Chapter 12
“Okay. So, who’s going to call first?” Miles asked.
“It’s almost ten, London. I’d better go. But you’re going to talk as well. You should at least say something to your future in-laws.”
“I was going to, don’t worry. It’s not too late to call?”
“Oh, no. I’ve called them at ten before. They know it’s just how it is with the time difference.”
“Alright.” In truth Miles was growing nervous. He had the picture in his mind of a stoic, smoking jacket-wearing father and a prim and proper mother. He rolled his eyes when he realized he was basing his characteristics on actors from ‘Titanic’. He watched Sophie punch in the number with trepidation. She put the phone to her ear and waited.
“Hello, mum. How are you? Good. Oh, it’s fine. The weather’s warming a bit and we’ve got different kinds of groups in so there’s some variety in what we have to do. Yeah. Listen, mum, the reason I called-“ Miles could feel his stomach clench, “-Is…well, I might be staying in the states for a bit longer. No, they haven’t extended my contract, really,” Sophie took Miles’ hand in hers. “It’s more like a different kind of contract. Miles…” She squeezed hard enough to make Miles grimace, “Miles asked me to marry him Tuesday.” Miles heard an unintelligible woman’s voice on the other end. “I said yes, mum. I’ve got a big sparkly diamond on my finger right now to prove it. No, I don’t know how we’re going to go about it. This was the first step of going about it, really.”
Miles still did not know what to feel He thought he was perspiring even though it should have been cold enough for a jumper in the lounge.
“Here, Miles. It’s my mum.” Miles took the phone with a damp hand and held it to his ear.
“Hell, Mrs. Martin. This is Miles.”
“Is it true, what Sophie said?”
“It is. I asked her Tuesday.”
“Well, I suppose it’s nice to finally speak to you, then. What are you two going to do?”
“Well, like Sophie said, this is pretty much the first step. I think we have to do it here for Sophie to be legal, but other than that we’re not really sure.”
“I must say, this is quite a surprise.”
“So was Sophie, Mrs. Martin.” Sophie brushed his arm affectionately. Yes. We will definitely be keeping in touch. It was nice speaking with you. I will. Ok. Here’s Sophie.”
“Mum? That was Miles. Yes, we’re going to try to figure things out very soon. We’re starting today, as a matter of fact, as soon as we get done making the phone calls. Well, we haven’t called his parents yet either. Well, it’s already ten there. We’re going to call them next. No, I haven’t. Chicago’s awfully far away for a weekend trip, that’s why.” Sophie made the universal hand gesture for gabbing and rolled her eyes. After a drawn out goodbye post-scripted with promises of updates Sophie relinquished the phone to Miles.
Talking to the first set of parents had loosened Miles up a bit. He dialed his parents’ number almost calmly and waited for them to pick up in Illinois.
“Hey, Mom. Good, good, how are you? Oh, it’s fine, getting pretty routine nowadays. We’re starting to get more teambuilding and outdoor education groups in, so it changes up from time to time. Listen, the reason I called you is, remember Sophie? No, things are fine. Actually,” Miles took a deep breath. “We’ve decided to get married.” There were no words for a moment.
“Are you serious?” Mrs. Drake asked her son finally. Miles affirmed. “Isn’t this a little soon?”
“Well, it might seem like that, but remember I spend almost twenty-four hours a day with her. As far as maturity goes, we’re at least a normal year into our relationship.”
“Is she pregnant?”
“Mom! I don’t know.” He turned to Sophie. “Sophie, dear, are you pregnant?” Sophie’s mouth gaped open and she slapped his shoulder before realizing the joke. “No, no, Sophie assures me she’s not. I don’t know how that would be possible since we’ve done nothing more than hold hands once.”
“Miles Jacob Drake, I know you better than that.” The joke seemed to ease Miles’ mother a bit. “Well, your father’s out golfing, but I’ll tell him. He’ll probably call you. You should call back if he doesn’t.” Mrs. Drake launched into a volley of questions from there. They were the same questions Sophie’s mother had asked moments before and they were answered with the same responses Sophie had given her mother. After they had all been asked Miles handed the phone to Sophie.
“Mrs. Drake? Hello, this is Sophie. It’s nice to finally talk to you, too. London. Yes, right in the thick of it. Tottenham Court Road. Oh, it’s been wonderful. Well, I’m sort of biased, I suppose. Miles and I met on the very first day of training and we’ve been more the most part inseparable since. Yes, he is. Yes, he has. I would have nothing to do with him if he wasn’t, believe me. He asked me over coffee in town a few days ago. People clapped in Starbucks. It was quite sweet, really. Yes, very much. I would have never agreed to such a crazy idea if I wasn’t. Thank you. Ok, I’ll put him back on.”
“Miles?” He answered. “She seems nice.” Miles agreed. “Well, I’ll let you go, but call back tonight when your father gets back, ok?” Miles promised he would and hung up.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” he sighed, turning to Sophie.
“Let’s make something to eat,” she suggested with a kiss.
“Good idea. Jabari said that baked ziti stuff was for dinner tonight.”
“Oh, gross. Let’s make that pizza.”
“Ah! Here’s to being fat and married,” Miles exalted.
“Not yet, I want to look good in a wedding dress.”
“What’s the point? I figured we would drive to Vegas and get hitched at one of those drive-through chapels. You don’t even have to get out of the car or anything. Costs you around fifty bucks and you get ten of it back in casino chips.”
“Well, you and your future wife have fun with that road trip. Send me a postcard; let me know how that works out for you.”
“Oh, you. Let’s go make some magic.”
“Right now? I’m hungry!” Sophie’s grey-green eyes twinkled with mischief.
“There’ll be time for all sorts of things, my dear.”
“Thank God. I thought we were going to have to go without sex today.”
Miles stood back from his future bride and took her in with a grin. “What got into you, Miss Sarcastic?”
“Oh, for the day when I’ll be Mrs. Sarcastic.” That put the sobriety back into her eyes. “Wait a moment. I’m going to be…Sophie Drake. Sophie Drake. Mrs. Sophie Drake. Mrs. Miles Drake. Mrs. Drake. Wow.”
“That was my hope.”
“I didn’t mean to be so sarcastic. I guess I’m just relieved that our parents took it so well. Still have the jitters, I guess.”
“I figured as much. Think nothing of it. We can have sex tonight though, right?” Miles teased.
“I suppose. Quite a step up from holding hands once.”
Miles laughed. “Yeah, I know she didn’t buy that one.” They walked over from the phone in the living room to the kitchen where Sophie set about pre-heating the oven while Miles pulled out the frozen pizza and a pair of Guinness’s. They sipped as the pizza cooked and opened fresh bottles when they were ready to eat.
Jabari, Sergio, and Christopher were the only ones in the living room so instead of scampering back with their dinner to Miles’ cabin they sat on the remaining unoccupied couch to watch television. Miles asked the trio what they were doing over the weekend when there was a break in ‘Beverly Hills Cop’.
“Probably just staying here. Might go out to the bar one night. What are you two up too?”
“Well, we have to figure out how to make Sophie legal. Licenses and whatnot. In case there’s some kind of waiting period. But if we figure that quickly enough, we’re in the clear.”
“I never thought about that. Green card, right?”
“Yeah, that’s about all I know, too. We’re going to go online tomorrow and check things out. Speaking of that,” he turned to Sophie, “Don’t let me forget to call back home tonight.” She nodded.
After the movie finished Miles receded to the phone to call home again. He called for Sophie after a moment and they both talked to his father for a few minutes. The advanced state of the evening made the second Drake conversation mercifully short. Miles was also sure that his father had been filled in on all the pertinent details as soon as he had walked in the door.
“I want to put pajamas on,” Sophie told Miles after they hung up the phone.
“I think that can be arranged. Mine or yours?”
“Yours, of course. I wear them entirely too much, though. They smell more like me than you any more.”
“ Aw. So mushy.” Sophie denied the accusation. The two said goodbyes to Jabari and the Fearsome Foreign, still the only people in the lounge, and started for Miles’ cabin.
When they arrived the lights were off and the door was locked. “Looks like someone beat us to the nest,” Miles mused.
“We can go back to mine.” They did and found Emma reading in her bed. Sophie explained what had happened and reluctantly wore her own pajamas.
Emma tented her book. “Are you two serious?” She asked.
“Yes,” Sophie answered without looking for confirmation. Miles liked that.
“Really, married?” They both nodded. “Bloody hell. This is too crazy. I feel like I’m on a T.V. show and someone is about to burst out and surprise me with the hidden cameras.” Miles chuckled.
“Sometimes I feel that way as well.”
“What does that mean?” Sophie asked, already nuzzled into his collarbone for the night.
“You’ll think it’s cheesy.” Sophie goaded him nonetheless. “I keep expecting the cameras to pop out and tell me you’re a professional actress and this has all been a prank. Reality T.V.”
“Well, it’s not. But thank you for the professional actress comment.” Miles was too tired from the stress of meeting parents and surprising those he already knew to think of a witty retort. He merely kissed what he could reach and snuggled in with Sophie. Emma flushed the book back up to her chest.
A few seconds after Miles woke up he realized he was in Sophie’s cabin. Sophie awoke as always immediately after he did. They greeted one another blindly.
“What do you feel like?” Miles asked.
“Hmm. Staying in bed, but this room doesn’t feel right.”
“I know. We haven’t slept here in a long time.”
“I can’t wait until we have a real bed we can spread out in.”
“Yeah. Then we won’t even have to touch each other.”
“Oh, you know what I mean, you.”
“Yeah. I’m so glad I’m marrying you. I can’t think of anyone I would rather spend time with doing anything. Especially this.”
“Yeah, we’re really good at this, aren’t we?”
“The best, sweetheart. The best.” Miles kissed Sophie’s forehead before they decided to get out of bed.
“It’s still so cold in the morning,” Sophie lamented, hugging herself tighter on the way to the lounge. It was early yet, barely nine in the morning, and the road was empty save the two of them.
The lounge was empty, as they had come to expect. After the lights fluttered to life they leafed through their cupboard and decided on nothing more complicated than tea. Soon they had steaming cups and were curled up on the couch together; Sophie’s morning chills forgotten.
“We have to go online today and see about the whole green card process,” Miles said.
“I know. It seems like such a daunting task. Getting a driver’s license is hard enough. I can’t imagine what we’ll have to go through so that I can stay here.”
“It’s got to be done. And the longer we wait the more stressed about it we’re going to be.” Sophie nodded her agreement. “Well, we can finish tea first.” They did, perhaps a little more slowly than usual.
They also knew that they needed to claim the lone computer which was squirreled on a table under a set of high cupboards along the nearest wall to the living room before everyone else woke up.
Miles sat in the driver’s seat with Sophie leaning against him, looking on. After checking his email as a stall tactic Miles googled ‘green card marriage’ and got well over a million hits. Miles scrolled down and clicked on one that had a Q&A description. The site’s main page took about an hour to read but what the hopeful lovers found was surprising.
“So, you don’t even have to be a citizen to marry me, technically. And in thirty days we could get a fiancé visa that would let you stay here because Vermont’s so up-to date on their processing. That’s good for us. It looks like Philly and Texas are almost a year behind. We should get this in as quickly as we can.”
“Miles! I love you and I want to do this too, but you need to slow down and breathe or I’m going to become a widow before I become a wife.”
“Point taken.” Miles could not resist kissing her lavishly in his excitement. There were others milling around the lounge by that point but they seemed to have an idea of what Miles and Sophie were hoping to accomplish and had not approached to ask for a turn on the net. Miles continued searching for an I-129-F form, thrilled at how easy the process seemed.
Miles kept Sophie searching the computer as he called an automated number for the Vermont Service Center. The system eventually gave him a website to purchase the four page form which he did immediately after hanging up. Unfortunately it was not downloadable but would be mailed to Ontonogan within twenty-four hours. That meant two days in their case since it was a Saturday morning. For a fee of twenty dollars Sophie was on her way to becoming a U.S. citizen.
The happy couple relinquished their monopoly of the computer to Paul after writing down the names of the other forms that they would have to eventually procure and complete.
“We pretty much have to get married first, to be able to show that document to who ever has to see it,” Miles reflected, as they walked back to his cabin.
‘I’m worried, though. It also said you have to have three years of income tax returns that prove you can provide for me. Not that that’s necessary as far as I’m concerned, but legally…”
“I know, I know. It also said that you could have a co-sponsor sign for you. It’s like a car loan. I have to call my parents anyways for my income tax papers anyways since they keep those filed away for me along with theirs, so I’ll broach the subject with them. If I explain that the government just needs to see that someone will be there to meet your needs if you can’t, they should be fine with it. They didn’t disapprove of the engagement or anything.”
“That sounds good. But it still worries me. I’m worried too, that the marriage license will take too long and they’ll kick me out. I’m not leaving you, especially if you’re my husband.”
“Thanks, Sophie. It seems that if we file for the marriage license after getting the fiancé one they would approve that visa for as long as it took to get the marriage license taken care of since both would be on file somewhere and would have our marriage certificate.”
“We need to make sure about all this stuff. I want to have it laid out, step by step.”
“Maybe we can find an actual person to talk to. Or maybe we could go to the Vermont office; it can’t be that far away. Meet with someone in person when we have a couple of days off. It might be easier that way. Their office must have all the forms in case we’re missing one.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I don’t even want to think about planning for a wedding on top of all this right now. If I wasn’t marrying you I don’t think this would be bloody worth it.” Sophie wrinkled her nose at him just before they kissed on Miles’ porch.
“Wait a minute. We didn’t even eat breakfast back there. And now that I’ve realized it, I’m starving. Let’s go into town to eat. A change of scenery will get our minds off of things maybe. And when we get back I’ll call my parents and tell them what we found out. My mom is probably expecting daily updates anyways.”
“That sounds like a good thing to do. I hope hey like me.”
“They love you!”
“How do you know?”
“Are you kidding? You were a hit at Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Pete’s 25th wedding anniversary. And that trip we took to Martha’s Vineyard? They were so impressed by your knowledge of handbags and cheese.”
“Shut up,” she laughed in spite of herself.
“I’d go to England.”
“What?”
“Sophie, if they kick you out. I would go to England with you as long as I could or until it worked out.”
“But you have school!”
“My enrollment can be deferred. I’m already accepted. I could just wait.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Sophie, I don’t want to leave you either.”
“I thought we weren’t going to talk about this until after breakfast.” She clenched his hand with hers resolutely and continued walking to the Jeep in silence.
“Sophie, listen,” Miles gently held Sophie’s wrists so she would stay put in front of the vehicle. “I mean what I say when I say it. It’s not ‘caught up in the moment’ type of stuff. We’re talking about spending the rest of our lives together. That started the moment we met, even if we didn’t know it then. Taking a semester or a year off from grad school is nothing in the scheme of that. Asking you to marry me means that my life becomes yours and the same way around.”
“Miles, I can’t ask you to do something like that!”
“You’re not asking me. I would do it because that’s the only way.”
“But I don’t know if I could ask someone to do that for me and I feel terrible that you might have to do it for me.” Sophie was close to tears.
“What are you talking about? You’re the one making the sacrifice. If anything I should feel guilty about you uprooting your entire life to move halfway around the world just for me. But I never thought that way because I thought that when we decided on this we became the most important thing in one another’s lives. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?”
“Yes, and of course I feel that way, that’s why I’m staying here, for you. But Miles, I don’t have anything happening in my life. I can do anything here or in England. I have no plans at all. What if you come to London with me and never end up going to school again? I would feel terrible about that. You’d grow to resent me-“
“Stop! Sophie, stop! Sophie-Have I ever lied to you?” Sophie shook her head and before Miles went on he brushed away her tears with his index finger. It took more time than one might think. “Have I ever broken a promise to you?” Again Sophie shook her head. “Then you’ve no reason to doubt me when I promise you that I will go back to school and I will marry you and we will be together from now on. As long as that’s what you want, too.” Sophie nodded.
“I want that.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“I want that very much. Oh God, Miles, I want that to happen.” Sophie clung to him and Miles could see she was emotionally spent.
“I love you, Sophie Martin.”
“I love you too, Miles Drake.”
“Do you still want to go into town?”
“Yeah.”
Miles dropped his hands from Sophie’s wrists and opened the door for her.
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