Before We Were Strangers: A Love Story

GRACE

Matt, Ash, and I had dinner together every night for the next few nights. Things were finally starting to feel right.

On Friday of that week, I found Matt waiting for me at the front gate after school. Ash had told me to dress nicely that morning, and I could see she had given the same direction to Matt. I didn’t know what was going on, but I decided I would go with the flow.

“What are you doing here?”

He smiled and then bent and kissed my cheek. “Nice to see you, Gracie. I think our daughter has something planned for us.”

“Of course she does.” He was in dress pants and a button-down shirt. I looked down at his gleaming black Converse. That was about as dressy as I ever saw Matt.

“You look good,” I told him.

His eyes took in my casual floral dress and sandals. “So do you. You look lovely.”

I grinned. “So what’s this all about, you think?”

“Not a clue.” He held an arm out to me. “Shall we?”

“How do you know where to go?” I asked.

“Ash told me to meet you here at the gate and escort you to the auditorium.”

I nodded. “Let’s go.”

Inside the auditorium, we found Ash, Tati, and my orchestra students waiting for us, along with a few familiar faces from the Philharmonic. With the exception of Ash, they were all arranged in chairs with their instruments, as if they were about to play.

Ash came skipping over to us. “I thought we could do something fun today. All of us.”

I waved to everyone. “Did you put this all together?”

“I had help.”

Tati came over and I felt my throat tighten with emotion. “Are you two ready for this? Your daughter has worked very hard to plan something special for you today. Come and have a seat.”

We sat on the two guest chairs set up in front of our own private orchestra. Tati was the conductor, which I found especially entertaining. Matt grabbed my hand as the music began. I knew it from the first note: “Hallelujah.” He squeezed my hand and held on through the entire song.

At the end, I stood up excitedly and clapped like a maniac, yelling, “Bravo!” Matt whistled and clapped and then Ash came running over to us again.

“Wasn’t that amazing?” she said.

“Oh, Ash, thank you, sweetie. That was so thoughtful of you.”

“Wait, it’s not over yet; this is just the beginning.” She handed us a manila envelope. I opened it and pulled out an eight-by-ten black-and-white photo of Matt and me in college. It was of the two of us in the lounge at Senior House. Tati had taken it, and I remembered it vividly. “Read the back.” Ash said.

Matt stood behind me and watched as I turned it over. We both read the lines out loud:

“Hallelujah, you two found each other here . . . / Now head to the place you first met, just before senior year.”

Tati came up right behind Ash. “Give us a ten-minute head start,” she said.

Matt laughed. “Okay, we’ll see you over there.”

We said our good-byes to the musicians and thanked them for a beautiful performance. After Ash and Tati took off in a cab, Matt took my hand in his. “Do you wanna walk?”

“Yeah.”

It was a warm and sunny day. The neighborhood felt more laid-back than usual. Matt swung our hands back and forth as we walked down the street.

When we got to Senior House, the moment felt surreal and beautifully nostalgic. The building looked a little different but still felt the same. Tati and Ash were standing in the stairway. “Come up!” Tati yelled.

On the third landing, we peeked into my old room. It was empty except for my cello, propped on a chair near the window. I looked at Ash and she smiled. “Play for Dad, Mom.” She handed Matt an old camera that I recognized from college. “It’s loaded and all set for you.”

He smiled. “Thank you, Ash.”

“Okay you two, there’s an envelope for you on the windowsill,” Tati said.

“How did you guys get into this room?” I asked.

“We told the summer RA your story and he gave us the key. It’s the summer and no one was using it anyway,” Ash said, laughing.

“How much time do we have?” Matt asked.

“Be at the next location in an hour.” She leaned up on her toes and kissed her dad on the cheek and then turned to me. “Have fun, you guys.”

After they left, Matt closed the door behind us. Almost immediately, I heard the shutter on the camera clicking as he photographed me from behind. I went to the cello and sat down. “Any requests?”

He pulled the camera away from his face. “ ‘Fake Plastic Trees’?”

“You remember?”

“How could I forget?” His gaze was heavy. There was warmth and desire in his eyes, but there was also a tiny bit of regret that I knew would never go away. I felt it too, especially in that room.

I played the rather difficult song, alternating between vibrato and the bow. Matt stopped photographing me and just watched in wonder. When the song was over, I looked up to his smiling face. “You stopped taking pictures?”

“Some things are better to keep up here.” He tapped the side of his head.

“I agree,” I whispered.

He was at my side in two strides. As I stood, he gripped my face and kissed me hard. We broke away from each other for just a second. Matt set the camera on the windowsill and pressed the shutter release. The timer was on and he was back to kissing me as it clicked down and snapped open and shut, capturing the moment.

His hands crept under my dress, and before I knew it he was peeling my panties down. “Take these off,” he said, breathily.

“There’s no bed here.”

“That’s never stopped us before.”

I pulled my panties down and kicked them off. Matt’s belt was undone already when I looked back up. He picked me up to straddle him and set me on the chair. He was inside of me in two seconds without ever breaking the kiss.

“I love you, Gracie.” His voice was so smooth near my ear that I practically fell apart in the first few moments. He told me he loved me but I already knew. We moved slowly and gently and it was enough. Our moans were quiet and soothing, and I didn’t want it to ever end. Afterward we held each other for a long time.

Inside the envelope on the windowsill was a picture. It was an old color photograph of Matt and me in our pajamas, with the traffic blurred behind us. “This is cool. I’ve never seen this.”

“I just got it developed when we got back in touch. Turn it over, let’s see the clue.”

Go east one block to Avenue Seven

And then south three more

To a little slice of heaven

We left Senior House with big smiles on our faces. “Gosh, I hope Ash doesn’t think we . . .” I started to say.

“Honestly, Grace, she sort of set it up.”

“Not for that.”

“Well, we don’t need to tell her everything.”

About halfway down the block, I stopped. “Full disclosure?”

“Always.”

I looked down at my feet. “I almost had an abortion.”

He looked at me steadily. “What stopped you?”

“I couldn’t do it.” My eyes started to well up.

“Please don’t cry. This is such a happy day—the happiest I’ve felt in a long time.” He kissed me.

“I know. I’m just so happy I made the right choice.”

“Me too,” he said, quietly, as he held me on the street.

We found Ash and Tati standing outside of a building. “Come in, this is so cool,” Ash yelled.

We walked in, and upon entering we realized it was a gallery, with a man standing in a suit. Tati introduced him as the owner of the gallery. “He agreed to let Ash put up these photos, and he loved them so much that he wants to run a show for the next two months.”

I looked around, stunned. They were all Matt’s photos of me blown up and mounted professionally. The first one was a color photo of me playing the cello in the old dorm room–a picture I had never seen before. The title tag next to it read “Grace in Color.” I started to cry then, big, happy tears.

“These are beautiful. God, Ash . . .” Matt was emotional, too; he could barely speak. We both hugged her between us as we walked through the gallery, staring at all the memories, admiring Matt’s talent and seeing his reaction to the photos, each so precious to him. It wasn’t long before all of us, including Tati, were crying.

Huddled together near the door, Ash said, “There’s just one more place. I have to go first, so give me a few minutes.”

“No clue?”

“No, this one is a surprise,” Ash said.

We all hugged and then Tati walked Ash to a cab. Just before Ash got in, she called back, “No more crying, you guys!”

“Okay, kid!” Matt called back.

Once Ash was gone, Tati walked up to us and put her hands on her hips. “Listen up. That little girl has been planning this for a long time. I told her it wasn’t a good idea and she promised me that if things don’t go her way, she won’t be heartbroken.”

“What is it, Tati?” I asked.

“I told her I wouldn’t tell.” She turned her attention to Matt. “Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen with your weird little family, but I have something to say to you personally. You saw how handy I am with a bow, right?” He nodded, with an amused smile on his face. “I will shove that thing so far up you-know-where, my friend, if you hurt either one of my girls.”

He immediately threw his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. “I would never. They’re my girls, too,” he said quietly.

They pulled away and Tati pointed to the taxi behind her. “He knows where to take you. Go find your daughter.”

In the back of the cab, Matt and I held hands. I don’t think either one of us expected to pull up in front of City Hall, but that’s where we ended up. “How did she know?” Matt asked.

“Tati must have told her the story. Look, there she is.”

Ash was sitting on the steps, waiting for us. “Clever girl,” Matt said.

“Our clever girl.”

“Well, Gracie, do you feel like doing something crazy?”

“Always. But before we get out, I need to know if it’s for her or for us. I’ll do it either way, but I need to know.”

He took my hand in his. “Graceland Marie Starr-Shore-Porter—whatever your name is—my life wasn’t real without you. It was just a series of days all strung together by a bunch of regrets. But then I got you back. This is the right time, I promise; this is our time. You’re the love of my life. I fucking love you, Grace. I’ve always loved you. I loved you when I wasn’t with you, and before that, and right now. Marry me?”

“Fuck yeah,” I whispered. I took his face between my hands and kissed him. “Let’s go put on a show for her.”

He pulled me out of the cab and we stood hand in hand, staring up at Ash. “What’s this all about, kid?” Matt said.

She stood up and threw her arms out. “Come on, you guys. You know I’d make a way better witness than Gary Busey.”

Matt looked over at me with arched eyebrows. “She doesn’t smell like salami.” He shrugged.

“ ‘She doesn’t smell like salami’ will go down in history as the weirdest marriage proposal ever,” I said.

“Graceland, are you calling me weird?”

“Yep, it’s what I like about you.”

Ash walked down the steps and stood near us. She was beaming.

“I should do this right,” Matt said. He got down on one knee and took my hand in his.

“Grace, I love you and you love me. Now, will you marry me forever this time?”

“Yes. Forever.”