At the crack of dawn, they woke up to "enjoy" the free continental breakfast the hotel had to offer. As she made her half waffle from their waffle maker, her ex grabbed his plate and sat down to start eating. For some reason it jolted her that he just started without her. The waffle wouldn't have taken that long. Then she realized he had always done this. Her heart sank. She tried to push her feelings aside.
As they drove to wedding, they talked about how soon it was after his best friend's death that his wife was remarrying. They made themselves sad
thinking about his death on the way there, and how hard it was going to
be. They cried in the car together. They questioned why they had even felt compelled to go.
As they entered the venue, the bride was talking to someone, distracted. She looked over and saw her first. The bride realized that it meant the ex was there, and she lit up like starlight and rushed over to him, hugging him. The bride was cool to her, but was good about hiding it. Obviously she was mad at her for breaking the ex's heart.
She suddenly wanted to wait out the whole thing in the car.
The feeling only grew as her ex walked around not introducing her to anyone he spoke with. This was usual for him, but usually she had the confidence to intercede on her own behalf and introduce herself. She no longer had that confidence. What would she do, introduce herself as the ex-wife? She just stood behind him awkwardly as he had conversations. She was dejected, downtrodden, low on confidence. She wasn't used to this feeling of inadequacy.
The ceremony started, and it was harder than she ever anticipated it being. She looked over at her ex, and he was also having a hard time. Everytime they spoke of everlasting love, and made vows to each other...vows that she had spoke and now broken....the guilt of it all overtook her. She couldn't stop crying. Her ex couldn't stop crying. They held hands for a short time after the ceremony was over, then chided each other to "get it together."
The bride's mother snapped a photo of them right after they stopped crying. It was sure to be both of them looking a hot mess.
There was a bad storm coming, so they left a short time afterwards. She fell asleep shortly after getting in the car, she had been emotionally drained. She woke a half hour later, and they were barely out of the city.
Despite driving hours out of their way to avoid the storm, it caught up with them. What followed was hours of nail biting driving, punctuated with the "Ethel Merman Sings the Everything" road game.
Once they got back to the house, they shared a long hug goodbye. He said he was glad that she had joined him, even though it had been hard.
She didn't get home and asleep until 1 in the morning. She had to be up in 5 hours to go to work.
Even though it would only be 3 days, it was going to be a long week.
