"The Proxy Marriage," by Maile Meloy

Appeared in the New Yorker, May 21st, 2012 (online to subscribers here); read with wonderful feeling for the August 2021 New Yorker Fiction Podcast by Ann Patchett

Several thousand words, maybe, I don't feel like logging in/not sure if I'm still a subscriber

(Big spoilers here, and Patchett does a very slight spoiler in the discussion before the reading.) What a sweet, simple story. On the podcast, Patchett and Treisman differ on how sweet that ending really is, and I can't help wanting to take Patchett's side, wanting to make these dumb kids happy. The scene with that last couple on Skype is lovely, the way the couple is both moved by their own wedding and delighted by William and Bridey's kiss.

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