Mara Bell
Bride
Runs the farm-stand calendar the way other people run airlines, and keeps the list of who sat where at every dinner we have ever given.
Every good table begins with one empty chair. Ours began with a seat no one claimed at a friend's Friendsgiving — and the person who finally sat down in it.
The spare chair
The host had set one extra place, out of habit, and by the time the turkey made its round everyone had a seat but one chair sat empty. Mara walked in late, looked at it, and said, “Is this one saved?” Elliot answered that it was now. Nobody cleared that setting for the rest of the night.
Setting the table early
Seven years of the same dinner later, they were setting the table again — the same long one, before any guest arrived. Elliot stopped halfway through the place cards, dropped to one knee beside the cranberry napkins, and asked her to keep the seat next to his forever. She said yes before he had set it down.
