6 — A Vow
October 6, 1938
"It's beautiful, guys. Beautiful."
Carmine meant it. He'd seen a lot of wedding cakes in his day, some utterly fantastic, some astoundingly simple. But this delicate little cake, prepared and decorated by the grooms themselves, was lovely.
Of course, most of the cakes Carmine had seen had been for marriages of men to women. Weddings were, in his preferred social scene, rare — besides, of course, not counting in a legal sense. Still, when two of the set decided to band together permanently in a semi-public way, everyone made an effort to make the day special. Carmine himself had called in some favors to see that Amadeo and Howard would have plenty of flowers.
They did both so love flowers, and talked about getting a little house in the country somewhere, so they could have a garden.
Maybe to some people, this wedding wouldn't seem much — a quiet ceremony in a friend's parlor, then a little party in the bar downstairs — but it brought a little novelty to life. It was something that didn't happen every day, and that many of the attendees could never even imagine having for themselves.
Carmine thought, given time and a chance, he might like to have a wedding. Yes, he might very much like to marry his Burt, and have flowers and friends and a cake, and then a dance or two.
Maybe Burt would like that too.
As if at the thought, Carmine felt a hand on his back, and looked to see Burt at his side, smiling. He smiled too, and slipped his arm around Burt's shoulders.
"Nice to see them happy, huh?" he asked.
"Mmm," Burt nodded.
"The dear boys deserve it."
"We all deserve happiness," Carmine said, and turned to pull Burt close.
Someone had started the Vic, and there was a sweet-sounding Yiddish song playing. Sounded like a love song.
"Dance with me?" Carmine asked.
"Of course," Burt smiled.
Nearly everyone had started dancing, or at least swaying along to the music, but after one bar, Carmine only had eyes for Burt. Dear Burt, with his round, sweet face and his twinkling eyes and his hair so pale it seemed almost white.
Burt. His own dear Burt.
"You know, Burt, you make me awfully happy."
"Do I? Well, good. You make me happy too."
"Promise," Carmine said, and he shifted out of step slightly so they backed into a darker corner of the room, "that we can always be so happy together, you and I."
"I shall promise if you shall," Burt said.
Carmine grinned.
"Oh, I promise. I do promise."
They sealed their little vow with a kiss.
Posted Oct 6, 2019, 5:39 AM UTC · edited