I Still Remember

“Alright, let’s get on with this wedding.”

I was an idiot.

I should’ve known after Wednesday night I was going to have seconds thoughts about getting married. Hell, I should’ve known when I saw her in Francesca’s wedding dress. She was right; I was doing this because I was afraid to be alone.

I mean, it’s not like you can go back in time and change the past. If I were given the chance to do so, I’d go back in a heartbeat. I know Gina would take that chance too. She was right all along about one thing, this was both our faults. This whole mess was our fault. I should have never given up after she slammed the door in my face. Eric told me she’d come around, but she never did, that’s when I got the tattoo and gave up.

Now here she is, sitting in a pew at my wedding. She just spilled her guts out to me and is trying to contain herself from having a nervous breakdown in front of a good 300 people. I always knew I was in love with her.

I remember the day she moved in and I was going to play roller hockey with Eric. I stopped walking and dropped my hockey stick. Eric pulled on the sleeve of my shirt. “MARC! LETS GO!” He yelled but I stood there. Sure, she was younger than I was, but I remember thinking to myself, she looks like a Disney princess. “WHAT YOUR STARING AT YOU AIRHEAD!?” Eric yelled at me.

“Eric, look!”
“Yeah, we have a new neighbor dumbie!”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Girls have cooties!”
“Eric and Marc, come meet the new neighbors!”

We walked across the street and stood there. I remember Gina was standing by her dad who was holding her hand. I remember she was blushing but cracking a small smile. “These are my sons; Eric, Marc, and Jordan,” My mom introduced us to them. “Boys, this is Lindsy and Gina Pisani. They just moved here from Italy!”

“Do you want to come play hockey with us!?” I asked eagerly.
“Can I papa!?” Gina yelled.
“You’re too young Gina, Lindsy you can go if you want.”
“But I wanna play papa!”
“I’ll play barbies with you if you can’t play hockey!” I said eagerly.
“Really?!”
“Yeah! Lets go!”

I was so desperate to get to know her at a young age that I was willing to play Barbies with her. I remember we formed a bond since that day. She came to every hockey game, I went to every dance show. I kicked plenty of guy’s asses for her that I was known to be an instigator in Thunder Bay. She bitched out plenty of my exgirlfriends for me that she was known as the bitch. I remember she came to surprise me while I was playing in Sudbury and that’s when I gave her the hoodie with my name and number on the back. “Is that you’re girlfriend dude!?” I remember one of my teammates asking me.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” I remember saying.

And here I was now, standing before a girl who wasn’t her. She had nothing on Gina and she could never be Gina. Everything Gina had said to me had hit me like a hockey puck hitting me on the head. I am by far the stupidest idiot to walk the face of the earth. And I had less than a minute to make a decision.

“Marc Staal,” the priest began, bringing me back to reality. “Do you take Francesca Alegretti, to be your faithful wife, to love and to hold, to be there when times get rough, to be there in sickness and health, until death do you part?”

I turn my head to see Gina heading for the door. She’s about to open it but turns to look at me. Her face is drenched in mascara and her lips are trembling. I look at the ground then back at her. She turns her head and begins to open the door. I look at Francesca.

“I can’t,” I begin as a bunch of gasps hit the room.
“What?!” Francesca says to me.
“I can’t Francesca, I’m sorry.”

I walk off the alter and run toward Gina. She’s looking at me now, she looks confused and doesn’t understand what I’m doing. “Marc,” she says as I reach her. She’s at a loss for words. I don’t blame her, because if the situation was the opposite, I’d be just as confused as she was. “Marc, aren’t you supposed to be up there, exchanging vows and getting married?”

“Why would I do that if I’m not standing before the person I want to marry?”

Gina’s facial expression changes as I wipe the mascara away from her face. A smile forms to her face and I’m smiling back. That changes in a second as we hear, “MARC STAAL! YOUR PICKING HER OVER ME!?”

“Francesca, just a heads up, men like the Staal boys fall for girls who are like me; devious, can fight for what they want, and do whatever it takes to get what they want. You have nothing on me.”

She then turns to look at me and I’m smiling at her now. “Let’s get out of here,” I suggest as she throws her car keys at me. I take it I’m driving now. We run to her car hand in hand and sit there in silence. I look at her now and she’s beaming. “Where too?” I ask her before kissing her.

“Anywhere, as long as I’m with you,” she smiles.
“How about that trip to Niagra Falls?”
“That’s six hours away,” she tells me.
“That doesn’t bother me.”

We take the six hour car ride to Niagra Falls. We park the car and head for the water fall. She’s grabbing on to the metal fence bar and I’m standing behind her. She turns her head and the smile forms to her face. It was then that I realized the one person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with was infront of me the whole time.

“Gina Pisani, marry me,” I demand to her.

She bites her lip before planting one on my lips. I feel my tongue dance with hers as my stomach begins to do flip flops. She pulls away, rests her arms around my neck, and smiles at me. Everything I could ever ask for was here in Thunder Bay, not in New York. What I needed the most walked into my life when I was younger from Italy, not New Jersey when I was older. I’m the idiot for not seeing any of this before. “Marc Staal, I would love to marry you.”