“I do sometimes wonder,” Vanessa said. “What your mother is like.”

Joan laughed. “She’s not one to really wonder about, honestly. She’s pretty…expected. A little vanilla, even—but in a very, very nice way.”

“Oh, if anyone ever said that about me, I’d murder them.”

“Yes, I know, but my mother would not be offended by me saying that. And that should tell you everything.”

“Well, now I have to meet this milquetoast woman.”

“I didn’t say she was milquetoast! She’s just a person who does what society expects of her in a way that makes it look easy. I don’t think she’s milquetoast at all.”

“Well, I’m still curious. About her and your math-teacher dad.”

Joan laughed.

“I think we should go,” Vanessa said.

Joan looked at her. “Are you serious?”

“Do I think it’s a particularly smart thing to do? No, I don’t,” she said. Then her eyes lit up. “But, fuck your sister. And I want to.”

Joan laughed. She could not quite wrap her head around the moment in front of her.

“Frances will be there for a lot of the night, too, right?” Vanessa asked.

“Yeah,” Joan said. “She will be.”

“So even better. She can dance standing on my feet.”

“I don’t know,” Joan said. “She’s got some pretty great moves herself.”

“Great,” Vanessa said. “I’ll dance on hers, then.”

Vanessa walked toward the bed, turned the blanket down.

“You aren’t worried what people will think?” Joan asked as they got into bed. “The two of us there together?”

Vanessa turned out the light and Joan moved toward the center of the bed. Vanessa’s arm was tucked in the crook of Joan’s neck.

“Plenty of women bring friends to weddings,” Vanessa said. “It’s not like we’re going to slow dance with your head on my shoulder.”

Joan did not say anything for a moment. And then: “It’s not fair,” she said, finally. “That part is not fair.”

“No, honey,” Vanessa said. “It isn’t.”

Later, before they fell asleep, Joan said, “Happiness is so hard to come by. I don’t understand why anyone would begrudge anyone else for managing to find some of it.”

“That’s because you’re too good for the world you love so much,” Vanessa said.

—

Frances was the flower girl. Daniel’s friend Robert held the rings. Vanessa wore the one dress she owned. It was a navy blue shift that she wore under a blazer, with a pair of loafers.

Joan stood at Barbara’s side, quietly holding her and Barbara’s flowers. When the preacher was speaking about love not being boastful, Joan’s heart seized. She looked at Vanessa in the second-to-last row, and smiled as she caught her gaze.

As Daniel and Barbara made their vows, Joan smiled at Vanessa, hoping that Vanessa understood what Joan’s smile was trying to say.