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The chords for the bride began to play. Everyone stood.
Scarlet entered in rose on her father’s arm.
The air I’d been holding in my lungs escaped without me being prepared to hold back. My tears began to fall.
This was it.
Everything was about to change forever.
Through my tears, I said good-bye to Ian.
When he stepped forward to take Scarlet’s hand from her father’s arm, I saw Xavier smiling at me.
“I’m here,” he mouthed.
“Ladies and gentlemen!” The DJ’s shout piped through the ballroom after the wedding party had been welcomed into the reception and only Ian and Scarlet were left waiting on the other side of the grand entrance. “I give you Mr. and Mrs. Ian Ward Dupree!”
We’d formed a man-made tunnel in the middle of the ballroom, bridesmaids on one side, groomsmen on the other, and waved our hands over their heads as they danced along the line to one of Ian’s old favorite rap songs.
Ian twirled Scarlet around in her rose gown. Their eyes linked and it seemed as if we weren’t all standing there. Like they were alone. Somewhere more beautiful. We backed away and found our seats at the head of the dance floor as Celine Dion’s soft serenade sprang through the speakers for their first dance.
Ian led Scarlet to the perfect spot beneath the biggest twinkling chandelier and held her so softly in his arms. Celine sang, “Because you loved me.”
Anything I thought I would feel at that moment was gone as Scarlet began to cry. Ian whispered something in her ear. They laughed. He leaned down and nestled his head into the space between her shoulder and neck. I knew he was crying, too.
A lump grew in my throat. And not because I was jealous. It was because I finally knew for sure that this was the right thing. With my eyes, I saw what they felt in their hearts for one another. I was a witness. I’d been made a witness.
When the song was over, the DJ called everyone to the dance floor to join the couple. The other bridesmaids found their men. Someone even came and claimed one of the flower girls. Uncle Cat went and grabbed Krista.
I looked down the table at Xavier talking to one of Scarlet’s cousins. She was twirling her hair and batting her eyes so hard it looked like her fake eyelashes would fall off and land in his drink.
“Another victim,” I said to myself. “Oh well, guess I’m on my own.” I’d predicted this.
One of the waitresses came by and offered me a scallop wrapped in bacon. I couldn’t resist. I took two . . . really three . . . popped them into my mouth like cherry bombs and washed them down with
the last sip of wine in my glass.
I looked from the glass and Xavier was no longer down at the other end of the table. Fake lashes was standing alone, looking like a stepchild.
“You can’t go eating all the product!” I heard beside me.
I laughed. I knew it was Xavier.
“I ordered those scallops just for me,” I said to him. “It’s the best appetizer.”
“Pork and seafood? Can’t be wrong,” he said.
I looked up at him standing beside my seat.
He held out his hand.
“A dance?”
I looked around as if there were options. “Sure. Why not?”
Xavier easily maneuvered us through the packed crowd. While it usually took a little time for people to get going on the dance floor at a reception, it seemed liked everyone there was just waiting to dance. There had been an open bar during cocktail hour, but something told me that this dance mob was more about where we were and who was present than the free alcohol. While many of Scarlet’s relatives were still sitting, all of the Duprees were linked arm in arm.
Xavier picked a spot near the back of the dance floor where the younger couples were grinning at one another and whispering plans for the after party. We were far enough from Ian and Scarlet, but I still felt pangs of humiliation tickling up my back. Although only Xavier, Ian, and Krista knew what had happened at the pier, to me the feeling in the room wavered from full acknowledgement of my silly disclosure to indifference that I was even there.
