The Sometime Bride

Carrie interrupted. “People are getting seated. We’d better find our places before they start serving.”

    Mike and Carrie were lucky enough to find their place cards at the same table with Paul and Wendy and a few more of Mike’s old swim-team cronies. Mike looked around the room, seeing that many of the other groups that hung together in high school had also been placed together at their respective tables. Whoever had been in charge of the seating chart had done an excellent job.
    The various courses flowed by with good conversation and wine, both of which seemed in endless supply. Everyone at their table was duly impressed with Carrie, both her financial acumen and her personal style. Mike could tell by the body postures of his former fellow athletes who seemed intent on angling close to Carrie to absorb her every informed word on the financial markets. Either that or to catch a whiff of her heather perfume, which made Mike more than just a little bit jealous. Though he didn’t know why. She was doing exactly as he’d hoped she would, knocking the socks off every one of his buddies. If only they didn’t look like they’d be happy to also have Carrie knock their boxers off…
    “You’ve been quiet,” Carrie whispered in his ear. “Getting tired?”
    “Just tired of the conversation,” Mike whispered back.
    “Ah,” she replied, her tone still hushed, “finance bores you.”
    “No,” Mike said, his voice coming out louder than intended. “Men putting the moves on my ‘wife’ bore me.”
    The two couples seated across the table from them stopped conversing and stared.
    Oh Jesus. Mike pushed back his chair and stood. “Excuse me, I’m going to get some air.”
    “Then I’m coming with you!” Carrie said, scrambling to her feet and hurrying after him.
    Carrie followed Mike out a large glass door that led to a sweeping veranda, then settled beside him on a carved marble bench. She couldn’t believe it. He was jealous! All rationale told her that was a bad sign. The books, the magazines all told you that jealousy meant possessiveness. But way deep inside, Carrie’s heart was doing a jig, shouting yes, yes, yes!
    He loved her; she knew he did. All she had to do was get him to say it.
    “If any of those men were flirting,” Carrie lied, “I certainly didn’t know it.”
    “Flirting? Carrie, Billy Smith looked like he was ready to up and carry you away! That, with his wife Elizabeth sitting next to him!”
    “Mike,” Carrie said, scooting in toward him. “Only one man in this crowd could carry me away. And I think you know exactly who that is.”
    Oh, if only, Mike thought, looking up at the big, bold moon. But what if when he really asked, she said no? Mike had nothing to offer her. Nothing but what was in his heart. And Carrie already had it all. He knew from talking to her grandmother. Feeling it only right, he’d gone by this afternoon to discuss his intentions. Grandma Russell had assured him that the money business didn’t really matter one way or another. And, at the time, feeling hopeful, he’d believed it.
    Now he just didn’t know. Mike had seen the way Carrie’s jaw had dropped when she’d walked in here. Though she came from more humble roots like he had, this was the sort of world she was meant for. That ambition was what had taken her to New York. And to see the way she had meshed with his Wall Street buddies at the table, he guessed that was where she belonged. Certainly not stuck permanently in Central Virginia with the likes of him, much less down in the far-off Caymans. Mike heaved a sigh, his heart heavy with the moment.
    “Penny for your thoughts?” she said, lightly touching his arm.
    “Carrie,” he began, “there are some things I need to tell you.”
    “No,” she said, laying a hand on his thigh. “Me first.”
    Mike looked up into her beautiful dark eyes sparkling with starlight.
    “I think,” she began, then stopped. Come on, Carrie, don’t lose your nerve. But what if he couldn’t love her for who she really was, a woman with money? What if he said they were too different, that their lives were worlds apart?
    “What do you think?”
    “Mike, I have something personal to tell you. I mean, personal about my job. Of course, normally, it’s nobody’s business, so I don’t discuss it at all. But with a man I… What I meant to say was… Criminy!”
    “Criminy?” Mike asked, leaning in and raising her chin.
    “Oh gosh, it’s an expression