RemembeRED: Mistake

Prompt: In the spirit of relationships that we all knew wouldn’t work, we’d like for you to write about one you knew was doomed from the start. It could be yours or a close friend or family member.

It was supposed to be her fairy tale.

Her dream come true, happily ever after, and all those other tall tales that girls grow up hearing.

Cathy and I often joked that if one of us thought the other was making a mistake in our choice of groom, we would slap the bride on her wedding day. Which would be silly, of course. Why wait until then, after all the deposits have become nonrefundable? Besides, walking down the aisle with a red hand print on the cheek would completely ruin the pictures. At least, that is how our discussions played out as we giggled in the darkness of our dorm room.

I couldn't exactly articulate what bothered me when I finally met her fiance'. He seemed too perfect, too polished, too charming. He felt wrong somehow, a mirage. I swallowed my unfocused trepidations; the fact that my 'spidey-sense' was tingling wasn't reason enough to speak up. I wanted my best friend to be happy. She looked deliriously ecstatic to me, and the two of them looked like the perfect storybook couple.

Now here it was, her wedding day.

The bridesmaids had our hair done all poufy, and we were hairpinned to death. We wore the obligatory ugly bridesmaids dress, and tried not to put a run in our hose before the ceremony. I helped Cathy adjust her dress and fussed over her. All the while, a part of me wanted to slap her, because she couldn't see what she was marrying. How could she not see?

My job during the ceremony, as the Maid of Honor, was to adjust the Bride's train, hold the bouquet, and to hang onto the groom's ring until it was required. I wanted to hurl that ring farther than I could possibly throw it, but this was Cathy's day. She had made her choice, and as her friend I had to accept that. So I did.

But when the time came to hand the Groom's ring to her, it leapt right out of my hand, hit the floor and bounced with an audible 'clink' that seemed to reverberate in the quiet church.