"Hey, Jamie! Hey, Barb!" Steven said.
The two postal workers looked up from their mail sorting. "Oh, hey, Steven!" Barb said. "What brings you here?"
Steven held up a stack of envelopes. "I have some letters that need to be mailed."
"But why'd you come up here?" Jamie asked. "I could have picked them up when went down to your house on my rounds." He thought for a moment. "Though I guess you don't have a mailbox I could easily pick it up from."
"Yeah, I figured it'd just be easier to take them directly here. Plus, you don't really need to deliver two of them."
"Why not?" Jamie asked.
"Because one's for you," Steven said, handing Jamie an envelope. He turned to Barb. "And one's for you."
"Me?"
"Well, you and your daughter. We figured one per household would be enough." He set the rest down on the table and pondered them. "I suppose I could probably deliver the rest of these myself, too. Well, except to the Maheswarans' house. Or I actually could using Lion, I guess. But I shouldn't waste too much time when there's still so much to prepare."
"Prepare for what?"
"A wedding, apparently," Jamie said, having opened his letter.
"A wedding?" said Barb. She leaned over to read Jamie's invitation. "Between… Ruby and Sapphire? I don't know those people."
"Yes you do!" Steven said. "Well, okay, you don't. Or maybe technically you do… At the very least, they know you, but you know them better as Garnet."
"I don't follow."
"Um… you're not familiar with the concept of fusion, are you?"
"I'm guessing you're not talking about the funky jazz," said Jamie.
"Well, it's a thing with Gems - and I guess half-gems, and humans and half-gems - where two or more of them are so in sync with each other that they turn into one person. They might do this for several reason, like to fight, or become stronger, or reach the pedals of a car, but in Garnet's case, she usually stays fused because Ruby and Sapphire love each other so much. And now, due to recent personal insights that I won't bother trying to explain, they're getting married!"
"I see," Barb said in a tone that wasn't entirely convincing. "Well, then," she said, putting her part of the mail into her bag, "we should get these delivered so everyone has time to prepare for the wedding. Make sure you lock up behind you, Jamie." With that, she left.
Jamie turned to Steven. "So… Garnet is actually two people?"
"It's a bit more complicated than that, but basically."
"And these people are both female?"
"More or less, yes."
"And they're in love each other."
"That's why they're getting married."
"How long have then been together?"
"Over five thousand years."
Jamie sighed. "I never had even a remote chance, did I?"
"Nope."