I received an invitation to help plan a wedding for a girl I barely knew in high school and because I accepted, everything changed. When I say everything, I mean my whole life, my place in the universe, what I knew about the world—all because I wanted to save some money on a vacation to New York City. Given the opportunity to do it all again, even knowing what I know now, I’m not sure if I would.
I don’t know what I was doing there. The invitation was from a girl I had barely spoken twenty words to the entire time we’d been in school. Instead of a bridal shower, she was inviting all her best girlfriends to come help plan her wedding over a long weekend. I had never heard of this concept, but since it was in New York City and I would be sharing the cost of a hotel room, I thought Sure, why not. Worst-case scenario, I would be bored for a little while and then I could go out and do all kinds of touristy things for a fraction of the cost.
It took about half an hour before she remembered who I was and it turned out that she had thought I was someone else entirely. Now I was in a combination jewelry and bridal store, with a bunch of people I’d never met, helping them organize the wedding of an acquaintance I hadn’t talked to in almost a decade. Bored out of my mind, I left the group before I was again asked to help pick out the floral design that best represented Laura and Jeff’s love for each other. I wandered over to the jewelry side of the store, the side I felt we had been sorely underutilizing, and I started picking out the ring that best represented the love I felt for me.
I had been perusing for maybe fifteen minutes and had found the perfect corner where I could see the wedding party but they couldn’t see me when I spotted the ring. The ring that I would leave to my daughter and she would leave to hers. The ring that no matter who gave it to me I would have to say yes. It was the ring to end all rings.
I looked up at the salesperson who had walked over and that’s when I saw the man that I wanted to give me the ring. Yes, he was the salesperson and yes, he was getting the ring out to show me, but that wasn’t what I meant. He was the man in the way that the ring was the ring. He could give me any ring out there and I would have to say yes. He was tall, so I knew that when I stood beside him I’d feel dainty. He was muscular, so I knew he could protect me when I didn’t shut up but should. His face was serious, but a sparkle in his eyes told me he appreciated a good time. His dark hair and light blue eyes combined with that hard body made only one word suitable to describe him: gorgeous, and it just so happened he was giving me the ring. Unfortunately, he was just trying to sell it to me.
My eyes kept darting from him to the ring, my mind unable to decide which one to drool over first. It was the best and worst situation I had ever been in before in my entire life. I was saved from making an impossible choice when in floated a gang of ghosts.
This story was originally published in the book Magicae Terra Episode One. The full story is currently available on Amazon.