Page 1 of 3 Daddies to Go

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Kendall

If Trudy barks one more order, I swear I will walk out of this church.

I take a deep breath, reminding myself this is my best friend’s wedding. If she wants to be a bridezilla, then she’s allowed to be.

Trudy fiddles with another bridesmaid’s headpiece. I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror next to the doors that lead into the church and wince a bit. The large, purple flower on my head is way too much, especially when paired with this awful dress, but Trudy insisted that we put them on.

Inside, hundreds of people are gathered to watch Trudy marry the man of her dreams. That’s great and all, but it also means that every single one of them will see me in this monstrosity of a dress.

“How hard is it to clip a damn flower in your hair?” Trudy snarls from behind me. She’s moved on from her friend and is now accosting her cousin. “Honestly, do I need to doeverythinghere?”

I roll my eyes, careful to hide the gesture from Trudy. We’ve been through a lot together, but she’s being ridiculous. I’m just glad the wedding is well on its way because I don’t think our friendship could handle much more of this.

“Let me do it, Trudy,” I say, trying to calm her down. “You just focus on looking beautiful.”

My friend does look beautiful, to tell the truth. While our dresses are obnoxious purple throwbacks to eighties prom dresses, hers is a gorgeous white masterpiece. The subtle sweetheart neckline accentuates her full chest. Floral lace accented with beads cover the bodice, down to just below her hips, where the dress opens up in a mermaid-style bottom. I wasn’t there when she picked out the dress, but I did go with Trudy to her first fitting. When I saw her, I knew she had picked the perfect gown. She looked breathtaking then, and she looks just as incredible now.

So why the nasty attitude? I fiddle with Trudy’s cousin’s hair. The problem isn’t us, it’s that the flower clip is cheap and ready to snap in half. Luckily, I have bobby pins and tuck everything in nice and tight. Once the clip is secured, Trudy looks somewhat appeased.

I remind myself that once the wedding is over, Trudy will be my best friend again. Someday I might get married, and maybe I’ll be just as bad as her. If that happens, and my buddy complains, I’ll remind her of this moment.

“Everything is beautiful,” I say, holding Trudy by the shoulders. “Your wedding is everything you ever wanted it to be.”

She scoffs.

“Please. I spent twenty minutes fixing your hair. I thought you were taking point on this, Kendall.”

It’s tempting to storm out and throw a fit, but what good would that do? Instead, I take a deep breath and shoot her a comforting smile.

“Everything’s okay now,” I tell her. “We look great.Youlook great.”

At least that statement is true. As for me, I’m sweating underneath the heavy purple lace she’s forcing us to wear. It’s like the dress shop ordered a hundred extra yards of material and had to use it up somehow by swathing us in these monstrosities.

Yet when my friend studies her four bridesmaids, I manage to smile. After what feels like an hour, she nods again.

“You guys look decent enough. Let me see your flowers.”

Our bouquets sit on a side table, waiting until we’re ready to go inside. I didn’t want to risk the bouquets getting messed up while we got ready.

“They’re over there, perfectly safe,” I say in a calm voice.

She stares at them, eyes narrowing slightly.

“Are these are the bouquets I picked? They’re so small. What’s the point in holding flowers if no one can see them?”

It’s true, our bouquets are a tiny bit on the smaller side, but it’s not anything crazy. They’re just white lilies with a few small purple flowers. When I went with Trudy to choose them, I thought they were just fine. So did she, at the time. Unfortunately, she seems to have forgotten that.

“We didn’t want our flowers to compete with yours,” I tell her.

Her face lights up.

“You’re right! My bouquet should be the biggest. It’s bigger than the four of yours combined!”

It’s true because her bouquet is a huge monstrosity of all sorts of flowers mashed together in the theme of purple and white. It’s funny the things that make a bride happy on her big day, isn’t it?

“So you’re happy with our bouquets then?” I ask tentatively.