After Pregnancy, He Gave Our Wedding to My Bestie

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Three years since Cliff Delgado and I got our marriage license, and the wedding he'd promised to hold still hadn't happened.

He was always too busy with work. Ten times I'd hired someone to pick a lucky wedding day, and ten times he'd turned it down.

On the eleventh, Cliff finally cleared his schedule.

I'd booked the wedding gown, full of anticipation, and then found out I was pregnant.

My mother-in-law came to stay and look after me. "You're going to be a mother now, what do you still want a wedding for? Once my precious grandson graduates, there'll be plenty of time to fuss over it!"

Cliff looked openly displeased, arguing on my behalf.

"A wedding is the biggest day of a woman's life. Of course she'll have one. But right now the baby comes first. Once the baby's born, I'll give you a grand wedding, I promise."

I looked at him, moved, and nodded hard.

When I went to cancel the gown order, I couldn't help wanting to try on the one I loved just once more.

But the moment I stepped into the fitting area, I saw my husband walk in with his arm around my best friend.

Hildegarde Swanson picked up the most expensive gown and stuck out her tongue, playful.

"You think Star can tell you're skipping her wedding on purpose?"

Cliff pinched her cheek.

"No way. That stupid woman believes anything I tell her."

"If she weren't pregnant, I'd have just been playing around anyway. She's dull, no charm to her. Not like you, you little minx."

"And I promised you a long time ago. She gets the marriage license, you get the wedding. Fair enough."

I dropped to the floor, and my tears soaked into the gown.

I was too stupid, too stupid to see he'd only been playing with me,

too stupid to see that all his devotion was an act, a show he put on to fool me.

If the marriage license and the wedding could only go to one of us, then I'd take neither.

...

Through the crack in the fitting room door, I watched Hildegarde nestle into Cliff's arms.

"It's not like I'm stealing her spot."

"I just don't believe in marriage, but I still want to feel what it's like to be a bride."

"The three of us are the closest, so who else could I go to but you?"

She straightened up and poked a slender finger against Cliff's chest.

"But if you dare hold a wedding with her, it won't be clean anymore. I'd rather find someone else."

Cliff caught her hand and pulled her back against him.

"I know. You're the one who wants everything perfect. You can't stand anything that isn't clean."

He gave her backside a pat. "Go try the gown on."

Hildegarde skipped happily into the fitting room right beside mine.

I curled up in mine, hand pressed over my mouth so no one would hear me cry.

But I couldn't hold back the dry heaving of morning sickness, tears and snot smeared together.

So the wedding I'd been foolishly waiting for all this time, Cliff had never once meant to give me.

He was right. I really was stupid and spineless.

Stupid enough to believe every word he said, waiting like an idiot for him to finish work and give me my wedding.

Stupid enough that my best friend and my husband had gotten tangled up right under my nose, and I'd never noticed a thing.

Too spineless to confront them even after catching them together, only able to hide in a fitting room and cry.

"Miss? Are you all right?"

An attendant knocked, kindly holding out tissues and a glass of water.

I took them, a mess, and breathed deep, trying to steady myself.

On the other side, Hildegarde had already changed into a gown and come out, and something dazzled in Cliff's eyes that he couldn't hide.

"Hildegarde, you're beautiful."

She smiled, shy, then lifted her head and let him look his fill.

Hearing the noise from my side, the attendant quietly told them what was going on.

Hildegarde sighed with pity. "How sad. Coming to try on a wedding gown all alone. The man definitely doesn't love her."

Cliff knelt on one knee to arrange the hem of her gown.

"Something like this, no matter how busy I am, I'd never let you come alone."

He stood, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Always at my princess's service."

Hildegarde gave a soft laugh. "Then thank you, Captain Delgado, for making time to keep me company."

I huddled in the fitting room, wiping the cold sweat from my forehead, bitterness rising in my throat.

I had never once seen Cliff so gentle, so attentive.

Back then I'd asked, just once, whether he could come try on gowns with me, and he'd stared at me and sighed with a frown. "You need me for something this small? Do you have any idea how busy I am?" As if I were being ridiculous.

So I'd been understanding about his work, and I'd gone to order the gown alone, and I'd come to cancel it alone.

I'd handled everything at home by myself, never wanting to trouble him.

And now here he was, behind my back, keeping my best friend company while she tried on gowns.

So in the end, the only one who'd been moved was me. The only clown was me.

The store manager brightened at the sight of them, first gushing about what a perfect couple they made, then speaking up.

"Would the two of you be willing to shoot a set of promotional photos for our store?"

"We could offer fifty percent off the gown."

Hildegarde looked up and tugged eagerly at his sleeve.

Cliff flicked her nose fondly,

then turned and said warmly to the manager,

"Whatever my love wants. If she wants to shoot them, we'll shoot them."

She was his love. Then what was I?

While I sat there dazed, they had already exchanged a smile and turned toward the photo studio.

A message alert on my phone pulled me back to reality. I looked down and opened it.

【Cliff Delgado: Silly Star, I'm about to take off. I'll be home tomorrow at three in the afternoon. Take care of yourself and the baby. Love you both.】

I couldn't hold it any longer and rushed to the store's restroom, gripping the toilet and vomiting until I was wrung out, until nothing but sour water came up, and then not even that.

One wall away, the photo shoot was still going strong,

while I, held up by the attendant, braced myself against the wall and inched over to the sofa to sit down.

When I'd finally scraped together some strength, I stopped hesitating.

I signed the cancellation form, then forced myself out the door, hailed a cab to the hospital where I'd registered my pregnancy, and took a number with the doctor I knew.

I sat across from him, face drained of color.

"Please schedule me for an abortion."