The Wedding Scene

It truly was a beautiful affair, I looked around and saw the people, none of whom I recognized celebrating a man I had forgotten. My heart started to stutter but the presence beside me calmed me. I looked to my left at the face of my husband, his disinterested face at the meal the harried waiter brought out before us. He looked at me, with the look, a look I gave back to him. His smile showed he understood my response. This was a truly dismal meal, but he would eat it because I had to be here. I grasped his hand as I looked on, holding on to him for strength. Without uttering a word, he gripped me back in return and proceeded to eat his meal with only one hand as I looked straight ahead at the proceedings. 

I had a clear view of the wedding, almost like this seat was prepared for me in advance. The usher seemed a bit harried when I came in with my embossed invitation requesting a seat at the back until someone, presumably higher up, came and handled things. Sat us down at the very back away from everyone else, assigning us our very own busboy. I smiled and thanked her as she went on her way no doubt to tell the man of the hour only one out of two of his past had come. Jenny would not come to this, her goodbye had been said and was over Him. She told me so plainly. She would not celebrate this sham. We had not spoken in over five years and we get a wedding invitation in the mail. She looked my husband in the eye and told him that she had nothing better to do, but she would schedule a wax on that day and let him know as much. Begged me that I had moved on from this situation. I was not chosen, I was discarded, I should not entertain this. Sadly I am a glutton for punishment because here I seat, in the reception of a wedding while my saint of a husband tries his hardest to eat a piece of cowleg with a fork one-handed without making a mess. 

The reception went without a hitch. The M.C. made tasteless jokes that made us cringe but somehow had everyone else rolling on the floor gasping for air. His brother came up and made an impassioned speech that had my eye-watering. I hated how he looked. A shadow of himself, without his hair and vibrance, but his Joy at this situation was surely evident as he said things from the heart that had me clapping. A moment my love, took with relish to inhale more of the food they were plying us with, using both hands. I let him have his hands while I looked on telling my heart not to be traitorous. He made his choice and beside me was mine. A blissful year of marriage after two years of courtship. I sometimes did not make it easy at all, but as he would always say to me most nights before we went to sleep. “I chose you, you are the rhythm to my song, a place that would only be usurped by our child” A sweet thing to say knowing he cannot dance for shit, or sing. 

The ceremony was winding down and it was time for us to take our leave. I hailed the one who sat us, signaling that we had to leave. I had done my part. I came to say goodbye to what might have been. We got up to leave. I had the envelope tucked in my breast pocket as my husband held on to me. Not saying a word but watching me like a hawk for a sign or a signal that would be known only to him. I walked to her as she was talking to a woman who backed me. Staying a bit further back to give them the false illusion of privacy as I tried hard not to hear about how the bride’s father was making an ass of himself with his tawdry requests of the Ushers. She hissed in disgust and turned away to face me. 

The Mother of the Groom stood in front of me in all her resplendent glory. She looked at me almost immediately recognizing me, a fantastic feat considering I had met her only once before in less than ideal circumstances. Her face lighting up as she opened her arms for a hug. I bent down and hugged her back, basking in this warmth. She smiled and held on to me as she asked the one who sat us, I now knew to be a cousin of the family. Family members always make the best free labor, had we eaten, and where we seated well and all the normal things she could ask us. Maintaining her death grip on my forearm, she told her to go call the groom that his guest is here and wants to run away. If not for her light tone and airy laugh, I would honestly believe I was going to be held against my will. While the cousin scurried off, she began to ask all the questions one would make in polite conversation. How was my job? How was the cold? Was my flight in smooth? How did I find the Lagos heat? All of the questions that she could ask shying away from all talks of relationships and the fact that she had turned my husband to part of the decor, beautiful yet made to be ignored. I would normally have paused her and introduced him to show me off, but he made me promise that except if anyone explicitly asks who he was, I should adopt the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy with him. I hated it, but he made such few demands that whenever he did make one, I always followed it no matter how it stuck in my craw. I continued talking with His mother keeping one eye on the cousin as she made her way through the crowd to the stage. I had stopped following the conversation as I saw Him bend down and talk with her. I saw the smile freeze on his face as he asked her a question and she pointed to where I was. He stood and looked at where she was pointing. His mother and I looked at him and my heart was steeled for whatever response I would receive. Without knowing or looking, I felt my rock beside me, without touching me or saying a word, he had given me the strength to handle whatever came next. 

He and I looked in each other’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity, everything else rushing away from me, and then his face transforms completely into the same smile I remember as he jumps down from the stage scaring his guests and his wife who was confused at his behavior. I stand my ground still expecting the worst as his mother pats me on the back and walks away like her Job was done. He came up to me and I looked at him, how much he had changed, yet stayed the same. 

“Hi,” I say as I extend my hand to him. He stops his momentum and looks at my hand. Smiling a sad smile, he pushes it out of the way and hugs me. I do not hug him back, my mouth is dry and my heart is going a mile a minute. 

“Oh my days, how have you been?” he says holding me at arm’s length looking at me from head to toe. His smile never faltering, he turns at looks at m husband. “Bradford, this is the first time I am seeing you in the flesh.” he lets me go and pulls him into a bro hug “Instagram does not do you any Justice. How is it over there?” “Well, we cannot complain, and work has been amazing before you ask, we are signing over a new artist here as well” Ford replies him, smiling and not losing a step. I look at them both, clenching my first as my nails bite into my palm. I see a vision of white glide to us, probably wondering where her newly minted husband disappeared to. I smile at her and she returns it without missing a beat. “You look truly beautiful,” I say to her as I peck her on the cheek. She responds with a false smile, saying, “We did not think you were coming when your spot was empty”. “We came a bit late and did not want to interrupt the procession” Ford interjects. “Why?” He responds “you should have come regardless” 

I take a breath and look him in the eye “It was a truly lovely ceremony, we just wanted to hand off your gift to the appropriate channels and leave” I said as I brought out the envelope from my pocket. I reach out to give him but his wife was faster as she takes it and opens it. Ford looked at her with surprise at her speed and boldness. She brings out the letter and card and looks at me as if expecting more. Reads the card and asks “Who is Chris Balaski?”. “Balaski?” Her husband responds “Not that Chris Balaski right?” “Yep,” my husband answers. Then looks at the wife “Chris Balaski is the C.O.O. of the Greater Good Initiative, there are looking for a person to head their new branch in Lagos and we thought you might like the Challenge.” He comes over to me and put his hand over my shoulder. “My baby thought it might be a great opportunity to network with him and have a meeting, after your honeymoon of course” he finishes with a beatific smile that combats her own look of scorn. I of course take no notice of this petty tête-à-tête. All I can see is his face transform from disbelief to surprise and then acceptance. “Thank you so much,” he says taking the card and letter with care and keeping it in his breast pocket. “I do not know what to say at all. Do you have to go now?” My face says the answer and he sighs. “Okay then, let me walk you out a bit.” His wife sputters a bit. He smiles and kisses her before she begins to object. “Stall for me please” He looks at me as my Husband leads the way. 

“Let me go get the car,” Ford says as he kisses me on the forehead and walks away, leaving us both alone under the clouds of dusk. Staring at each other waiting for the first to speak as we study each other.

“It has been a while”

“Yeah it has, about five years” I answer back

“Wow. Five years and six months” he smiles sadly. “What happened?” 

I look at him now, so many answers going through my head, how best to play this.

“You chose someone else at the expense of our friendship,” I said deciding on the truth.

“I know, I know,” He says raking his hand over his hair. “I was a shit friend, I apologized”

“You did, but it was too late by then, I was a continent away and was just beginning to live without you in my life”

We go quiet again, the past still raw even after all this time. 

“I cannot help but feel that you did not fight hard enough for us to work”

“I did though,” I say not breaking eye contact. “I fought every day for us. I tried to get you to talk to me, I tried with the speeches, the notes, the fights. That was all me. But I also lived in the same house as you and we would go for weeks without talking. You were my best friend. It did not matter that I did not care for your girlfriend. I wanted you to be happy. I would have given you the space you requested, even without you asking for it. You pushed me away. I kept coming back and trying to figure out what the issue was. You kept me out. I was over it all. I left the country and the rift kept getting wider.”

“I thought we could work through it, We had known each other for seven years, I did not know that it would end that way. I thought we would get over it and be stronger for it” 

“I told you we would not, I told you that I would not wait” I sighed “We were best of friends for seven years and you decided one day you could not share your life with me because of another person. There was no way we could have gotten over that” 

He looked at me his heart obviously breaking “So what do we do now?”

“You go back inside and dance with your beautiful wife and have a happy life with your brood of babies.” I take a step back “And I would go with my husband back to our home and have a blissful life.”

“This gift you gave me shows you care for me, it does not have to end like this. We could get over this and be friends again. I could holiday with you and you could come and spoil my children as you always wanted to. It does not have to end.”

I hold his hand and say my heart breaking into a million pieces as they rend my soul. “I would always love you, You were my brother, you accepted me completely before anyone else knew who I was. You would always be in my heart, but they are so many things broken that we cannot put back right.” I let go of his hand. 

“Goodbye my brother,” he says with tears in his eyes

“Antio Adelphos Mou” I whisper as I turn my back on him and walk towards my car. My husband waiting.

I climb into the backseat, the divider already up giving us a semblance of privacy. He smiles as me as he opens his right arm for me to snuggle up beside him. I do just that saying nothing. His arm covers me and I snuggle into him some more as he strokes my side. He just holds me as my tears fall and stain his chest. Nothing is said as we drive to the airport hanger, our life waiting for our return. Our sojourn into fantasy ended.