Just then, the priest began the ceremony and Dusty realized it was too late. The wedding was happening, it was actually happening. Now. The priest intoned her name and she jolted back to the present tense. “Do you, Dusty Higgins, take Tom Waitts?” Something suddenly occurred to her, something she hadn’t thought of before, like a door opening up where there was once a wall. There was an option open to her she hadn’t considered. What if she said no?

”.. to have and to hold, in sickness and in health..’‘

What if she said no, and in saying no destroyed everything she’d been waiting for forever, since she was old enough to walk in her mother’s high heels and play bride with her school friends? Everything she’d held sacred. All of it, all, into the flames. To hell with it all. But what if she said yes?

” .. in good times and in bad..”

What if she said yes and found herself, years down the line, older, perhaps wiser, regretting her choice, wishing she had said no? What if she said no – could she say no?