Page 31

Story: Ruthless Devotion

I feel Aidan go stiff, tension rolling off him. I glance up to see why he’s stopped dancing. He’s staring up at the sky. His face looks haunted like he’s somewhere else entirely.
“Aidan?” I think it’s the first time in my entire life I’ve ever said his name in a way that sounded like concern instead of derision or fear.
“Hey,” I say, again, not sure what to do or what’s happening right now.
He seems to snap out of whatever fugue state he was in, but when he looks at me, I still see the shadow of something I can’t explain in his features. I don’t know what this is about, but it’s something about the fireworks. He pulls away from me suddenly and rushes to the nearest exist.
The song has changed and no one has yet noticed the groom’s absence. They’re still staring at the exploding flashes of light overhead. Most of the photographers are capturing the light show. Only Giselle’s attention has stayed on us.
“Is he okay?” she asks.
“He got a call he had to take,” is the first lie I can think of.
She nods. “I hope everything’s all right.”
Clearly she wasn’t paying close attention this whole time since Aidan never had a phone in his hand. Or maybe she’s just being polite about my obvious lie.
I get off the dance floor before our guests notice Aidan is gone and tell the DJ to get everybody out on the dance floor, hoping to obscure our absence. Then I go in search of the wedding planner.
I finally find Carol in the kitchen.
“Did Aidan plan the fireworks?” I ask.
“Oh, no, that comes as an add-on with wedding receptions at the aquarium—at least if they happen at night.”
“Did he request it?”
“We didn’t discuss all the exact details. He said he trusted me to handle and manage everything. Why? Did he not want fireworks? I thought they were a really romantic touch.”
“No, it’s okay. I was just curious.”
I return to the party, and against my better judgment I go to the door Aidan disappeared out of wondering if I should go out there and look for him.
I don’t know why I would do something so insane, but he did not look okay. Is this sympathy for my captor? Already? I shouldn’t be concerned about his well being, I should hope he falls into a shark tank and meets an untimely death so I can go back to my life.
I’m still standing in this indecision, fantasizing about Aidan being flung over the railing to his doom when the door swings open, and he’s back.
“Are you okay? What was that back there?”
He shakes his head and avoids my gaze. “Fine. It’s nothing. Let’s go to our table.”
He doesn’t say anything else about it. They bring our food as soon as we’re seated. Dinner is rosemary roasted Cornish hens, caramel-glazed carrots, green beans, potatoes, and Caesar salads. I’m surprised that I can actually eat right now, but I’m starving. Instead of forcing myself to eat I’m having to force myself to slow down so I don’t embarrass myself.
As soon as we’re served, the toasts start. Aidan’s best man, Vale, gives a nice but largely forgettable speech. Erica is next, and she’s very careful about how she phrases things, focusing more on how long she and I have been friends and how much she loves me and hopes for my happiness more than anything else… then Aidan’s Uncle Martin gets up and takes the microphone. He turns to us.
“It touches my heart to see my nephew find love, and even though marriage was never for me, I hope you two find an ever-deepening love and commitment to each other as the years go by.” The finality of these words press in on me, shrinking the room to a size far smaller than should be possible with this many people.
He turns back to the rest of the guests to get to the meat of his speech. “Aidan might kill me for saying this, but it’ll be worth it. Soon after he came to live with me, he became absolutely smitten with this little girl at his school. I got to hear nearly every day about how “so cool” Madison Prescott was. He was obsessed with making Valentine’s Day perfect for her that year. He knew exactly how he wanted the class cupcakes to look, and he insisted we get them from the “good bakery” since if I made them they would be bad and if we got them from the grocery store they would also be bad.”
Laughter bubbles up around the room. Uncle Martin continues, “He told me he was going to marry that girl someday. Being the confirmed bachelor that I am, I tried to talk him out of this foolishness, but he wouldn’t be swayed. If I remember correctly Aidan, your exact words were ‘Well I’m marrying her, and we’ll just see about all this.’ You were bullheaded even as a six year old.”
I glance over to Aidan who chuckles at this along with the rest of our guests. Then Uncle Martin turns back to me. “Anyway, Welcome to the family, Maddie, Salut!”
He raises his glass. Our guests start clinking their champagne glasses encouraging us to kiss, and so we do.
Brian gets up next. “I’m afraid I’ve got more details to share about the sordid history of these two.” He waits for the guests to get their nervous giggles out and continues. “I was there the first time she broke his heart that Valentine’s Day. It was brutal. And he might have been a tiny bit of a stalker for a while after that.”
“She finally came around and gave me a chance,” Aidan says, his arm around me. Is he trying to manifest right now? But I can see what they’re doing. All of this has been orchestrated to disperse the unease of that first dance song, so this can all play off as “cute” and an “inside joke” instead of creepy to calm our guests’ minds.