Part Fourteen: In which we jump ahead in time and attend a wedding!

"Katie, what am I going to do?"

"I know. I know exactly what you're going to do." Katie took her friend's hand in hers, warming it. "You're going to --" Katie paused. What? What could she possibly suggest that would make this any easier? "You're going to take me with you, and we're going to wear our gorgeous new dresses and wear our killer shoes and drink too much and flirt with all the hot guys there. We'll be fabulous!"

Melissa dropped Katie's hand, and raised an eyebrow. "Who exactly are you channeling here -- Carrie Bradshaw or a mid-90s gay stereotype?"

"Sorry." Katie smiled ruefully.  "I just ... I don't know what to say to make this better. Making sure we have fun might just be your only defense."

"That and my gorgeous new dress and my killer heels." Melissa deadpanned, and the two friends laughed.

The rest of the week passed quickly. Mike and Paul, their secret romance unveiled, took fewer trips to the copier and therefore more work in Katie's (err, Katherine's) unit got completed. Which was just as well, because she'd finally figured out what their next project was and it was a huge deal, very big-name clients, very lucrative account. Katie actually took a bit of pride in seeing her small group of staff working together to create cool graphics for the company's ad campaign.

"Don't get too comfortable here," Erica cautioned her. "You're going to have to quit soon enough when your art career takes off." Mike and Paul had filled her in on the plans to put together Katie's art show, and Erica had already offered to do the invitations. ("And my improv group will perform for free!" she'd promised. She'd only been a member of Improfessionals for a week and she was already a star player. Katie felt slightly jealous. Not of the improv, but of how Erica had so easily found a calling and excelled at it in such a short period of time. Still, she wasn't that jealous. Erica was still living at home and wore wearing animal sweatshirts everyday. It wasn't that enviable a life.)

So the week passed quickly, and before she knew it it was Saturday morning.  Looking fabulous as promised in her new dress (short, black cotton with a wide grey belt; a '60's feel so she'd done her hair in a high, swinging ponytail) and wore tall, red leather boots she'd found at a consignment shop, (and which she suspected were actually Ukrainian dancing boots but no one had ever called her out on this so she couldn't know for sure) and red lipstick, shoved her phone, credit card, and transit pass into her small black vintage clutch, and set out to meet her friend.

While Katie rode the subway towards St George Station, where Melissa was waiting, she admired herself in the windows on the subway car. She did look pretty good. She felt a bit bad admiring herself when she was on her way to help her brokenhearted friend, but there it was: Katie felt cute, and she was going to enjoy the feeling while it lasted. She just wouldn't let Melissa know how self-satisfied she was, especially if Melissa didn't look her best due to her depressive state.

The subway car came to a stop, and Katie got off the train to meet her friend at the platform one floor up. Stomping up the stairs in her red footwear (they had to be for dancing) she watched her feet, delighting in the stompy sounds her boots made on the shiny tiled floor. She was so intent on her feet that she didn't notice Melissa until she'd nearly collided with her. And then when she saw her, she couldn't look anywhere else.

"Oh, Melissa, you look..." She was wearing the Monet-on-drugs dress from the sample sale, with a gauzy blue and green shrug made of the softest, airiest wool. Her feet (beautifully manicured, so long and slender) were in a pair of sky-high forest green, peep-toe heels. Her usually-straightened hair was curly, wild, all around her head. And her eyes were big, bright, and shining.

"Yeah, I look awesome. Believe me -- I know. I've been up since seven this morning getting ready."

"Well, you don't look it."

"Thanks?"

"I mean, you don't look like you tried that hard. You look ... effortless. You don't look like you put in a lot of work, I mean, you look natural." Katie shook her head. "Ignore me. I'm trying to say you look great."

Melissa laughed. "You do, too." She linked her arm through her friend's. "Shall we go?"

They got to the church just in time, sneaking into a back row as the bridesmaids began their slow shuffle down the aisle. "So is this Lucy from U of T?" Katie whispered to her friend.

"Yeah, remember? She and Brent were friends of mine from U of T. I still hang around with Lucy sometimes. I thought I inherited them in the breakup but I guess David has some visitation I didn't know about."

"Oh, right, yeah." Katie had met these people at parties of Melissa's, parties where she always felt a bit uncomfortable. Business students, law students, studenty-students -- Katie always felt like she stuck out a bit in her Art-School chic. And she remembered Lucy, alright. She was the only 22-year-old Katie had ever met who bought a suit for her interview at Starbucks. She ended up being a hedge-fund-something or other. Katie yawned, and craned her head around. "So do you see him?"

Melissa half-raised on her seat. "No, I don't think he's -- oh." She landed back on the pew with a thud. "There he is. And her. It's her."



"Do you want to go?" Katie dropped her voice to a barely-there whisper. Melissa shook her head. Her eyes were dry, and she smiled widely, but she didn't turn to look at Katie. She was staring instead at a point about 6 rows up, where David was seated, and where, snuggled up against him, was the infamous Georgina.

The ceremony was torture. Not only because she had to pee, which was bad enough, but also because Katie could feel Melissa struggling not to cry throughout the entire thing.

Poor Melissa. For the past six months she'd been so strong-seeming, but in reality she wasn't ready for this. She hadn't seen David since he'd walked out on her at their own wedding, and she hadn't really had any closure. And yet here they were, at another wedding. Would there be closure today?


Your turn!

A) At the wedding reception, Melissa ends up making peace with David and Georgina, only Katie, not knowing about the truce between them all, has spiked their meals with laxative in a effort to exact revenge!

B) At the wedding reception, Katie gets drunk and makes a speech for the happy couple, only it backfires and ends up embarrassing David, Georgina, and worst of all, her best friend Melissa.

What terrible fate awaits them? You decide!

PS I've had some people tell me that they are having trouble posting replies. If this happens to you, email me at jennysryan at gmail dot com and i'll post your answers for you!