Caroline had her doubts about the wedding-but, the guests were here-some of them had traveled from several states away. It was lovely-small, intimate,taking place in their own home-in front of the fireplace. She thought about some of the excellent photo ops there would be….Glancing once more into the mirror-she was satisfied with her appearance-not impressed-but satisfied.

Shawn had looked very handsome too-despite the fact that earlier in the day he and several of the other men at the wedding now-had gone drinking-and, apparently, they had more than enough to drink….

Caroline had put a lot of effort into this ceremony-having removed most of their living room furniture to be replaced by chairs for the observers-she had catered the very simple reception for afterward herself-except the cake-they had bought that…..The rear room had been turned into a temporary lounge-where guests could smoke. There would be too many children in the house for smoking to be permitted in the main part-she had carefully arranged the rear room for the comfort of the guests-and, had arranged for all of the alcohol to be accessible back there…..She truly believed that everything would be as simple yet comfortable as possible.

The music began-Shawn’s choice had been a piece by Yanni-it was time to meet her future husband at their temporary altar before the crackling fireplace….Her father stepped to her side to escort her-another falsehood-he had not even been a guest at her first wedding twelve years before….

It was a brief walk-not brief enough-and, as she entered the room-she was overwhelmed by the holy pretense, and moved slightly to leave her father’s side-rather than take his seat at the time- he followed her the rest of the way,before doing so.
She felt a brief flash of annoyance at his sudden interest in where she spent her life-or-with whom.

From a few feet away-she could detect Shawn’s lack of sobriety-and, she knew it would not improve before day’s end-it was New Years Eve-she wondered if he would make it until midnight…and, doubted it…..

As she took her position by his side-she barely heard the Justice of the Peace going thru the paces-she had done this before-she knew the procedure. Her mind was elsewhere.
She was going through the reasons she had agreed to this farce again….Shawn wanted it-because Shawn’s family-none of whom were present-wanted it. He wanted it because the tax return he would receive would make a nice down payment on the house he had chosen—-He wanted it-Caroline suspected because there was some implicit promise implied by her agreement that she would continue for the rest of his life to care for him in his drunken stupors-support his artistic genius-follow the directions that provided for his comfort.