doesn't have time for a boyfriend if she wants to graduate in three more semesters.
When she heads home that summer, Fred's mom tells her that he and FP are down in Centerville for another four weeks working on a new mini mall. She tries calling a few times, but to no avail. Hermione invites her to spend two weeks with her family in the Hamptons and Mary takes her up on the offer. She gets to know Hiram and hardly recognizes her old friend while she's around him. She waits on him hand and foot, takes his suggestions about what outfit to wear, always asks him how she should wear her hair that day. It's a complete 180 from the way she was with Fred. (And a large part of Mary thinks that's why Hermione chose Hiram instead.)
When Mary gets back to Riverdale, there's a simple card with her name and an address in the mailbox. She goes to said address and discovers Fred and FP have finally gotten the apartment they'd been talking about since high school. She spends her last weeks of summer helping them unpack and trying to make their place look more like a home. She breaks up one particular nasty fight between the boys when they get into an argument over which poster should be hung over the couch. Fred says Springsteen and FP says Metallica and Mary threatens to rip up both posters if they don't cut it out. In the end, there's plenty of room for both.
She's so exhausted one night, she falls asleep on their couch and when she wakes up at 3 am, she finds herself alone in Fred's room. When she peeks into the living room, Fred is asleep on the couch, feet dangling over the edge. She laughs at the image of him dragging her to bed. She kisses his sleeping figure on the forehead and goes back to sleep.
She tells Fred she's definitely graduating in the spring and he gets excited at the prospect of her coming home. She starts talking about law school and sees his face sink a little. It makes a lot of sense to choose a school in Chicago, where she has so many choices. He says he understands.
Fred simply calls the morning of her leaving and says his goodbyes. She imagines him chasing her on his bike as she drives through town limits, but that doesn't happen.
On her 21st birthday, she spots a familiar boy sitting on the steps outside her dorm, flowers in hand. She nearly drops her books as she steadies herself against the banister and tries to figure out if Fred Andrews is really sitting outside her dorm all the way in Chicago.
He stands up and, before she knows what's happen, her books are strewn on the concrete and Fred has her in his arms. Their lips are pressed together, they breathe through each other's mouths. She runs her fingers through his hair and he strokes her cheek. When they break apart, a few stranglers walking to class actually applaud them.
She skips all her classes that day and sticks a chair under the doorknob. She and Fred make love for the first time and it's everything she ever hoped it would be and more.
He stays for three days, much to the annoyance of her roommate. Mary walks around in a state of bliss for weeks because for the first time ever she is able to proudly proclaim Fred fucking Andrews is my boyfriend.
No one in Chicago may care, but it's a pretty big deal for Riverdale.
She spends most of Christmas break in Fred and FP's apartment. The three of them watch the boy's favorite Christmas movie (Die Hard) nearly every day. Mary bakes, Fred watches, and FP steals handfuls of raw cookie dough because he thinks it's funny when Mary smacks him with a wooden spoon. They make several jokes about being a happy little family – mom, dad, and obnoxious teenage son. Like a slap to the face, Mary realizes how very happy she is. How she wants to be a lawyer, but not at risk of giving this up.
The night before she goes back he tells her he loves her. He presses a fingers to her lips and makes her promise not to say it back until she's one hundred percent sure she means it. She spends her eight hour drive with her heart thumping out of her chest.
She applies to the small law program offered at John Adams University in Greendale. It's not very competitive, not highly ranked, but she convinces herself going to The University of Chicago for another three years will simply be paying for a name. Law programs are all the same.
For the first time, she makes the drive home for spring break. Fred teases her mercilessly over not saying she loves him back yet. One night, as she's just drifting off to sleep, he whispers I love you, Mary in her ear and she mutters back I love you too, Fred. She shoots up in bed and he laughs at how surprised she is at her own words.
She tells him then and there about moving home, law school in Greendale. He cries and tells her to think it over. That he can't be the sole reason she comes back.
His cheek is wet when she touches it. It's you, Fred. It's always been you.
Fred tags along with her family when they come to Chicago for graduation. Her parents always liked Fred and seem impressed he's a foreman already. They know not everyone is cut out for college and they don't hold being working class against him. They respect him for it even.
Hal and Alice show up midsummer. Mary doesn't ask, but she assumes they've worked out whatever problems they were having with his family. The girls meet for lunch at Pops and Mary's taken back by the sullen girl who sits across from her. She pokes and prods, but it's not until Alice reaches across the table to grab the sugar that Mary sees the diamond sparkling from Alice's finger.
Oh, Alice. Mary is gleeful, taking the girl's hand to get a better look. When she looks up, Alice's eyes are brimming with tears. Mary jumps to the other side of the booth to hug her.
Do you ever think you don't deserve nice things?
The question takes Mary back because she never felt that way in her life. In fact, Mary thinks she deserves a lot of nice things she never gets and is shocked Alice doesn't feel the same way.
Alice admits in shame what she did and how Hal forgave her with the engagement ring he'd been sitting on for two years. Mary assures her Hal never would have asked if he didn't really love her and want to marry her. Alice calms down.
Mary springs her own news on her – about graduation, law school, Fred – and is disappointed by Alice's reaction. Her blonde friend insists moving back to Riverdale is a mistake and dating Fred is a disaster waiting to happen.
Mary spends the rest of lunch with a sour taste in her mouth and doesn't return another of Alice's calls. Maybe this is a bridge Mary needs to burn herself.
Mary moves into the apartment with the boys as school starts. The three of them make their own little happy family (with the revolving door of FP's conquests joining them every so often). They are happy.
She brings Fred as her plus one to Alice and Hal's wedding in the summer. FP is not invited and refuses to let on that it bothers him. During the ceremony, as she watches her old friends with smiles plastered on their faces, she remembers how jealous she was of them in high school. She never wanted to be Alice or be with Hal, but their relationship always seemed so easy to her.
For the first time in her life, everything is easy for her and Fred and she only feels happiness for the newly crowned Coopers. She's almost disappointed when the two head back to Boston instead of moving home, like she did.
At the end of summer, they get another wedding invitation. Hermione Nichols and Hiram Lodge are to be wed at on New Year's Eve in Manhattan. Mary laughs at the very idea of it, but can't say no. It will be the poshest wedding she'll ever attend.
Fred flat out refuses to go and they have their first big fight. Over his ex-girlfriend.
In the end, Mary brings her 17-year-old brother and they have a blast. She makes an excuse about Fred having the flu and sees a flicker of sadness in Hermione's eyes that he didn't show.
Fred doesn't ask about the wedding and she doesn't tell. They don't mention it again.
On Fred's 23rd birthday, a beautiful May day, she packs a picnic basket and they go to Sweetwater River. They lie on their backs after they eat, watching the clouds lazily drift by. He takes her hand and starts playing with her fingers. When he finally stops, she feels a slight weight on one of them and gasps when she looks at it.
The ring isn't as fancy Hermione's and not as big as Alice's even, but it's perfect.
She tackles him with kisses, getting lipstick over his face and scolding him for not asking.
He didn't need to ask, they both know, because he already knew the answer.
