Separated, With Benefits by Kenny Wright

Author:Kenny Wright [Wright, Kenny]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: KW Publishing
Published: 2016-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

wedding party

When I grew up, my parents raised me as a devout Presbyterian. Well, as devout as Presbyterians got. We went to church every Sunday, and observed Holy Days. I went to Sunday School when I was a kid. I was baptized, went through confirmation, all that stuff. It was no where near what Nicole and her Catholic family believed, but it was enough that we’d bonded over it.

When I went to college, though, I stopped going to church, and eventually stopped believing all together. I consider myself a spiritual man, rather than a religious one, and I’m pretty sure that my parents know this about me. They love me, they’re proud of me, and we get along great, but we don’t talk about religion anymore. That I’ve lost my faith goes unspoken, and because it is, it’s not a problem.

In a way, I wondered if that’s what Nicole was offering me, too. She thought I was seeing someone enough that that someone left her makeup in my bathroom. She didn’t say anything about it. She never accused me of cheating. She just hadn’t said anything...and because of that, maybe it wasn’t a problem.

Or maybe, she hadn’t touched the medicine cabinet at all, and it had just been open the last time I was in there.

Either way, it was done, and I couldn’t undo it, one way or another. I also wasn’t about to make the mistake of calling her up and trying to explain the truth. For one, if she hadn’t seen the makeup, then now she would. For another, in order to explain to her that I was no longer seeing Cate, and I’d have to explain that I’d seen her in the first place, and I didn’t want to go there. So, like my estrangement from the Presbyterian Church, I said nothing.

I wanted to offer her the same respect, but of course I already knew too much. I knew for a fact that she’d “stopped going to church.” I couldn’t unlearn it, and I didn’t want to. Not with my fantasy. Not anymore.

Nicole posted photos on Facebook and Instagram during the wedding preparation. I had a few things to do at the office—even on a Saturday—but not enough to keep me off of social media.

Early, there were photos of the bridesmaids gathered around a table drinking mimosas. When I saw her, I recognized Gracie, although I remembered her for her thick, plastic rimmed glasses, which she no longer wore. In addition to Fiona and Nicole, Gracie had four other bridesmaids. Six bridesmaids total, plus the bride. I wondered how large this wedding was going to be.

The next few photos to come in were from the hair and makeup portion of the morning and early afternoon. They were mostly selfies of Nicole with her golden hair in curlers, sitting in a chair with a white robe on. She always looked like she was on the verge of laughter, and that made me smile.

Over the day, I watched her

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