Sunday Morning, Sam's Bronco
They were in Sam's Bronco the next morning, headed to the reunion brunch at Breadstix, when Mercedes's phone rang. She glanced at the screen, expecting the call to be from one of the people they were headed to meet, but was surprised to see her mother's name on the display instead.
"My mom," she said to Sam as she hit 'accept' and answered the call.
"Hey mama," she said.
"Hello, dear," her mother replied. "I wanted to make sure you're still planning to come for dinner tonight?"
"Of course," Mercedes said. "7:00, right?"
"Yes." There was silence for a moment and Mercedes started to get a weird feeling about this call. Finally, her mother spoke again. "So, have you been having a good time with all your old friends?"
"Yeah, it's really been great to see everyone and catch-up."
"That's good. It certainly looked like you all were having fun on Facebook."
"What?" Mercedes asked in confusion.
"Your friend Tina posted some pictures on Facebook." There was something in her tone that Mercedes couldn't quite put her finger on, but she took a guess and laughed.
"Mama, did you see me holding a beer bottle or something? Do I need to remind you that I'm almost thirty years old and it's been legal for me to drink for quite some time?"
Evelyn Jones laughed in response. "Obviously, you haven't looked at these pictures."
Feeling more and more confused, Mercedes said, "Okay, hang on, I'm putting you on speaker so I can look." She glanced at Sam as she did this and he shrugged, making sure to stay quiet.
"You're not driving, are you? You should be on your way to your brunch, right?"
"I – I'm riding. Some of us are carpooling from where we're staying." Not entirely a lie, she thought. As she said this, she was opening the Facebook app on her phone. She maintained a personal Facebook page that was super-locked down – only actual friends and family were friended on it. She'd seen that she had some notifications this morning, but she hadn't had a chance to look at any of them yet. They'd gotten home so late the night before (and then stayed up later than they really should have) and the result was that they'd overslept this morning and had to rush to get ready for the brunch.
It took a moment, but she found Tina's post and quickly scrolled through the pictures – selfies of her and Artie, with Sam and Blaine, with Kitty, Unique, Sugar and Marley, one of Tina with her and Quinn, a shot of all the guys, a shot of all the girls, a few other photos of them in various combinations of people and then she came to the last photo.
"Oh, shit," she whispered.
Sam glanced at her, clearly concerned, and she held up the phone so he could give it a quick look too. The look on his face matched the shocked look on her own face, she was sure.
The photo was of her and Sam, of course, their faces pressed cheek-to-cheek, Sam's face turned into hers, his lips at the edge of her mouth – and both of their left hands and their rings were clearly visible – Mercedes's hand on the side of Sam's face, his hand over hers. It was a fabulous picture – they both looked deliriously happy – but Tina has tagged them both in it and captioned it 'So happy for the new Mr. & Mrs. Evans!' She doesn't remember the specific photo being taken – but she knew it was from late in the evening, when it was just the three couples left at the party and they'd been punch-drunk, just being silly, posing for goofy photos and ridiculous selfies. It hadn't even occurred to her to say anything about not posting it.
Sam's thoughts were obviously running in the same direction as hers because he immediately was whispering, "Tina didn't know we hadn't told them yet! I didn't think –"
He stopped talking when Evelyn's voice came through the phone. "Have you seen them now, Mercedes? Is that your husband I hear in the background? Is that picture telling me what I think it's telling me?"
Mercedes sighed. No point in trying to lie or cover their tracks now. "Yeah. So – um – I got married," she said. Then she added, probably unnecessarily, "To Sam."
"Clearly," her mother said dryly.
"Hi, Mrs. Jones," Sam chimed.
"You remember Sam," Mercedes said. "From all my proms," she added, also unnecessarily.
Evelyn snorted. "Or from being the damn love of your life. Lord, you would've thought the world was ending when he had to move away when you were in high school."
"Mama!" she said, sounding like an embarrassed teenager, in that way that everyone is reduced to when dealing with their parents, glancing at Sam, who was doing his best not to laugh.
Evelyn just laughed. "Child, if he married you, I think he knows you like him."
Mercedes sighed again. "Yeah, he knows."
"I do know, Mrs. Jones," Sam piped up. "And I like her a lot too." Mercedes shot him a look and he just grinned, taking his hand off the gearshift for a moment to grab and kiss her hand before letting it go.
"I hope so, Sam," Evelyn replied. "So, when were you two going to break this news?"
"He's coming to dinner with me tonight? And we were going to tell you then?"
"Mm-hmm. Just going to bring an extra person to dinner without even asking."
"You said you were making lasagna and you always have leftovers of that for days and days and – are you mad at me?" Mercedes's voice got quieter and quieter as she spoke.
"Oh, honey," Evelyn's voice was soft and kind, even if Mercedes thought she could detect just a hint of sadness in it. "How can I be mad when I look at that picture and you look happier than I've ever seen you in your whole life?"
Mercedes couldn't help smiling, even as tears pricked at her eyes. "I am happier than I've ever been," she said quietly, reaching over to squeeze Sam's arm as he pulled into the Breadstix parking lot. "Sam and I – we just – we fit." Sam got the truck parked, cut the engine and then reached for her hand as Mercedes kept talking, apologizing. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you though – we didn't tell anyone – we just – decided and went to the courthouse. No one really knows yet except the glee kids." Mercedes felt like she was tripping over her words in her attempt to explain.
"You don't have to explain, at least not right now. As you said, you are almost thirty years old. And I have to admit – I see so many young women at the practice, worried about how they're going to look at their weddings, wanting their teeth whitened or straightened so the photos look good and all that nonsense and this at least lets me know that you know what's important. It's not about the wedding or the party – it's about the actual marriage. That's the important part."
Mercedes nodded, forgetting her mother couldn't see her, but before she could say anything, her mother added, "Besides, as your father pointed out, since the day you learned to talk, you've been telling us what you will and won't do and even if we objected, it's generally worked out for the best anyway to just let you do what you're gonna do anyway. Sam? Did you hear that?"
Sam was stifling a laugh as he answered, "Yes ma'am. I pretty much knew that already," and Mercedes shot him a dirty look.
"I figured you might," Evelyn said with a chuckle.
"You guys," Mercedes said. "I'm still here."
"Yeah, but you know she's right," Sam said, grinning as Mercedes stuck her tongue out at him.
"Anyway – so is Dad mad?"
"No, not mad," Evelyn said. "Maybe a little disappointed at not getting to walk you down the aisle and he would probably appreciate Sam asking for our blessing, even if it's after the fact, but I feel reasonably confident that if Sam had come to ask us for your hand ahead of time, he would have said he's fine with it but it's completely up to you and not his decision to make."
Mercedes smiled. "Because he knows I'd just go off and marry him anyway."
"Exactly," her mother agreed. "And you know, he didn't think you should go to LA or to New York and those moves have worked out pretty well for you. I trust that this one will too."
"Thanks, mama. Listen, we're here and we need to get into the party and we should actually probably call Sam's parents now too, we were gonna do that later this afternoon but – "
"No, of course," Evelyn said, interrupting her. "Go on, take care of that and then enjoy your time with your friends. I know you've all needed it. We've got plenty of time to talk tonight."
They finished the call and Mercedes turned to look at Sam. "Okay, babe, your turn."
"You want to call my parents right now?"
She gave him an 'are-you-kidding-me' face. "Yes. Isn't that what I just said? Wouldn't you rather catch them before they just see it in their Facebook feed?"
"Okay, okay," Sam said, knowing she was right and pulling out his own phone and hitting the Facetime button to call his mother. He frowned as the call was answered and it was his seventeen-year-old sister Stacy whose face appeared on screen.
"Stacy? Why are you answering Mom's phone?"
Stacy shrugged. "She's upstairs finishing getting ready for church. But when I saw it was my brother the newlywed I figured I better answer it."
Sam groaned. "So you've seen."
Stacy laughed. "Yup. Is Mercedes with you? Let me say hi."
Sam rolled his eyes, but turned the phone towards Mercedes, who grinned and slid across the truck's bench seat to be right beside Sam so her face also appeared on the screen.
"Hi, Stace. It's been a long time."
"Hey, Mercedes! Listen, if Sam was going to elope with anyone, I'm glad it was you. You're my favorite of all his girlfriends."
Mercedes had to laugh. "I appreciate that, I think."
"It was a compliment. Although I've never been a bridesmaid before, so I'm kinda bummed about losing that opportunity."
"Yeah, well, I've been one several times and it's not always all it's cracked up to be. We may have done you a favor," Mercedes replied.
Stacy nodded at this. "Hey, so what's Beyonce like?"
"Anyway," Sam said, attempting to regain control of the conversation as Mercedes laughed beside him, "we don't quite have time for that right now. Has Mom or Dad seen the Facebook post yet?"
"Doubtful."
"Well, can you go get them, please? We're kind of running late to be somewhere and I want to tell them myself."
As if to illustrate the point, at that moment, they could hear Tina outside the truck hollering something about how they needed to quit making out and get their asses in the restaurant.
Sam rolled his window down and yelled back, "Now is not the time, Tina! We'll be in in a minute!"
Mercedes was trying hard not to laugh as Stacy, also laughing, said, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, here's Mom. It's Sam," she said to her mother as she handed over the phone and Mary Evans' face filled the display.
"Sam? Honey? Is everything okay? We're running late for church, I only have a minute," she said, sounding distracted.
"That's okay, we're running late too. I –"
"We?" Mary said, frowning in confusion as she seemed to really focus on the phone screen for the first time. "Is someone with – wait, is that Mercedes Jones? Your girlfriend from high school?"
Sam nodded as Mercedes kind of tentatively waved at the camera. "Yeah, we're having a glee reunion this weekend but – wait, can you get dad, please, so I don't have to say this twice?"
"Say what twice? Sam, what is going –" she turned away from the phone then and they could hear her calling to some other part of the house, "Dwight? Honey, can you come here please? Sam's on the phone."
Sam glanced at Mercedes as they waited for his father to join the call and she could see the anxiety on his face. "It's gonna be okay," she said in a whisper, squeezing his hand. "My parents took it much better than I expected."
Dwight Evans appeared behind his wife then. "Hey, son, what's going on? We're trying to get to church."
"I know, I'm sorry. We were going to call this afternoon when we all have more time, but one of our IDIOT friends put it on social, not knowing that we hadn't told you yet."
Both his parents looked incredibly confused and Sam forged on quickly, "Okay, Mom, you asked if this was Mercedes Jones, my old girlfriend, here with me."
His mother nodded and Sam continued, "Well, yes, that's true – except now she's also Mercedes Evans and she's my wife." Mercedes squeezed his hand again as they waited hopefully for the reactions and she still couldn't help smiling the way she had every time she'd heard Sam say the words 'my wife' in the last four days. Something about it just made her whole body feel flooded with warmth.
"She's your what?" Mary said in surprise.
"Sam, are you telling us you've gotten married?" Dwight asked.
"Yes, sir. I know I haven't said anything, but Mercedes and I - we've basically been kind of long-distance dating for about the last year or so and when she got here for the glee reunion this weekend and we saw each other in person again, we just – we knew. And we got married at the courthouse the other day," Sam explained, turning to smile at his wife.
"Awww!" Stacy said from behind her parents. "That's actually really sweet, Sammy."
"Stacy," her father said, sounding a little annoyed, but Mary waved him off.
"No, it really is very romantic. High school sweethearts, finding their way back to each other," Mary said, smiling.
"You read too many romance novels," Dwight grumbled, but his tone was clearly affectionate.
"So you guys aren't mad?" Sam asked.
Both his parents quickly shook their heads. "No, of course not," Mary said. "I'm sad for there to have not been an actual wedding to celebrate at but, you two are almost thirty, for heaven's sake. You're old enough to know what you're doing."
Dwight nodded. "Yeah, this isn't like when you were seventeen and wanted to get your GED and follow her to LA, Sam. You've both taken time to establish yourselves in your careers, you know who you are without each other."
"Jesus," Sam muttered under his breath. "Just spill all my secrets, Dad."
Mercedes snort-laughed at that. "Um, first of all," she said, pointing her index finger at him, "you shouldn't have secrets from your wife. Second of all, the only thing secret here is that I didn't know you'd talked to your parents about your grand skip-your-senior-year plan."
Mary laughed delightedly. "Oh, yes, I think this marriage is going to work out quite well," she said and Mercedes grinned back at her before Mary continued speaking, "Mercedes, if you'll connect me with your mother, maybe we can get together over the Christmas holidays and do something to celebrate or maybe plan a reception or something for next summer?"
Mercedes nodded. "Of course. We're actually having dinner with my parents tonight, so maybe we can call you all then? When we all have more time to talk?"
"That would be wonderful," Mary said as she glanced to the side, presumably to look at a clock, because the next thing she said was, "Oh, no, we've really got to go. We're going to have to sneak up into the balcony as it is. STEVIE! Get down here, we're leaving!"
"Yeah, we're late for our reunion brunch too," Sam said. "So we'll talk to you guys later!" Goodbyes were exchanged and then the call ended and Sam leaned back in his seat.
"Well, that all went better than I thought it would, with both families," Mercedes said and Sam nodded.
"We're pretty lucky, though, you know?" Sam said thoughtfully. "Both of us – our parents have always been pretty supportive and awesome. Even your dad, once you finally got him on board with the music dream."
"Yeah, that's true. I mean, your parents basically let you move out when you were a sixteen-year-old high school junior. You've never lived full-time with your family again since you came back to Lima."
"Yeah, and if they'd said no to that, then we might not be here right now. Because whether we were together that year or not, if I hadn't stayed in Lima my senior year and become best bros with Blaine, I probably wouldn't have moved to New York and that's where we really got serious."
"Maybe," Mercedes said, giving the idea a moment of consideration. "But – don't forget, according to Rachel, we're soulmates who are meant to be, so it would've worked out one way or another." She smiled, leaning over to give him a kiss. "Someday, we'd've been together, even if it wasn't now."
"I'm just glad it was sooner rather than later," he said and then raised his eyebrows at her. "Okay. So. Wanna make out for a few minutes so that Tina wasn't screaming lies across the parking lot?"
Mercedes laughed and shook her head 'no' as she scooted away from him, towards the passenger side door. "I mean, I have the rest of my life to make out with you. But most of our friends are leaving town in a few hours, so I want to go hang with them right now and then we can make out all afternoon before we go to my mom and dad's. Deal?"
"Ugh. Fine. Deal," he grumbled as she laughed and stepped out of the truck, closing the door behind her and waiting for him to get out before walking into the restaurant.