Stealing the Show

“You look beautiful, baby. Josh is a very lucky man,” Sabrina’s mom sniffled, swiping at her tear filled eyes as she looked her daughter over. “If only your father could be here to see you now.”

Sabrina fought against her own tears at the thought of her father, who’d passed away just six months before. He’d been so excited to walk his only daughter down the aisle on her wedding day, but then he’d had a heart attack one night driving home from work and hadn’t survived the crash.

Sabrina looked over her white dress, with its lace trimmings and beading sparkling in the light. Her father’s eyes had glistened when he’d seen her trying it on for her first fitting. He’d told her then how beautiful she was, and how he knew she’d be an absolute vision when the alterations were finished. He’d never got to see it though.

It was the only downside to her special day, knowing that her father wouldn’t be there with her, but her mother had stepped up and offered to walk Sabrina down the aisle instead.

“Thanks, Mom,” she whispered, her voice husky.

“Oh, no, no, no!” another voice cried out, a young woman in a blue silk dress, one shoulder bare, rushed forward with a tissue in hand, golden curls bouncing around her heart shaped face. She jumped up on the small platform Sabrina stood on before the mirror and grabbed her chin.

“Mandy, what are you doing?” Sabrina asked as her maid of honor started carefully dabbing at the corners of her eyes.

“Look up,” Mandy instructed, face scrunched up in concentration, green eyes narrowed. “No tears. It’ll ruin your makeup, and we don’t have time to do it all over again.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Sabrina’s mom murmured, moving towards the doorway. She glanced back over her shoulder, gripping the handle of the door as she looked her daughter over once more. “I’ll just go check on how the guys are doing. Make sure everything is going to be ready on time.”

“Thanks, Mom!” Sabrina called out after her mother’s retreating figure.

Before the door could completely swing closed, Sabrina heard a gaggle of feminine voices coming their way. Three women pushed the door open, laughing amongst themselves as they entered the room.

They stopped though when they spotted Sabrina and Mandy, who had just finished saving her from having mascara running down her face.

“Oh my God, Sabrina.” The tallest of the women hurried forwards, doing her best to circle the bride. “I know I said I loved the dress before, but now it’s absolutely gorgeous on you. Josh is going to love it.”

She smiled at her sister-in-law, Stacy, who looked like a goddess herself in the strapless blue dress she wore. Sabrina had picked the color, but had encouraged her bride’s maids to pick their own dress’ styles. She’d wanted them to all be comfortable and happy with what they had to wear, and so that maybe their dresses could reflect their different personalities and tastes.

Tamara and Tammy, Sabrina’s twin cousins, rushed forward as well. They gushed for several minutes about how beautiful Sabrina, who had never thought of herself as much of a beauty, looked until she actually started to believe it herself.

After another ten minutes, Mandy glanced out the doorway with a frown.

“Don’t you think Mama Rina should have been back by now?” she asked, referring to Sabrina’s mother, as she turned to look back at the women still gathered around the mirror while checking their makeup and dresses.

“She said she was going to check on the guys, didn’t she?” Stacy asked with a quick glance over her shoulder.

Sabrina nodded, climbing down off the platform. “I’ll go find her. The wedding is supposed to start in about twenty minutes, so hopefully the guys are ready by now.”

“Excuse you?” Tamara demanded, turning to Sabrina, hands on her hips. “You’ll do no such thing. You’re in your wedding dress and we don’t want anyone seeing you yet. One of us will go. That’s what we’re here for, to help you out today so that you’re not running around doing everything yourself.”

“She’s right,” Mandy said with a nod as she slipped out of the room. She poked her head back in with a quick smile for the group. “Don’t have any fun without me.”

Sabrina smiled, glad that her best friend was with her today. They’d been friends since middle school, but Mandy had been overseas for the past year and Sabrina wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it back for the wedding. Mandy though, without a single hesitation, had made arrangements to take off from work for a month before the wedding. Sabrina still didn’t know how she’d managed it, but even before that she’d been as involved as possible, through emails and even while chatting on webcams, throughout the process of the planning.

Mandy was the best friend Sabrina could have ever asked for, and she realized that she hadn’t told her that in a while. So, she determined that she would remind her of just how wonderful she was as soon as she returned from finding her mother.

Sabrina was still waiting near the door several minutes later when Mandy returned, a dark look marring her pretty face. But Sabrina brushed it aside, thinking maybe she hadn’t been able to find her mother or that maybe the guys were running behind. It didn’t occur to her that there might be a real issue, that she should be concerned.

“Mandy, before I forget again because I’ve been such a neglectful friend who’s so caught up in her love life, I just want to tell you that you’re the best friend I could have ever asked for.” Sabrina grabbed Mandy hands, smiling and shushing her when her friend started to say something. “I know I say all the time that I’m so lucky to have found Josh and how great life is going to be married to the love of my life, and I don’t want you to think I’m saying life before him wasn’t absolutely wonderful, because it was. And a huge part of that was because of you.”

Sabrina carefully swiped at the corners of her eyes, a small part of her surprised when Mandy didn’t chastise her for risking ruining her makeup, a concerned look on her face instead of happy. But, again, she brushed it off.

“You’ve been there for me through everything. Losing my dad, listening to me gush about Josh all the time, and helping me plan my wedding to the best man I could ever ask for. If it weren’t for you and Mom—”

“Stop.”

Sabrina blinked, eyes wide, at the harsh sound to Mandy’s voice. “What?” she asked, hurt that Mandy didn’t seem to care about what she was saying.

“I can’t listen to anymore of this, not right now.” Mandy grabbed her hand and turned to yank the door open. “You need to come with me, now.”

“Wait, I thought you didn’t want me going out there because people would see me?” Sabrina gasped, digging her heels in as she tried to pull free of her friend’s hand. “What if Josh sees me?”

“Hey, where are you going?” Stacy called out.

Tamara hurried forward, rushing out of the room after Sabrina and Mandy. “She can’t be out here. People might see her.”

Mandy spun around, glaring at the three bride’s maids. “Enough. There’s something she needs to see out here, before the wedding. Now be quiet.”

The women all traded confused looks, Sabrina finally growing concerned, as they quietly slipped down the hallway after Mandy. When they came to an intersecting hall, Mandy paused and looked back at the others, pressing a finger to her lips to tell them to stay quiet. Then she poked her head around the corner, glancing around.

When she turned back to them, her face held that dark look once more. She motioned for Sabrina to look into the next hall and moved away, looking grim.

Sabrina glanced at the others, concerned and confused, but slowly moved forward. Bracing herself as best she could, considering she had no idea what she was about to see, she cautiously looked around the corner.

And promptly felt her heart jump into her throat at the sight of her mother wrapped in her fiancé’s arms, kissing one another like there was no tomorrow. As she watched, feeling her heart breaking, Josh pressed her mother against the wall and began kissing her neck.

“Josh, we can’t do this anymore,” her mother moaned. “You’re marrying my daughter today.”

“I don’t care. I love you,” was his muffled reply.

Sabrina, her hand pressed to her mouth to keep from making a sound, pulled back around the corner and looked at Mandy. Her friend was watching her with a mix of sympathy and rage. Without a word she moved forward and wrapped her arms around Sabrina as the tears started to flow.

Stacy, Tamara, and Tammy hurried forward to look around the corner, pulling back in shock, sending pitying looks Sabrina’s way.

Tamara and Tammy pulled them away from the intersection and back towards the room they’d been getting ready in. Once they were all locked away, the twins traded grim looks.

“What do you want to do?” Tammy asked quietly. The others all nodded and turned to look at Sabrina, waiting for her to tell them what to do.

“I’ll go kick their asses if you want,” Mandy offered, and Sabrina wasn’t sure that she was joking.

Sabrina sniffled, taking the tissue that Stacy offered her with a watery smile. She dabbed at her face, turning to look in the mirror and check how much damage her tears had done, and stared into her watery blue eyes. Everything she’d just seen ran through her head, hearing that this had been going on for some time, as she tried to think what to do.

Should she storm out there and confront her mother and fiancé? Should she have Mandy go tell Josh it was over? What if she simply changed into her street clothes and left Josh to face all of their friends and family alone? Or would it be better to go out there now and announce to everyone that the wedding was off?

Drawing in a shuddering breath, she looked around until she found Mandy’s makeup bag and began trying to fix what had gotten smeared.

“Sabrina?” Mandy asked, moving forward to touch her arm. “What are we going to do? What do you want to do?”

Sabrina finished her makeup and looked herself over carefully before turning to look at the other women around her. “We’re going to finish getting ready and make sure this wedding gets started on time.”

The others traded concerned looks.

“Are you seriously going to go through with this still?” Tammy asked.

“You’re really going to marry Josh anyway? Despite what we all just saw?” Tamara added.

Stacy stepped up to Sabrina’s other side. “And what about your mom?”

Sabrina sucked in another deep lungful of air, straightening her shoulders. “We’re not going to do anything about it right now. We’re going to fix ourselves up and make sure this wedding starts without a hitch.” She looked each woman in the eye before she continued. “And then I’m going to confront my creating fiancé and lying mother.”

Stacy’s eyes widened. “During the ceremony?”

Mandy gave her an evil grin. “I love it.”

Tammy and Tamara traded a quick look.

“Are you sure about that?” Tammy asked quietly.

“You really want to tell everyone out there what they’re up to?” Tamara continued.

She stiffened her spine, glaring at them for daring to question her. “They decided to betray me, apparently not for the first time, on my own wedding day. That’s how much they respect me. Why should I give them the respect of confronting them in private, keeping this whole thing quiet to spare their feelings? Why should I even care?” she asked angrily. “They didn’t take my feelings into consideration.”

She spun around and began checking her makeup again. “My own mother and the man who’s supposed to love me unconditionally,” she spat at her reflection. “Well, I’m going to make sure everyone in this church knows just what kind of people they are. For the first time in six months, I’m actually glad my dad’s not here to see this.”

Mandy climbed onto the platform with Sabrina once more, turning her friend to face her as she took the eyeliner and mascara from her hands. “Let’s make you look to die for then. Josh will hate himself for letting you walk away when he sees you out there.” She glanced at the other women. “Tamara, guard the door. If your aunt starts to come in, send her away with some excuse, but don’t tip her off that we know anything.”

Tamara shook her head, glancing at her sister. “Tammy should go. I’m not good at hiding my feelings.”

Tammy nodded before rushing to the door and slipping out into the hallway.

“Alright, ladies. Let’s get their show on the road,” Sabrina said with a grim smile.