Chapter 4: One More Picture

On my phone, Kelsey drank to me.

Then she set the glass down, took Rafferty by his lapels and kissed him against the wine rack.

He kissed her back with both hands in her hair, careful of the curls.

The white rose on his tux got crushed between them.

"Record it," Sinead whispered.

"I am."

I'd hit the button when the door opened. My thumb was steady. I didn't know how.

The kiss went on for a long time. Kelsey picked her glass back up halfway through and held it out to the side so she wouldn't spill on his tux.

At 4:11, Rafferty fixed his rose in the reflection of a wine bottle and left first.

Kelsey finished both glasses before she followed him.

I stopped the recording and sent it to Sinead.

"The AV guy," I said. "He's running the slideshow behind the altar. Engagement photos, baby pictures, the cute stuff."

Sinead was already on her feet. "And after the cute stuff?"

"After the cute stuff, the hallway clip from Thursday. Then this. When I say one more picture."

She held my face in both hands for one second, mascara and all.

"You're the scariest person I've ever met," she said, and ran.

At five o'clock, the doors of the Bellamy's ballroom opened, and a hundred and eighty people stood up.

The room was full of white roses and tall silver candelabras with real candles, because Rafferty's mother had said electric ones looked cheap.

On the big screen behind the altar, a photo of Rafferty and me at the shore faded into a photo of us at the Art Museum steps.

My mother took my arm.

"Last chance to let me push him in the river," she said.

"After," I said.

We started down the aisle.

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