At Her Sister’s Wedding, My Best Friend Caught the Bouquet… Then Walked Straight to My Table!
Chapter 15
Years later, Emily returned to the ballroom where Claire had gotten married.
The place looked smaller now.
Maybe because she was older.
Or maybe because memories always make rooms seem larger than they really were.
She stood beneath the same chandeliers.
The same dance floor.
The same place where Sophie had caught the bouquet.
Her daughter stood beside her.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you smiling?”
Emily looked across the room.
Sophie was walking toward her.
Still carrying herself the same way.
Still smiling with the same quiet confidence.
Emily said:
“Because that’s where your mother changed my life.”
Her daughter looked confused.
“How?”
Emily laughed.
“She caught a bouquet.”
“And?”
“Then she walked straight to my table.”
Sophie arrived.
“I thought we agreed never to tell that story.”
Emily smiled.
“You still get embarrassed?”
“Every time.”
Their daughter looked between them.
“What did Mom say?”
Emily looked at Sophie.
Sophie shook her head.
“You tell her.”
Emily leaned down.
“She said three things.”
“What?”
“I love you.”
Their daughter smiled.
“That doesn’t sound very embarrassing.”
Sophie laughed.
“It was extremely embarrassing.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother took seven years to realize I meant it.”
Their daughter gasped.
“Seven years?”
Emily nodded.
“I was slow.”
Sophie took Emily’s hand.
“But worth waiting for.”
The music began.
Couples moved onto the dance floor.
Their daughter ran toward Claire’s grandchildren.
Emily leaned against Sophie.
“Would you do it again?”
“The bouquet?”
“Yes.”
Sophie smiled.
“Every time.”
Emily looked at her.
“Even knowing everything?”
“Especially knowing everything.”
They danced beneath the lights.
Outside, rain began against the windows.
Inside, their family laughed.
No one was hiding anymore.
No one was waiting for permission to speak.
No one feared the truth.
And Emily finally understood something.
The bouquet hadn’t predicted who would marry.
It had only created an excuse.
An excuse for Sophie to stop being afraid.
An excuse for Emily to finally listen.
An excuse for two people who had loved each other quietly for years to take one honest step toward each other.
That night, seven years after their friendship had begun, Sophie had caught a bouquet.
But the real thing she caught wasn’t flowers.
It was courage.
And when she walked straight to Emily’s table, she wasn’t really walking toward a future.
She was walking toward home.
