See You at the Altar
My sister. My little sister, who I should have been looking after and making sure had everything she needed, had to take care of herself and sacrifice her dreams. And to be fair, I didn’t even know what her dreams were any more.
When did she stop claiming them? That little girl who was left here, who put her own interest down for mine and still urged me to be unapologetically selfish and go after my own happiness. “Oh, Josephine.”
“Everything okay?” Miles’ voice snatched me back to the present. Alone, I stood in the middle of his room with a veil in my hands and a lump caught in my throat as I tried to breathe.
I slowly lifted my gaze to him.
“Is Jo okay?” He took a step closer.
“Um, yeah,” I managed, glancing at the delicate fabric. “Just trying to figure out how to fix that?”
“Need a hand?” The coldness in his voice softened but the distance in his tone remained palpable.
***
We both kneeled on the floor, the large piece of tulle spread out in front of us. “I guess we just cut the ripped part off?” Miles offered. “There’s still plenty of it.”
“This is probably our only solution,” I breathed, tightening the towel around my chest.
“Alright. But you’re going to cut it.” Miles leaned in, making markings on the fabric and handing me the scissors. “Jo will hang me alive if I ruin it,” he said with a smirk, glancing at me from behind his shoulder.
“You know she won’t.” A soft smile broke on my lips.
Focusing on the straight lines, Miles lowered himself, a few strands of hair falling over his eyes. “I thought she was going to call off the wedding,” he suddenly said.
“Why would you think so?” I asked, tucking my damp hair behind my ears.
“I don’t know. Just never seen her like that.”
“Hmm.” Wow, even Miles sensed more than I did.
“Okay, I think it’s good to cut.” He pushed off his palms, sitting up straight.
I took a deep breath and opened the scissors in my hands with a sharp click. “So, here it goes.”
It took only a handful of snips to get it done. “I think—” Miles cleared his throat. “—it looks—”
“Great!” I lifted the veil, beaming at him through the netting fabric. “It looks perfect! Thanks!”
“Yeah.” He smiled back, watching me as I quickly stood up. His eyes travelled down my legs and I suddenly remembered, hello , I was a maid of honour and I needed to get ready. “Shit!” I blurted, my cheeks flushing. “I should probably, um,” I pointed at the door.
“Yeah,” he breathed.
I glanced at Miles one more time before leaving the room, my hand instinctively reaching up to touch my hair.
His eyes were still on me. “See you at the altar,” he said with a faint smirk, making me momentarily blush at his words.
“Um,” I mumbled, a smile tugging at my lips, “yeah, you will.”