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Carmela smiled like a flower blooming from a crack in the sidewalk.

“You looked worried,” Rhiannon explained.

“I’m not worried,” she admitted. “I was thinking about what it’s going to be like to dance with you later.”

If Carmela hadn’t been aware of their surroundings and how it would look, she would’ve closed the tiny gap between them and kissed her. She’d have to settle for the blush in Rhiannon’s skin instead.

When a string quartet appeared in flowing pink gossamer dresses and started playing, the guests took the cue to stand.

Carmela missed the first two members of the wedding party as she stared at Rhiannon and tried to identify the moment the girl had wormed her way into her heart.

Did I ever stand a chance?

The music changed to a rendition of Here Comes the Sun.

Carmela laughed. Not just because the choice was so on the nose, but because Jackie detested The Beatles. Maybe Doctor

Vera Lerner, famed urologist, had the backbone to put up with her new wife.

Words were said and vows exchanged against a pristine ocean backdrop. Carmela didn’t hear a single one of them.

Just as the dark orange sun dipped behind the building at their backs, a photographer looped around behind the altar to snap a picture of the couple’s first post-nuptial kiss.

While the crowd erupted in cheers as they got to their feet, Rhiannon and Carmela laughed as they exchanged knowing glances. They were both internally mocking the couple who had timed their entire wedding around capturing their kiss at exactly the right time.

As they followed the couple to the reception along with the rest of the throng, Rhiannon couldn’t help herself.

“What the hell are they trying to make up for?”

Carmela laughed, knowing the superficial display was Jackie’s idea and designed to make her fake social media friends jealous. “Too much.”

THE RECEPTION WAS EVEN LESS subtle than the wedding. It was like walking into a strange coastal jungle. After the couple danced to an unimaginative Ed Sheeran song, they were served an extravagant dinner while the couple made their way around the room greeting their guests.

When it was their turn, Vera eyed Carmela’s plate hungrily. Carmela did her a solid and slipped her a dinner roll while Jackie was distracted. They were comrades in arms even if poor Vera didn’t know it yet.

As the photographer corralled them for the mandatory photo with the happy couple, Carmela instinctively stepped in front of Rhiannon who snaked her arm around her waist and held her close. She was twenty-three years too late for

prom but delighted in the pose just the same as she slipped her hand over Rhiannon’s and smiled for the picture.

Jackie took a step toward Carmela, her lips parted and eyes intent making it clear she wanted to talk. Carmela turned to Rhiannon instead. “Do you want to dance?”

“Hell yeah,” she replied before leaning over to snatch her champagne flute and down the bubbly in a single gulp.

“Let’s do this!”

Joining the three other couples on the dance floor, Carmela was invigorated. Not because Jackie’s eyes were burning a hole in the back of her head. The e ervesce reversing gravity and making her weightless as she floated with Rhiannon’s fingers intertwined with hers had absolutely nothing to do with old baggage.

“Oh! I love this song,” Carmela squealed as a 1980s ballad she hadn’t heard in decades filled the room and mellowed the mood after multiple dance songs in a row.

“I’ve never heard it,” Rhiannon replied, resting both her hands on Carmela’s waist as if they’d done this a hundred times before. With the same ease, Carmela draped herself around Rhiannon’s neck.

Carmela’s stomach fluttered at the immediate intimacy of the contact. “Do you know who Whitney Houston is?”

Rhiannon raised her sculpted eyebrows. “Did you really just ask me that?”

Instead of replying, Carmela tilted her head back and belted the first line of the chorus. “You give good love to me, baby.”

After she’d sung all the words she remembered while swaying to the music in Rhiannon’s arms, Carmela opened her eyes to find her grinning. If anyone else was staring, she neither knew nor cared.