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Super Mario Maker had become Tessa’s escape from the real world. She played every time that she needed to decompress and release some frustrations. She found that yelling at her in-game failures was much more productive than yelling at her boyfriend, Morgan. Tessa could be as vulgar or irritable with the game as she wanted because it wouldn’t argue back and make her feel guilty.
She was playing today to decompress from a terrible day at work. She had become a nurse since retiring from figure skating and had to deal with patients in all kinds of conditions. On today’s shift, a three-year-old died after being in a car accident. Tessa had been holding the girl’s hand as she died because her father was on the operating table. When he came out of surgery, having to tell him that his daughter was dead was the hardest thing Tessa had ever experienced in her life.
Dying in most of the levels of Super Mario Maker was therapeutic. The more she died, the more of her pent-up emotions she was screaming out. The few level completions that were sprinkled in between the failures helped her feel slightly better. It helped relieve some of the pent-up emotions about all the losses she had been stacking up.
Tessa was in the middle of one of the “Hard” difficulty levels when Morgan returned from his first skating session since the season stoppage. He noticed Tessa holding the Switch and sighed.
“Rough day at work?” Morgan asked as he sat on the couch beside his girlfriend.
Tessa nodded without looking away from her game. “A toddler died as the result of a car accident. I was the one holding her hand when it happened because her dad was in emergency surgery.” She sighed as she briefly squeezed her eyes shut. After a moment, she opened them and looked back at the game. Tessa cursed softly when she noticed that she had nearly fallen into a pit of lava. “I was the one that gave him the bad news after he stabilized and woke up. It… was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” The tears in her eyes had nothing to do with the joy of completing the level that had frustrated her for over an hour.
Morgan grabbed the Switch from Tessa. Tessa wanted to protest but Morgan held one of his fingers up in the classic “one-second” motion. True to his word, it wasn’t long until she had the Switch back in her own hands. The indicator was over the top of a level titled “<3” and tagged with a creator’s name of Frederick.
“Go on,” Morgan smiled as he gestured to the Switch. “It’s one of the levels that starts with Mario moving for you.”
“What el–” Tessa started but decided it would be best to play the level to find out for herself.
Tessa clicked to load the level and waited for the loading screens to play through. True to Morgan’s words, Mario started moving on his own. As he moved along the cloud conveyor belt, Tessa scanned the level design. The coins in the sky above Mario caught her attention because they appeared to be arranged into words. The conveyor moved fairly quickly but she had well enough reading skills that she could comprehend what the coins spelled out.
Tessa, Lvl Up To Be My Wife? - M ♡
Tessa glanced at Morgan. He had an engagement ring in his hand that she was sure he had conjured out of thin air with black magic because she hadn’t felt him leave the couch. Tessa blinked in surprise as she turned her attention back to the game. The conveyor had dropped her on a platform beside two pits. The pit to the left had coins above it that spelled out “yes”; the pit to the right had coins above it that spelled out “no”. Tessa turned the Switch to make it visible to Morgan before she jumped down the pit that had the “yes” coins above it. She landed on the end course flag and made the flag shoot all the way to the top. The end music played and caused fireworks shaped like hearts to shoot off in the background.
As soon as the menu screen came up, Tessa placed the Switch onto the coffee table and turned to look at Morgan. He had a confident, almost cocky, smile on his face. He held the engagement ring out for his fiancee; Tessa grabbed it and slipped it onto the correct finger. She examined it for a moment and when she was satisfied, she smiled at Morgan.
“When did you make that?” She asked as she gestured to the Switch.
Morgan smiled awkwardly as he ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve been working on it for three weeks,” he said. “I finished last night. I wanted to surprise you and let you find it on your own but you deserved something happy after what you told me.”
Tessa felt tears start to sting her eyes as she sat there, motionless. She took a steadying breath to collect herself before she wiped the tears away from her eyes. Morgan moved closer to his fiancee and draped his arm across her shoulders. He pressed a kiss to Tessa’s temple and squeezed her tightly against him. Tessa hummed thoughtfully as she dropped her head onto his chest.
“Would this make us Mario and Peach?” She asked as she glanced tentatively at Morgan.
Morgan bit his lip and produced a thought-provoking face. After a moment, he nodded. “I suppose so. Why do you ask?”
Tessa bit her lip as she lifted her head to look at Morgan. Morgan raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Tessa breathed in and out a few times before she spoke, a smile on her face the whole time.
“Because I’m pregnant with baby Mario and baby Peach.”