Always The Bridesmaid

This sparkling short story by Eirin Thompson celebrates the ups and downs of planning a wedding.

Kiri was always proud to be asked to be part of the special day – but when would she be the bride?

KIRI wasn’t happy. Her best friend, Laura, was getting married and she’d asked Kiri to be bridesmaid. It was an honour, recognition of their years of friendship, yet all Kiri was feeling was déjà vu.

She wasn’t proud of it, but there it was. And she had her reasons – four of them, to be exact.

Four times previously Kiri had been bridesmaid for friends and relatives.

The first time, it was the thrill of her life.

The second time, she felt lucky to have been asked.

After that, she began to hear the expression “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride”.

Was it any wonder that, this fifth time around, she found it difficult to summon up enthusiasm?

“I can’t tell anyone, except you,” she confided in Jinx, her little ginger cat. “It would seem ungrateful.”

****

“I fancy a festival vibe,” Laura said when they had their first summit meeting over coffee.

“Big marquee, bunting, jugs of Pimms on arrival and maybe a busker playing songs.”

“Marquees aren’t cheap,” Kiri warned her.

She’d been down this road before several times and knew the prices of such things.

“Aren’t they? At the county fair they look pretty basic.”

“The ones at the county fair are just a tarpaulin erected directly over grass. If you’re serious about hiring one as a wedding venue, you need flooring, heating and lighting. Not to mention toilets.”

“I see what you mean.

Any other ideas for creating that kind of atmosphere?”

With previous brides, Kiri had thought she was doing a good thing by suggesting the village hall – it was easily accessible, with an excellent kitchen for caterers and room for a decent-sized crowd to eat and dance.

It was cheap, too, which left money for dressing it up and other expenses.

But nobody had bitten – they all wanted their big day to be somewhere more grand.

Not that Laura was disheartened – she still had tons of energy and ideas.

“Let’s order another coffee,” she suggested, and Kiri had to resist the urge to consult her watch.

She’d thought they’d be wrapped up by now, and there was a film she’d been hoping to watch on TV.

“Oh, yes!” Laura smiled, remembering something. “I must tell you about the best man.”

Please don’t, Kiri thought. The first time round, she’d been very excited about Eric, the groom’s brother.

Wasn’t there supposed to be a little frisson between best man and chief bridesmaid? Kiri had expected there would be.

But Eric was crazy about his girlfriend, Melissa, who turned out to be the most talked-about person other than the bride, wearing a cute green dress she’d made herself which brought out the sparkling emerald of her eyes, topped with a cascade of Titian hair.

Best man number two, who insisted on being known as Beggsy, had been all about practical jokes – some in very poor taste – and Kiri had trembled all the way through his speech.

The third candidate, Bill, had been friendly and chatty, but all he wanted to talk about was centralheating systems, which he built and maintained.

Kiri didn’t think she could take another session of that, much less an entire courtship.

Her last best man, Dominic, though, had been different.

Emily, the bride, had chastised him for not cutting his unruly hair for the occasion, but Kiri thought he looked great.

Dominic was tall, confident and handsome.

He teased Emily about all the fuss, but when the ceremony began, he suddenly became serious and focused.

After he presented the rings, he stepped back and gave Kiri a smile she thought you only saw in movies.

Spotting it, the other bridesmaid leaned in to her.

“You know what they say about the best man and the chief bridesmaid getting together at weddings,” she murmured.

As they processed back down the aisle after the happy couple, Dominic seemed happy to take Kiri’s hand, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

She felt herself flush with excitement.

If the best news of the day had been the bride and groom becoming Mr and Mrs, then a close second was the word that Dominic was single.

“But be warned,” Emily advised Kiri. “Dom doesn’t seem to do long-term relationships.

“Falls in love at the drop of a hat, that one, but falls straight back out just as easily.”

Kiri thought about it. On the one hand, she didn’t want to set herself up for a broken heart.

On the other, what harm could there be in a bit of friendly flirting?

All through the meal, Kiri was impressed.

She had some experience of best men by now, and they tended to pick at their dinner, knowing they had to stand up and address the room afterwards.

Not Dominic. Somehow he managed to wolf down each course while seeming to chat effortlessly to her throughout.

“Aren’t you nervous about your speech?” she asked at one point.

Dominic looked genuinely puzzled.

“Why?” he replied. “It’s just talking. I’ve been doing that every day since I was a toddler.”

His confidence turned out to be well-founded.

Speaking without notes, he swept charmingly through a lifetime of experiences with the groom, referencing family, school and escapades.

When he came to how the groom had met his bride, and the love their friends had watched blossom, his voice took on a tone of awe.

“In the end, it’s what we all want, isn’t it? To love and be loved,” he concluded. “To the bride and groom!”

He turned to Kiri to clink glasses and she saw, to her delight, tears moistening his eyes.

What followed felt like the best night of her life. Once the happy couple had enjoyed their first dance, Dominic insisted on taking Kiri for a spin round the floor.

When the music stopped, he kept her hand in his.

“Don’t sit down yet,” he urged.

Even though Kiri wasn’t much of a dancer, Dominic seemed to lead her through the steps so that she almost felt born to it.

Only when the band took a break did they flop down at a table.

“Another glass of bubbly?” Dominic asked.

“Yes, please. But first I must powder my nose,” Kiri replied.

“Me, too. See you back here in five,” Dominic replied with a grin.

In the ladies’ room, Kiri looked at herself in the mirror.

Her hair was falling down a bit, but she didn’t care – Dom’s own hair was somewhat wild, so maybe he’d like the dishevelled look.

She could see that her eyes were dancing and could feel her heart thumping underneath her taffeta bodice.

“Hi.” It was Emily, sweeping up behind her. Kiri hugged her.

“Let me see the ring again.”

Emily showed her.

“Mrs Cowan.” Kiri sighed. “Has your day been perfect?”

“Absolutely,” Emily replied, smiling. “And from what I can see, you’re having fun yourself.

“Remember what I told you about Dom, though – in and out of love all the time. Be careful.”

“I will be,” Kiri assured her.

But how could she be careful when the man of her dreams had shown up and literally swept her off her feet?

Should she have closed her heart? Shut down her feelings and walked away?

Well, she didn’t.

****

Dominic had loved her little house.

“It’s obvious you’re an artist – the whole place is beautiful,” he remarked.

Kiri liked that he thought of her as an artist, even though her work was never going to be in some big exhibition.

She designed greetings cards; it wasn’t glamorous, but she enjoyed it.

“Even you,” Dom said, scooping up Jinx. “You’re so cute someone must have drawn you.”

Jinx purred and snuggled into Dominic’s shoulder – he was as smitten as his mum was.

Ever since the wedding, Kiri and Dominic had been seeing a lot of each other.

They tried going to the cinema, but didn’t much like it – they preferred being able to talk.

There was so much to find out about each other.

Dominic was a salesman – cars, expensive ones. He had a modern apartment, but dreamed of living in an old farmhouse one day.

“I want a houseful of kids,” he told her. “A pair of twins to fetch my slippers

– one each – and at least two more children to listen to my stories.”

Kiri had never dared to talk of her aspirations for a family with any previous boyfriend – she was afraid she’d scare them off.

But Dom seemed to relish sharing fantasies of a settled life with an Aga, a big, scrubbed table and a dog whose tail thumped excitedly when his master entered the room.

“Don’t worry, Jinx,” he assured the cat.

“We’ll get an impressionable puppy and

“In the end it’s what we all want, isn’t it? To love and be loved”

you can teach him who’s boss from the start.”

Part of Kiri knew that life wasn’t a picture either of them could paint. Whatever lay ahead, it was bound to include downs as well as ups.

Old farmhouses came with lots of bills and other headaches, and children could be difficult and demanding, however much you loved them.

But another part gobbled up every inch of Dominic’s vivid imaginings, so that she absorbed his dreams and they became her own.

They even fed into her card designs.

Instead of her usual feline illustrations, she began drawing country cottages with flowering gardens, and cosy living-rooms with log fires.

Then, one night, out of the blue, Dominic arrived at Kiri’s place in a taxi.

He leaned on the doorbell a little too long, while Kiri raced in the background to take off her apron and check her face in the mirror for smudges.

“Hello! You’re drunk!” she said with a laugh, taking in his glassy eyes. “Come in.”

“I’m not coming in,” Dominic said. “I’m sorry, Kiri, I’m not stopping. I’ve just come because I had to tell you it’s over.”

Kiri looked at him in bewilderment.

“What’s over?”

“Us. Sorry.”