Page 5 of April

“I made a mistake,” the bride added, looking up at the moon.

“I’ll give you a minute to–”

“Are you married?” the woman interrupted.

“No,” Asher replied.

“Ever been?”

“Nope.”

“Want to be?”

“To you?” Asher joked.

The bride laughed and said, “To anyone?”

“Someday, yes.”

“Make sure it’s to the right person when you do.”

“Have you talked to him?”

“After pictures,” the bride told her. “He did sleep with someone at the bachelor party.”

“I’m sorry,” Asher replied.

“He said that’s what people like us do. We marry because we’re supposed to, and we have people on the side when we want. Of course, he waited untilafterwe were married to tell me that. Here, I was thinking we were exclusive this whole time. Four years together, and I’m not sure we’ve ever had a real conversation about what we wanted. His mother asked me about twenty minutes ago when we were going to get pregnant. That’s just how it is. And I’ve never even really wanted kids.” The bride paused, and Asher stood there, not knowing what to say. “He gets horny when he drinks, and he’s drinking now, so, knowing my luck, I’ll get pregnant tonight, and that’ll be it. I’m twenty-six years old, married to someone who doesn’t even love me, and probably about to have his kid.”

“If you’re this miserable, why–”

“It’s funny.” The woman released a forced chuckle and finally met Asher’s eyes. “I never even thought of leaving.” Shelooked back toward the reception and added, “I should get back.”

“Yeah, okay,” Asher said.

“I’m really sorry.”

Asher nodded at her and gave her a sympathetic smile. As the bride walked back toward what should have been the best party of her life up until now, Asher thought about her boyfriend. She tried to picture Gavin standing up at the altar and her walking toward him, and she couldn’t.

CHAPTER 2

“Thank you so much. It was perfect. Today was perfect,” one of the grooms said.

“I’m so glad,” Linden replied with a smile.

And she meant it, too. She loved planning gay weddings. Not only were they often more fun, but it was so nice to see people she felt like she could relate to. It was true that she’d only come out a couple of months ago after years and years of pushing herself so deep into the closet that she thought it impossible to emerge, but for the past year of her life, she had been taking slow steps to try to get out of that, and this was the fourth gay wedding she’d planned since making the decision to take those steps.

In fact, it was a wedding around this time last year that gave her the courage to take the first few of them in the first place. It was two women getting married, and she’d been assigned them as clients in April. They’d wanted a quick and not-too-fancy wedding but something their friends and family would remember. They’d been a couple for well over a decade by the time they had gotten engaged and decided to have a quick ceremony and a big party that they’d throw all their money into to celebrate their life together. Linden had only had six months to plan the event, but she had met with them on several occasions leading up to the day, and she’d seen real lovebetween them that had her thinking about her own lack of love. Her boyfriends had always come and gone, and usually, they left when they began to notice that Linden wasn’t exactly interested in much of a sex life or planning any kind of future with them.

Her last relationship had ended the day after the wedding between the two women. Her boyfriend had wanted sex, and Linden just could not picture lying there and letting him take what he wanted again without feeling anything for him or the act itself. It was as if seeing those two women so in love had her at her breaking point, and she’d broken up with him that night. That was step one.

“Seriously, he’s right: this was the perfect day. Everything was exactly what we wanted. Thank you so much,” the other groom told her.

Linden ran a hand through her ear-length blonde hair that she’d slicked back with product. That had been step two: cutting her hair and doing away with the long, wavy blonde locks she’d had her entire life that hadn’t ever really suited her or made her comfortable.

“I’m really happy for you two. You were dream clients, and you really know how to throw a party,” she replied with a laugh. “I think that was the most energetic Electric Slide I have ever seen.”

“My mother requested that song. I had it on a do-not-play list,” the first groom said and laughed. “But watching her doing that after having a few drinks was worth it.”

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