Chapter 5 - Ethan met Vanessa nine months earlier
They moved fast.
That became another source of family argument.
Ethan met Vanessa at a Nashville development conference.
His company, Carter Site Systems, provided safety-compliance planning and field-risk consulting for mid-sized commercial construction projects.
Not glamorous.
Useful.
Vanessa worked in strategic partnerships for Mitchell Development Group, her father’s regional real-estate company.
They were paired at a panel dinner.
Three weeks later, Ethan told me:
“I met someone.”
Four months later:
“I think this is serious.”
Seven months after meeting:
Engaged.
I said:
“That’s fast.”
Ethan replied:
“So was you and Dad.”
True.
Michael proposed after ten months.
We married after fourteen.
I lost that argument.
Why had I never met Vanessa?
Circumstance at first.
Ethan and Vanessa planned to visit me one Sunday.
A client emergency pulled Ethan away.
Vanessa said she would still come.
Then canceled because her mother had been hospitalized overnight for chest pain.
Real.
Another dinner was scheduled.
I had influenza.
Then Ethan spent three weeks in Texas for a contract.
Another invitation became a Mitchell charity dinner where Vanessa told Ethan:
“Your mom said she’d rather meet somewhere quieter.”
I had said nothing of the kind.
At the time, no one compared notes.
We spoke by telephone four times.
Short.
Polite.
I had seen photographs of Vanessa.
She had seen one old photograph of me from Ethan’s office.
Taken six years earlier.
Longer hair.
No glasses.
Different enough, apparently, that soaking-wet me on a lawn did not trigger recognition.
Was it plausible she simply failed to recognize me?
Yes.
People are worse at facial memory than they imagine.
May you like
But by the time she picked up the hose, she knew I claimed to be Ethan’s guest.
That mattered more.
