My Best Friend and Boyfriend Planned Our Wedding, So I Broke Up

My best friend and my boyfriend planned our wedding together, from booking the venue to the gown to the ceremony details.

The two of them were inseparable. They even slept on the same couch.

Ask why, and the answer was always the same: they didn't want me to wear myself out.

At the rehearsal they pushed me, the bride-to-be, off to the side, and my boyfriend slid the ring onto my best friend's finger.

Marian Fox pressed her fingers to her lips, almost by reflex. "Why does this ring fit me so perfectly? Maud Pruitt's fingers are so much thicker than mine..."

"This ring suits the whole tone of the reception better. One size up and it would look terrible."

"So let's film this part and edit it into the wedding video."

My whole body went stiff. That was the wedding video we'd be pulling out to watch for years to come. What was the point of filming someone else?

Edwin Delgado said it like the matter was already settled.

"Marian's slimmer, she looks better in the gown, so we already talked it over. When we cut the wedding footage, we'll use today's rehearsal. If her face shows, we'll just swap it for yours with AI."

"Saves you from getting worked up and embarrassing yourself in the moment. It'd be a shame to have that on camera. Marian's more suited to a big occasion like this than you are."

And with that, he walked up to the front.

Before the officiant.

He said the vows, exchanged rings, even kissed her.

The applause from below made it sound like the two of them were the ones getting married.

Eight years. I'd thought once I was married, this kind of thing would finally stop.

I never imagined it would only get worse.

Was the next step going to be Marian taking my place on the wedding night too?

I opened my phone and hesitated, then sent a single message.

"Uncle, I'm calling off the wedding."

The two of them apparently weren't satisfied with just the ceremony. They filmed the giving-away part too.

The parents were Marian's parents.

They placed Marian's hand into Edwin's.

They shot it over and over on-site.

The two of them acted it out again and again, full of feeling.

Only when the footage was finally good enough did Edwin come over to me. "You're just standing there doing nothing. How about getting some water for the rest of us who are actually working?"

"I never asked Marian to do this for me"

"It's exactly because you don't understand the etiquette for a big occasion that I had Marian stand in. She's doing this for you! She even had the two parents come out here. If you're not grateful, fine, but don't stand around complaining."

I finally couldn't hold it in. "My parents died young. I have no family. Whose face is the AI going to use? A dead person's?"

Marian's face went awkward at once, tears welling up in an instant. "I'm sorry, I didn't think it through! I only wanted your wedding to look a little happier. I meant well."

Edwin even ignored the compulsive neatness he couldn't normally control and wiped Marian's tears with his sleeve. "The two of us both work in weddings professionally. Maud doesn't understand any of it. All she can do is stand there pointing fingers, trying to feel important."

"That's enough. Stop standing there making trouble over nothing. None of us are going to forget you. If you've got the time, go buy everyone some food, run some errands."

If I did that, then since they'd handled the whole schedule and the rehearsal, I'd know nothing about how tomorrow's wedding was supposed to run.

Seeing that I didn't move, Edwin let out a hard sigh.

You could tell he was completely out of patience. "Then just help Marian fix her gown and shoes. You can't tell me you can't even manage something that small?"

Marian's face flushed red. "Maud, help me out. It really is a little uncomfortable to wear."

A wedding gown is never especially comfortable to begin with. But as I fixed Marian's, my face went suddenly pale.

The gown Edwin had ordered a full six months ago was in Marian's size.

Wearing my gown early was one thing. I'd held back, again and again.

But it turned out the size wasn't mine at all.

Tomorrow, did they mean to have me get married in a gown I couldn't even fit into?

Marian and Edwin were both in the wedding business.

There'd always been a certain rivalry between them, and once, over my future wedding, the two of them actually got into a fight, because each wanted to plan it.

It got so bad they couldn't stand the sight of each other.

I was stuck in the middle, torn. Saying yes to one meant hurting the other.

So I spent three years on it. I even brokered the connection between their two families, put their businesses on the same side, and turned them into a united front.

Just like that, they had solid footing in the industry.

But I never thought that one day I'd be the outsider.

Together they planned everyone else's happiness. Sometimes they were happy, and sometimes, when a client gave them grief, they'd hold each other and cry.

"I think the most important thing between a couple is knowing each other's likes and dislikes."

So the two of them knew what clothes the other liked to wear, what food, what allergies each had, even where the other's moles were, which spots on the face were sensitive. They knew each other that deeply.

But Edwin slowly forgot. What did I like to eat? What was my favorite color? Even that I liked an outdoor lawn ceremony more than a hotel-style wedding.

Even though I'd quit my job and had all the time in the world, Edwin used "being busy" as an excuse to pull Marian along, and the two of them planned the whole wedding themselves.

I trailed behind them like a stranger, with no presence at all.

Even the workers around us didn't know that the wedding was actually mine.

The hall filled with a burst of shrieking.

Marian stood in front of the cake, a fork in her hand, an innocent look on her face. "I was just hungry. I only wanted one bite."

I walked over, ice-cold all through. "That's the cake for my wedding tomorrow! The one the two of us were supposed to cut together..."

"Do you have any idea what I went through for this cake? I went and learned how to..."

Three full nights without sleep, that was what it took to make it.

Edwin cut me off before I could finish. "It's just a cake. Is it really that big a deal? Marian only wanted a bite. She didn't do it on purpose."

"Besides, she's so exhausted her blood sugar dropped. And who was all that for, if not you?"

"And cutting the cake together, that's out of style, it's so dated! Lucky the cake broke, honestly. Otherwise it would've dragged the whole wedding down a notch."

Down a notch?

I took half a step back, my eyes going red.

Edwin loved sweets. He used to say that at his wedding, there absolutely had to be a tall three-tier cake.

Made by my own hands, ideally, and then the two of us would cut it together.

It would mean that from then on we'd stay sweet, always, and never part.

Back then, Edwin's face would go red as he described exactly what kind of cake he wanted.

For him, that was practically half a proposal.

Because of that one line.

Tristram had told me to leave, said the U.S. was a better place for me to grow, that here at home I'd already taken this project as far as it could go, and that losing my job was only a matter of time.

Was I really going to end up a housewife?

And once I was a housewife, would he still treat me that well?

Because of that one line, that single line, I stayed.

I promised Tristram.

"Anyone in this world can change. But Edwin will never do me wrong."

Just as he'd predicted, the project ran its course, and I put in my resignation with dignity before the layoffs could reach me.

I thought the timing was perfect, right before the wedding. I could use it to build a wedding that was ours.

But now I had all this free time, drifting around in front of them, and at my own wedding I couldn't get a single word in.

"Oh? What's a jade bracelet doing down here?"

Marian's foot came down, and the bracelet snapped clean into two halves.

I shoved her aside and snatched it up, but it was already broken. Broken all the way through.

Edwin threw his arms around Marian. "What are you doing? There are sharp pieces everywhere in here. You knocked Marian down. If she gets hurt, if she breaks the skin, how are we supposed to go through with the wedding?"

I'd swallowed it and swallowed it, and now I couldn't anymore. The tears finally spilled over. "Edwin, have you forgotten? That bracelet is the only thing my parents left me. They said one day my husband and I would protect it together"

Edwin cut me off at once. "Yes, so what? It's a bracelet. A piece of jewelry. Is it worth more than a person?"

"If Marian got hurt over some broken bracelet, your parents' spirits would be punished for it too."

Hearing that, my whole body swayed. Disbelief was written all over my face.

Marian and I had become friends because we shared the same history. Neither of us had parents.

Just two days ago.

Marian had made a fuss about needing to go back to her hometown. Her parents used to drink from an old thermos, and she wanted to bring it back as a keepsake.

Our wedding was supposed to be today. Yesterday was the rehearsal. And because of that thermos, we'd traveled halfway across the country to Marian's hometown.

The date some fortune-teller had picked was pushed back a whole day, all so Edwin could retrieve a thermos so rusted you couldn't even make out what it was.

"Mari, you really are so sentimental. You treasure even an old thermos this much."

Edwin wrapped that thermos up like it was priceless. He even paid a small fortune to have it professionally restored, then set it out on display in Marian's home.

A jade bracelet passed down through generations of my family, and it couldn't compare to a thermos in Marian's house.

He must have caught the change in my face.

Edwin seemed to sense he'd maybe said something wrong.

But a person's life really was worth more than a thing.

It was only a piece of jewelry, after all

"Ah!"

Marian's sudden scream cut straight through his thoughts, and whatever had flickered through his mind was tossed aside.

"It hurts so much!"

Marian had stumbled into the tower of scented cups behind her, and every last cup came crashing to the floor.

Edwin didn't spare that flickering thought another second. He pulled Marian into his arms.

He got a splash of wine down himself, and shards too, but still looked her over again and again. "Are you all right?"

"I'm sorry, it's all my fault, I'm so clumsy, I made the two of you fight, it's all my fault!"

Then she held out a finger. The tip was cut.

"Maud, you've caused a scene all this time, and now Marian's hurt. Happy now? Don't you know how much she hates pain!"

"If Marian has any other injuries, then we're postponing the wedding. We'll hold it whenever she's recovered!"

That cut on her fingertip would have healed on its own if she'd waited a little longer to see a doctor.

And in that moment, all of it suddenly felt pointless to me.

"I don't see any reason to go through with it."

"The wedding dress isn't even my size. You never intended for me to be at my own wedding anyway."

Edwin's eyes went red, angrier than mine even. "We designed that dress together, the two of us! Marian oversaw the whole thing for nearly half a year."

"She strained her eyes for you, worked them raw, and you'd slander her like this? Have you got any decency left?"

With that, he shoved me away.

I went down hard onto the cake, cream and fruit smearing all over me, the pan inside biting so deep I sucked in a breath.

Blood bled out across the cake.

The pain sent tears streaming down at once.

And Edwin didn't even register that he'd knocked me down. He simply picked up Marian, who had barely a scratch, and walked off.

He left with his back to me, and one last line.

"Marian likes healing soup. Make some and bring it over. Apologize to her."

"Do that, and the wedding goes ahead as planned!"

The wedding?

I wiped away tears, not knowing anymore whether the ache was in my chest or my body.

There would never be a wedding between us again.

It was the other workers who noticed something was wrong and helped me up, who got me to the hospital.

I'd lost so much blood that even passersby flinched at the sight of me.

Of all things, we'd ended up at the same hospital. I was just in the room next door.

I could even hear the nurse arguing on the other side. Ms. Fox, the wound has already started to scab over. There's no reason to bandage it again.

Edwin was frantic. What do you mean, no reason? Can't you see she's in so much pain she's crying? Just because you can't see the wound doesn't mean it doesn't hurt her. You have to bandage it.

The nurse gave up and wrapped it.

Then she left, muttering under her breath.

Marian tugged at Edwin's sleeve, her voice going soft and coaxing. Do you think Maud just won't want to come see me? I saw her go down on the floor too. What if she got hurt as well?...

So what if she went down? She's not some old woman. What could she possibly hurt? Edwin frowned, irritated. If you ask me, she just doesn't want to make you the healing soup.

She dropped down there on purpose. It's all an act.

Don't worry. She'll show up right on time at the wedding tomorrow. We're the only family she has in this world. If she doesn't marry me, where else does she have to go?

The two most important people in Maud's life were both right here.

Her friend and the man she loved.

Without them, I had nothing.

So even if she threw a little tantrum, in the end she'd come back, meek as ever.

I stood in the room on the other side, listening to all of it, and it was like being cut apart piece by piece.

So that was it. That was exactly why they could treat me however they pleased.

Because no matter what they did, I would always come crawling back.

Because I had no other family left.

As I listened to those words, every last scrap of feeling still lingering in my heart slowly drained away.

I watched that familiar figure trailing after him, and this time I left without a second's hesitation.

On his way to pick up the medicine.

Edwin looked over the crowd bustling past and suddenly caught sight of a figure that seemed strangely familiar.

Maud?

Marian grabbed hold of Edwin at once. Maud who? She's probably home enjoying herself by now, or off working. You know how she is. She's the dullest person alive.

Right. It was precisely because she was so dull that they'd let Marian handle so much of the wedding, for the good of their business too.

Maud would understand, anyway.

Even if she sulked, after a while she'd be the one to come making peace.

It was like that every time.

So nothing would go wrong.

She was probably handing things over at the company, ready to show up at the wedding tomorrow.

After all, what she wanted most was a family.

It had to be that.