Over Coleslaw
Ask most couples, whether married or not, if they remember the exact moment that they realized that they were head over heels, out of their mind, crazy in love with their significant other and most would point to a gesture, grand or small, that one person in the relationship did for the other to show just how much they cared. And sure, the two women in question had done many of both to show the other just how much they meant to one another. More often than not, this epiphany of the heart occurs at different times for each person in the relationship. It can be as early as the first meeting but sometimes, it's moments too late- seconds after the pastor asks if there are any objections, minutes after watching the happy couple kiss, about an hour into the reception as the bride watches you tentatively scoop coleslaw onto your plate.
"It's coleslaw, Maura. It's not going to kill you." Jane laughs as she scoops a glob of it onto her plate.
"I know, it's just, I've never been to a wedding where coleslaw was served." Maura replied.
Jane let out a soft, warm chuckle as she reached her hand around Maura's back and urged her forward in the line. Jane's touch was warm against Maura's deep backed dress, as was the tone in her voice when she half-heartedly apologized for not serving "fancy people food at the wedding."
"It's alright, I'm sure it's delicious."
"Should be, Mrs. Jones made it herself! It's one of Casey's favorites. He absolutely insisted on having it at the wedding. I told him that we should have something better than ribs and coleslaw at the wedding but then he went on about how delicious his ma's coleslaw was and how he and Pop could make the ribs together. It's really kinda sweet isn't it?" Jane finished rambling.
Maura couldn't help but get uncomfortable chill that reached her bones as she heard Jane rambling about a man. Jane doesn't ramble, and Jane certainly does not ramble about men. There was just something about Casey that made Jane act like a completely different person and the thought of anyone changing Jane made Maura cringe. But she was used to suppressing her emotions, used to hiding what she truly felt, trained even to put a polite smile on her face even when she wants to do the complete opposite. So she smiled up at Jane, and did something uncharacteristically Maura just to see if maybe being the opposite of who they truly are makes any difference. Maura reached her fingers into the coleslaw, pinched some and brought it up to her mouth where she slowly dropped it in. She licked the tips of her fingers clean while chewing her coleslaw knowing that picking up her food with her hands while in public at a formal event was frowned upon and that Jane would mock surprise and disgust.
"Delicious!" Maura said and then looked up to Jane who was distracted, and for the first time, not watching Maura try to act like a human. Instead, as Maura followed in Jane's line of sight, she was watching Casey, her groom, as he smiled and stood up straight in his military dress uniform to take pictures with all of Jane's crazy family members.
"Isn't he?" Jane sighed with a dreamy, love-struck smile on her face.
And that was it, enough to put Maura over the edge. She dropped her plate to the ground and ran from the Rizzoli family backyard wedding to her car as fast as she could. As soon as she got to the door, she leaned against it, taking in huge gasps of air in before turning to her side and heaving. She climbed weakly into the car and drove away, heading towards the airport, heading anywhere where she could get away from fake-Jane. Though, she didn't move fast enough, and with one final glance in her rearview mirror, Maura saw Jane running standing confused and hurt in the middle of the street. Maura stopped the car and as soon as she did, Jane started running towards her, her big white wedding dress tearing into pieces as she ran down the road towards Maura's stopped car. She wanted to wait, to unlock the door, have Jane jump in and drive off into the sunset together and live happily ever after. Instead, Maura hit the gas right before Jane could reach her, and she drove off alone, heading towards the airport with nothing but the feeling of tears pouring down her face- the smell of vomit and sweat filling her nostrils.