I Agreed to Be Her Fake Boyfriend for One Night and Now She’s My Wife
When Grace was seven, she had to do a project for school about her family. She insisted on including the story of how we met, complete with illustrations she drew of Sophia grabbing my face at the bar.
Her teacher called us in for a parent conference.
“Grace’s project was unique,” she said carefully. “She says you two met because her mother grabbed you at a bar and made you meet her grandparents.”
“That’s accurate,” Sophia said.
The teacher didn’t quite know how to respond.
“It’s unconventional.”
“That’s one word for it,” I said, “but it’s the truth. We tell Grace honest stories, even the weird ones.”
The teacher smiled.
“Well, it certainly made for the most memorable presentation.”
The other kids couldn’t stop talking about it. Grace beamed with pride.
On our 10th anniversary, we went back to the bar as usual. But this time, we brought Grace with us. She was 8 years old and so excited to see the place where her parents met.
“This is it?” she asked, looking around. “I thought it would be fancier.”
“It’s a bar, sweetheart,” Sophia said. “They’re not usually fancy.”
The bartender, who’d been working there all 10 years we’d been coming back, made Grace a Shirley Temple.
“Your parents are the best love story I’ve ever seen,” he told her. *”And I’ve seen a lot of people meet at this bar.”
“They’re weird,” Grace said matter-of-factly.
“The best people usually are.”
We sat at our usual spots, Grace between us, and toasted to 10 years.
“I can’t believe it’s been a decade,” Sophia said. “Feels like yesterday and forever ago at the same time. Do you regret it?” I asked.
“Grabbing a stranger? Never. Best worst decision I ever made.”
Grace tugged on my sleeve.
“Daddy, will you tell me the story again?”
“We just told you this morning.”
“I know, but I want to hear it here, where it happened.”
So we told the story again, sitting in the exact place where it began. About panic and impulse and saying yes to something strange. About a fake relationship becoming real. About taking chances and finding love in unexpected places.
When we finished, Grace said: “I’m glad Mommy grabbed you.”
“Me too, kid. Me too.”
We sat there for another hour, just the three of us, in the bar where everything started. Where two strangers became something more. Where a lie became truth. Where panic became love.
Later that night, after we put Grace to bed, Sophia and I sat on the couch.
“10 years,” she said, “since the bar. Best decade of my life.”
“Mine too.”
She curled up against me.
“Do you ever think about what would have happened if things had gone differently? If you’d said no?”
“All the time. But you didn’t give me much choice. You just grabbed me and started lying to your parents.”
She laughed.
“True. Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. Best thing that ever happened to me.”
We sat in comfortable silence, the kind that only comes after years together. After countless conversations and arguments and makeups. After building a life from nothing.
“Andrew?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for saying yes.”
I kissed the top of her head.
“Thank you for asking.”
15 years after that night at the bar, we took Grace, now a teenager, back to our anniversary spot. She rolled her eyes when we suggested it.
“Do we have to? That place is so old.”
“That place is where your parents met,” Sophia said. “It’s tradition.”
