Seven Days Before the Wedding

My wedding to my fiancée, Helen Howell, was only a week away. I finished my business trip a day early and decided to surprise her. The moment I opened the door to our new place, I heard the shower running. A second later, Helen's longtime best friend, Martin Miller, walked out shirtless with my bath towel wrapped around his waist. Helen poked her head out of the bedroom and froze when she saw me. "Lawrence? I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow." I looked at Martin. "Why is he here?" "The water at Martin's place got shut off, so he came over to shower." Helen said it like there was nothing unusual about it. My eyes dropped to the towel around his waist. "And he's using my towel?" "I gave it to him." She shrugged. "It's just a towel. We can wash it." When she saw my expression, she walked over and slipped her arm through mine. "Martin and I have known each other for ten years. There's nothing going on between us, so stop making such a big deal out of it." I stared at her for a few seconds, then realized I didn't even feel like arguing anymore. "Helen, the wedding's off." Chapter 1 Helen Howell froze for a second, then stepped closer and reached for my hand. I moved out of the way, leaving her hand hanging awkwardly in the air. The smile on her face faded. "Are you really this mad?" By then, Martin Miller had gotten dressed and come back out. He took one look at us, then headed for the door. "Helen, this is on me. I'll get out of here so Lawrence doesn't have to feel awkward." Helen frowned. "Lawrence, we're getting married. That doesn't mean I suddenly have to cut off every guy I know. Martin and I have been friends for ten years. What's wrong with him coming over?" I didn't feel like arguing. "Do whatever you want." She stared at me. "What's that supposed to mean?" Martin looked between us. "Alright, Helen, I'm leaving. Don't get into a fight over me." After he left, the living room went quiet. Helen watched me for a moment, then walked up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Fine. Next time he comes over, I'll let you know first. Happy?" Usually, that softer tone was enough to make me drop it. Helen and I had been together for seven years, and she had stayed with me through the hardest years while I built my business. That was why, whenever Martin came up, I kept telling myself no relationship was perfect. When I said I wasn't comfortable with how much they shared with each other, Helen told me they had always been that close. When Martin called in the middle of the night, and she rushed out to see him, she said she couldn't just ignore a friend she had known for ten years. Every argument ended the same way. I was always the one who gave in. I even told myself things would change after we got married, that she would naturally start setting some boundaries. But today, I finally realized Helen had never planned to put any distance between herself and Martin. She expected me to keep accepting it. I gently pulled her arms away from my waist. "I'm tired." Helen's face tightened. "You're seriously giving me the silent treatment over something this small?" "I'm not." "Then what did you mean when you said the wedding was off?" I picked up my suitcase and headed for the study. "I meant exactly what I said." She stayed where she was, clearly upset. "Hey, what's with the attitude? I was having a good day. I don't want to fight with you." I closed the study door behind me. I had barely turned on my computer when the wedding planner, Ellie Watts, sent me a file. [Mr. Palmer, Ms. Howell just finalized her wedding vows. Please take a look when you have a chance.] I opened the document. It was over 500 words long, with tracked changes all over the margins. Every single edit came from the same person. Martin. I had rewritten my own vows 12 times for the 3 minutes I would have at the altar. Meanwhile, Helen had no problem letting another man decide what she was going to say to me. Chapter 2 My phone buzzed again. [Also, Ms. Howell has been pretty busy lately, so she asked Mr. Miller to take care of the rest of the wedding details. He said he'll stop by tomorrow afternoon to go over everything for her. Does that work for you?] I stared at the messages. So it wasn't just the vows. Apparently, Martin was handling our wedding now, too. - We were supposed to have dinner with Helen's parents at 7 p.m. for her father, Todd Howell's, birthday. When I came out of the study, Helen was already dressed and ready to go. I held up my phone. "What's this?" She glanced at the screen. "What?" "Martin edited your vows?" "Yeah." She didn't seem bothered at all. "He writes for a living. Mine sounded too stiff, so I asked him to clean them up." I pulled up the revision history. "You call this cleaning them up?" The first paragraph was rewritten, then the second, and almost all of the last two. I looked at her. "How much of this did you actually write?" Helen went quiet for a few seconds. "The ideas were mine. He just helped me word them better." "Did you ever actually sit down and think about what you wanted to say to me at our wedding?" Her patience started to run out. "Lawrence, are you seriously trying to ruin tonight?" "I'm asking if you put any real thought into it." "Do you have any idea how busy I've been?" she snapped. "My project launches at the end of the month. I'm in meetings all day, then I come home and deal with wedding stuff. I don't have time to sit around rewriting every sentence over and over." I didn't say anything. I had rewritten my vows 12 times. She couldn't even put 3 minutes of effort into hers. Just then, the doorbell rang. Martin was standing outside with a cake in his hands. "I picked this up for your dad. I'm not late, am I?" Helen's expression softened immediately. "No. We were just heading out." The three of us went to the restaurant together. Halfway through dinner, Helen's mother, Christine Howell, put some food on Martin's plate. "Thanks, Mrs. Howell. You really don't have to fuss over me like this." Christine smiled. "You and Helen have known each other since you were kids. After all these years, you're practically family." Martin chuckled. "Careful, Mrs. Howell. Lawrence might start thinking I'm taking his place." Everyone at the table laughed. A moment later, Helen noticed the mushrooms on his plate and moved them aside. "You don't eat mushrooms." She did it so naturally, like she had done it countless times before. After dinner, Christine suggested taking a family photo. She and Todd sat in the middle while Helen stood behind them. Martin clearly knew the routine. He stepped into place beside Helen without even thinking. I was about to move over when the photographer called, "Everyone squeeze in a little. Eyes on me." Martin seemed to realize what he had done and shifted aside. "Lawrence, you can stand here." I was about to step over when Helen glanced at her parents, who were already in place. "Forget it. There's no point moving everyone around now." She waved me over. "Lawrence, just stand next to Martin. There's room." She said it like switching places was more trouble than it was worth. The camera clicked. No one seemed to think anything was wrong. A few minutes later, the photo showed up on our phones. Todd and Christine sat in the middle, Helen stood behind them, and Martin stood right beside her. And there I was, the man who was supposed to marry her in seven days, standing off to the side like I had wandered into someone else's family photo. After dinner, I headed to the parking lot ahead of everyone else. Martin caught up with me and held out the photo. "It came out pretty good." I didn't take it. He glanced down at the picture, then looked back at me. "You really think marrying her is going to change anything?" I turned to face him. Martin gave me a faint smile. "Relax. I'm just saying, you've seemed pretty worked up about me lately." "Then keep your distance." Chapter 3 This time, Martin didn't say anything else. I didn't bother arguing with him either. He wasn't the one who kept letting himself into our relationship. Helen was. By the time I got to my car, she had already sent me several messages. [Why did you leave without me? My parents want to go out for drinks after this.] I ignored them and texted Ellie instead. [Are you free tomorrow afternoon? I need to stop by.] She replied almost right away. [Yes. Are we finalizing the remaining details?] [No.] I typed out another message. [I'm coming in to cancel the wedding.] It took her a while to respond. [The wedding is only six days away, and some of the deposits are nonrefundable. Are you sure?] I stared at the screen for a moment. [I'm sure.] - The next afternoon, I got to Ellie's office early. When I walked into the conference room, Martin was already there. The table was covered with schedules, place cards, and two copies of our vows. Helen's place card was sitting right next to Martin. Ellie was going over the reception details with him, but she stopped when she saw me. "Mr. Palmer. You're here." She stood and pulled out a chair for me, then glanced at Martin. "Ms. Howell got pulled into a last-minute meeting, so she's running a little late. She said Mr. Miller knows what she likes, so she asked him to go over everything with me until she gets here." I sat down. "She knew I was coming today?" "Yes." Ellie glanced at me and quietly pulled Helen's copy of the schedule a little closer to herself. It was a small move, but I caught it. So I wasn't the only one who thought something about this was off. Martin either didn't notice the tension or just didn't care. He pushed the schedule toward me. "I was looking over the guest interview. Helen hates getting too emotional in front of people, so I figured we should keep that part short." I didn't touch the schedule. Then he picked up my vows like they were his to review. "And if the ceremony starts running long, I'm thinking you should…" I reached over and took the papers out of his hand. "Don't touch my vows." The room went dead quiet. Ellie's pen stopped midstroke. She quickly looked down and started organizing the papers in front of her. Martin stiffened, then gave me a thin smile. "Alright. I was just looking." Ellie stepped in before things got worse. "Why don't we go over the morning schedule first? The photographer will meet you at the hotel at eight thirty for getting-ready photos, and then..." "No need." She looked up. I slid the wedding contract across the table. "I'm here to cancel everything." The room went quiet. This time, Ellie didn't ask if I was sure. She simply pulled out the cancellation paperwork she had already prepared. Martin's smile disappeared. "You're really going through with this?" Before I could answer, the conference room door swung open, and Helen hurried in. "Sorry I'm late. The meeting ran over." Then she spotted the cancellation papers on the table and stopped short. "Lawrence, what is this?" I met her eyes. "Exactly what it looks like." She stared at me for a few seconds, then walked over and lowered her voice. "Come outside. We need to talk." I got up and followed her into the hall. The hallway was empty. As soon as the door shut behind us, she turned on me. "What are you doing?" "Nothing." "Then what is this?" Her voice sharpened. "First the towel, then the vows, and now you're canceling the wedding. Are you really throwing away seven years over Martin?" I looked at her. "You still think this is about him?" Chapter 4 "Isn't it?" Helen shot back. "No." She went still. I looked straight at her. "I'm not calling off the wedding because of Martin. I'm calling it off because of you." She stared at me for a second. "Because I asked him to help with a few things? You know how crazy work's been lately." I shook my head. "If you're that busy, tell me. We can scale the wedding back. We can cut whatever we need to. But every time something comes up, you hand it off to Martin." Her brows pulled together. "Because he's available, and he knows what I like. I don't see why that's such a big deal." That was when I stopped wanting to argue. She genuinely didn't understand why any of it bothered me. I turned and walked back into the conference room. Ellie went over the cancellation terms and explained that some services had already been provided, so part of the deposits couldn't be refunded. When Helen heard how much we would lose, she finally spoke up. "Lawrence, that's a lot of money. Don't sign anything yet. Can we please go home and talk about this first?" "If we can't get it back, then we can't." I signed the papers. Helen went quiet. When I pushed them back across the table, she put her hand over them. "You're really doing this?" "I told you I was serious." The color drained from her face. She stared at me for a long moment, then took a breath like she was trying to convince herself this wasn't final. "The wedding's still six days away. Even if we cancel now, we can always book everything again. We'll talk when we get home tonight." She still thought this could be fixed. The next morning, I had barely gotten to the office when the contractor called. "Mr. Palmer, we started the work at your house this morning. Since we're turning the study into a guest room, we still need you to confirm where you want the bed and dresser." I frowned. "What guest room?" There was a pause on the other end. "Ms. Howell didn't tell you?" I said nothing. The contractor quickly explained, "She approved the change three days ago. She said a friend would be staying with you for about two months after your wedding, so she asked us to turn the study into a guest room." Three days ago. She had already made the decision before I ever said a word about calling off the wedding. I hung up and drove straight home. The whole way there, the same thought kept running through my head. Three days ago. I thought the towel, the vows, and everything else had already crossed enough lines. But before any of that happened, Helen had already decided Martin was going to live with us after we got married. And she hadn't asked me once. The second I opened the front door, I heard a power drill going. The study door was wide open. The bookcase I designed myself was already half taken apart, my drafting table had been dragged into the living room, and my computer and work files were stacked on top of it. A boxed mattress and nightstand sat against the wall. Martin stood in the middle of the study with a tape measure in his hand. When Helen saw me, she didn't look guilty or even surprised. If anything, she looked relieved. "Good, you're home." She pointed into the room. "The bed looks a little tight here. Do you think it would fit better against that wall?" I stared at her. "Who's staying here?" She blinked. "Martin." "Why?" "A pipe burst in his building, and his place needs a lot of work. It'll probably take a couple of months." She said it like the arrangement was completely normal. "You're at the studio most of the time anyway, and you barely use this room. I figured he could stay here until his place is fixed." I looked into the study. When we bought the house, this was the one room I had insisted on designing for myself. Now half of it was already torn apart. I looked back at her. "Did you ask me before you told him he could move in?" The smile slipped from Helen's face. Chapter 5 "Do I really have to ask you about something like that?" Helen asked. When I didn't answer, her tone softened. "Lawrence, I'm not trying to disrespect you. Martin's place just isn't livable right now." "So you decided to tear apart my study without asking me?" "It's temporary." She frowned. "Your studio's only 15 minutes away. If you need to work, you can just go there." Martin set the tape measure down. "Forget it, Helen. I'll get a hotel. I'm not sticking around if it's going to cause problems." Helen turned to him right away. "For two months? That's ridiculous." "I can handle a hotel." "This isn't on you. Let me handle it." I stood there, watching them go back and forth, and whatever I had left to say died in my throat. After a moment, I looked at Helen. "What if it were me?" She turned back to me. "What?" "What if it were the other way around? What if a woman I'd known for ten years walked out of our bathroom wearing your towel? What if I had her helping plan our wedding?" Helen's expression changed. I kept going. "Then I tore apart your room without asking and told her she could move in with us right after the wedding." I held her gaze. "Would you be fine with that?" She didn't answer. A few seconds passed before she finally said, "That's different." "How?" "Because it is." Her voice rose. "Martin isn't some random guy. I've known him for ten years. I know him. I trust him." I nodded. That told me everything I needed to know. The rules weren't the problem. In Helen's mind, they just didn't apply to Martin. I turned to the contractor. "Stop the work. Put everything back the way it was and send me the bill for whatever it costs." Helen stared at me. "What are you doing?" I ignored her, went straight to the bedroom, and started packing a suitcase with my documents, laptop, and a few changes of clothes. At first, she just stood in the doorway and watched. But when I put my passport in the suitcase, her expression finally changed. "Why are you packing?" "I'm moving out." She stepped into the room. "How long are you going to keep doing this? First you cancel the wedding, and now you're moving out?" I kept packing. She watched me for a moment, then her voice softened. "You're really leaving?" "Yeah." "Then he won't stay here." She immediately put a hand on my suitcase. "I'll have the contractors put everything back right now. I'll tell Martin to leave. Is that what you want?" I looked up at her. "This isn't about whether he stays here anymore." "Then what is it about?" She really didn't understand. I zipped the suitcase shut. "Maybe someday you will." Something shifted in Helen's expression. I rolled my suitcase to the entryway, took out my house keys, and set them on the console table. She froze. "Lawrence." For the first time all day, there was no irritation in her voice. I ignored her and headed for the elevator. She stayed by the door instead of following me, like she still expected me to turn around. Right then, my phone buzzed. It was a message from Ellie. [Mr. Palmer, the cancellation has been processed. The wedding is officially canceled.] I read it, then locked my phone. Helen seemed to sense something and took a step toward me. "Who was that?" I didn't answer. The elevator doors started to close. Only when there was barely any space left between them did the look on Helen's face finally change.