More stories about miss Melville

I am especially fond of her.
There is a certain art to making up icebreakers. It has to be embarrassing for everyone involved, and yet there have to be enough people in the world to revel in that embarrassment.
"Ok, in this start up, we're going to briefly tell how your parents met, and one important decision they each had to make to meet."
Melville fumbled at realizing how once again she should have made it more simply. While the group gave her puzzled looks and some actually thought about it a little, she repeated, "Does that make sense? I mean think about how your parents met. Summarize in a couple of sentences," she spoke quickly and awkwardly. Like she was running over the words and tripping. "And think about the decisions they had to make for you to be born."
After another awkward pause of wondering whether they even knew what she was trying to say, and Norton giving her another repulsive pitying look, she stuttered on to say, as she continued to think about how ashamed she was of Norton and how painfully she regretted the way he felt about her. "Like, for me, my parents met at a really unusual conference for believing inventors. But that's not the interesting part. My Mom made a really interesting decision in marrying my dad. To keep it short, if she hadn't decided to do things the way she did, I would never have been born."
"Wait, so how did she make the decision?" asked miss Warren.
"Well, it was really weird, but she didn't make the decision herself, who to be with. I mean, there were these two guys and she wasn't in love with these guys, but she figured that she couldn't trust the way she felt because she tended to attach emotionally to really bad guys. Anyway, she saw two guys as really good candidates, so she told both of them what she thought, that she could be happy with either of them, but she wanted them to decide between themselves, who should marry her. And they both liked her, and they were really good friends, and strong believers. Really, only they could have handled it the way it was. They'd all been through a lot, these two guys and my mom, so I guess they had and understanding."
'Yeah, that is weird," said Mr. Handford.
"But, anyway, let's move on. I hope your parents aren't as odd as mine are."
"Ok," said Hanford, "My parents went to school together. They lived on the same floor of the dorm."
Miss Lilley betrayed a spark of happy thoughts. Her current target lived on her floor.
"Wait, so how did they decide which guy was going to be your dad, I mean, which of two guys was your dad?"
"Well, actually, it wasn't--Uh, can we talk about this afterwards? I want to get through this study, We can be quick, honest."

So they hurried through whatever section it was, probably Rebecka, including applications, even faster than Melville usually did them. As soon as Melville breathed, "ok, we're done," Joy Warren started with, "Ok, so which of the two guys was your dad?"
"Well, it turned out each guy admitted he loved my mom, and they could each see that the other loved her, too. Now, one was older than she was while the other was younger than her. And she honestly had long hoped for an older guy, as easier to respect. But the older one was also blond, which was too bad because she had never intended to marry a blond, although it was understood that superficialities shouldn't matter.
"And of course, being the good men they were, neither would deny his friend, and they were like 'you deserve her,' 'No, you do.' 'No, I think you're better for her.' 'I can't imagine forcing you to live without her.' 'I can't take her away from you either.' and it went on and on. It was so crazy."
As the story came to its climax, Melville's mother had seen both men a little later, and they still hadn't decided. She told them that she wanted their decision whenever it came, and she could wait for it. If it was best, she wanted to see them as little as possible until then, so they wouldn't feel pressured. She also said she wanted them to do a whole lot of praying together, rather than trying to reason through it. So they did. It was a long time before they saw her again. She was smart, though, she had them communicating with her mentor, so she was the one that made sure she was home when they went to her with the final decision.
She opened to door to see them both standing side by side, pressed close and filling the whole doorway, looking serious and ecstatic and struggling to settle on the appropriate expression.
She herself tried to be calm, but of course this was a big deal. She didn't even invite them inside because she was so nervous and didn't have any talent with manners, anyway.
So she tried to read their faces to see if she could guess before they told her. She acknowledged she was being selfish in doing so, though. But they had the same expression. And neither one would speak.
"So," Said the future Mrs. Melville.
"So," said both men, together.
"We decided," One said
"We picked out the ring together," said the other. This stabbed her with a new wash of emotion. She hadn't put them and the ring together in her thoughts.
"It was after we picked out the man, though," One of them started again.
"Because..." the other said
"Because..." the first repeated.
"Well, because he picked the ring out with us."
"And we knew it had to be him, not us."
They stepped each to the side and behind them was Mr. Melville, on both knees, holding the ring. Tall, black-haired, handsome older Mr. Melville. Of course he had been the one. She had almost forgotten him. And all her efforts to remain serious failed there.