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The wedding had been a beautiful event. The flowers, the attendants, the dress, it had all amounted into the perfect day for the bride. Now at the reception, things were going well. Everyone had enjoyed the well-prepared meal and the stocked bar, and the DJ steady stream of dance favorites. In a rare moment alone, she stood at the edge of the dance floor and appreciated the event going on around her.
Across the room, fiddling with the tie of his tux, he sees her standing there and can't help himself. Excusing himself from the group of friends, he lowers his sixth drink onto a table he passes as he makes his way thru the crowd towards her.
She sees him coming and the smile that forms is so automatic it takes a moment for her to realize that it's there. They'd smiled at each other a million times before, but they both knew this time was different; a celebration of that difference continued around them. Ignoring all that going on, they commit to a dance before either of them are close enough to verbalize the request.
The song changes and with it the mood. The dancers already on the floor draw closer to their partners and their movements slow. Joined together by their hands, they merge with the others on the dance floor, hesitating only a moment before closing the space between their two bodies. Despite the urge she feels to say something but long ago on a night when they were very much alone all that needed to be said had been. He doesn't know it, but she still dreams of that night. She'd dreamt of this night too, but not like it had turned out.
The dresses had been the same, as had most of the more important people in attendance, as well as the music and the food. If she closed her eyes and focused on the recreating the dream, just about everything would be exactly the same. Just one detail would be different, but it would mean a world of difference if she drew her eyes open and it were reality.
In that world the man that was holding her just close enough not to garner rumors but not close enough to soothe either souls wouldn't teem with feelings and regrets he couldn't share. She wouldn't have fought not to look over her shoulder in hesitation before committing herself when the minister asked her to repeat after him. Her new name wouldn't be Mrs. Piers Hodges and he'd be the one marveling at the coolness of the new band on the left finger that held his commitment to what they shared.
As she sways with him and indulges in her dream, he faces reality. There will be no pretending that she could be his in the recess of his mind. No chance of sons or daughters sharing the best of them and making it better before their eyes. The reality of the band on her finger with a diamond smaller than anything he would have presented her with shatters him. He knows what it meant to her to stand up and say those two words.
There will be other women, he might even have a wedding of his own, but in the back of his mind, it will always be clear none of them are her. They won't have her sense of humor, her glamour, or share the connection they shared. They wouldn't take his breath away with their smiles or soothe him with just a look. They wouldn't be Kelsey.
Both of them are aware that soon the song ends soon, but neither chooses to acknowledge it just yet. Their eyes meet and for a moment, the people fade away and they're alone in a ballroom together. She dares to look up into his eyes and for a moment sees everything he's been hiding from her all the years they've known each other. What she sees makes her want to take back the entire day and frightens her.
Seeing the man she's committed herself to watching them over Ethan's shoulder, she does what she'd tried to do so many times before but couldn't before this moment. Pulling back from his embrace, she gives him one last smile of gratitude before walking off the dance floor to her waiting husband. And she doesn't look back.