PART 1 — Something Different

Rachel had one hand on the ceremony table when she looked past me and said, “Claire is wearing something different.”

I was carrying two folding chairs with Sam, and one of them scraped the vestibule tile hard enough to make Rachel wince.

“Different how?” I asked.

Rachel picked up the small glass vase and moved it three inches to the left.

“Not the dress she showed me.”

Sam set his chair against the wall.

“What did she show you?”

“The dress.”

“Where is it?”

Rachel glanced toward the hallway leading to the side rooms.

“I thought you would know.”

I put my chair down beside Sam’s.

The church had been arranged exactly the way Claire and I had planned it, with white ribbon on the aisle ends and the ceremony table waiting for the marriage paperwork.

“How long has she been wearing something else?” I asked.

Rachel checked her phone.

“I saw her ten minutes ago.”

Sam looked at me.