MidReal Story
Evelyn is dreading the wedding of her brother , as
Scenario: Evelyn is dreading the wedding of her brother, as she will have to face an old boyfriend that she made a pact with years ago; she meets Benjamin on the plane and they decide to pretend to be engaged, but as they spend more time together, they may just be falling for each other.
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I am on a plane, heading to my brother’s wedding, when I realize that I am about to see my old boyfriend.
My old boyfriend who I made a pact with just before we broke up, when we were eighteen, that if we both turned thirty and were still single, we would marry each other.
Because of course none of us would find someone else in the next twelve years.
But then we did.
I didn’t think he would ever remember our pact.
And now I’m flying to meet him to fulfill my end of the deal.
The plane starts to descend and I stare out the window, my mind racing, thoughts of what I’m going to do or say running through my head.
“Ma’am, ma’am,” I hear someone call from behind me.
I ignore it and continue to stare out the window.
“Ma’am, we’re preparing for landing.
The fasten seatbelt sign is on and you need to be seated.” It’s the flight attendant.
I don’t want to turn around because I can feel the judgment from everyone on the plane already.
“Ma’am, is there a reason you’re not listening to me?”
she asks, and I know she’s standing right behind me now.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath before turning around slowly.
She’s standing with her hands on her hips, her blonde hair in a tight bun, her face red with annoyance.
“I have a fear of flying,” I say breathlessly.
“I was just trying to center myself before we land.
It always helps me when I can see the ground.”
Her eyes soften slightly as she stares at me.
“Of course,” she says as she sits down in the seat next to me.
“We’re almost there though.You’re going to have to sit down soon.”
I nod, not saying anything for fear of bursting into tears at any moment.
We sit in silence for a few minutes before she gets up and goes back to work.
She passes me a few minutes later and says, “We’ll be landing soon.I’ll bring you some water for the descent.”
She smiles at me and I try my best to return it.
As soon as she’s out of earshot, I sigh heavily and lean back against the headrest.
It was a stupid pact we made all those years ago.
But we were young and in love, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
We were both leaving for college at the end of the summer, and he didn’t want to be one of those guys who broke up with his high school girlfriend after a month because they couldn’t handle long distance.
So we agreed that if we were both single at thirty, we would get married.
It was supposed to make it easier for us to leave each other.
I never thought he would actually remember, or that he would actually call me to set up our wedding date, or that I would have to go through with it in front of all of my friends and family, including my brother, who will never let me live this down, ever.
I’m going to throw up before the plane even lands, I know it.
We start our descent, and it’s only minutes before I’m going to have to face my fate and all of my poor life choices, so I do what I always do when I panic like this—I head to the bathroom to cool down before I have to go back to my seat to finish this flight off without losing my shit completely.
It’s not that I don’t want to marry him, it’s that I don’t want to marry anyone.
I like my life just the way it is right now—no strings attached, no commitments other than to myself, no one else to worry about or be responsible for but me.
And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
But now I have some stupid pact to fulfill and it makes me sad because it means I don’t get to live my life exactly as I want anymore—not without disappointing someone else anyway.
I take a deep breath before opening the bathroom door and stepping out into the aisle, but when I look up, I see that there’s a different man sitting next to me in my original seat than there was when I got up earlier.
It’s not hard to tell them apart since one of them looks exactly like my brother and one of them doesn’t look anything like my brother at all.
