Meant to Marry Me

The ocean waves rolled beneath the boat as Bree looked out the window at the setting sun. Normally, a dinner cruise would seem like a relaxing, romantic event. This evening, sitting in a dining room with the wedding party, romantic was the last word she would've used to describe it.

Dinner was delicious. The lobster was buttery, the crab cakes flaky, and the wine was flowing. She sat with some of Trent's family, aunts and uncles, a cousin, no one she'd met before. All of them had arrived earlier that day. The rest of them spent a great deal of time talking about how proud they were of Trent, how he'd grown up to be such a wonderful young man, and how beautiful Monica was. They weren't wrong on either account. Bree didn't want to hear it. "Did you go with the kids out to play volleyball today?" Susan, Trent's aunt, asked Bree, attempting to get her involved in the conversation, no doubt.

"I did," Bree replied, forcing a smile. It had not gone well. Not only had Monica spent most of the game trying her best to make Bree look silly, after Monica's team had won by a couple of points, she'd made a point of making it seem like it was Bree's fault saying to Matt, "You might've won if you had some height on your team," and looked right at Bree.

It didn't make a lot of sense to Bree. Why had Monica wanted her there if she clearly didn't respect her as a person, or an artist? Had she only wanted her there so that she'd have someone to pick on?

"I heard it was a lot of fun," Uncle Rob said.

"We had fun." It wasn't the truth, but it was close enough. Some people had had fun, Bree supposed. She wasn't one of them.

"Now, you're the singer, aren't you?" Susan asked. "Is it odd being around all of these people you've never met before? I bet most people don't invite the musician to the entire wedding event--how nice of Monica and Trent to do so." "Actually, I went to school with Trent--elementary school through high school. And Lilly, Monica's sister, was my college roommate."

"Wait--you're Bree, from high school?" Trent's cousin, a young man a few years younger than Bree named Simon, asked, his eyebrows arching. "Oh, I didn't realize...."

"I'm Bree... and I went to high school with Trent." What was Simon getting at?

He started snickering, and his mother said, "I don't see what's so funny, Simon. Why are you being so rude?"

"No, Mom, I'm not," he insisted. "Sorry. It's just... when he was in high school, he came to stay with us for a week one summer. Some chick was hitting on him at an amusement park, and he said he had a girlfriend named Bree, I think just to get her to leave him alone. But I asked him about you, and he talked forever. It wasn't for another year or so that he admitted you weren't actually his girlfriend. Man, did he ever have a crush on you. Kinda ironic that you're singing at his wedding now. But he said the two of you decided just to be friends, so that's cool. Did you have a boyfriend or something?"

Bree didn't know what to say. If only she'd known then what she knew now, maybe she would've done or said something differently back then, when she had a chance. Why hadn't she taken advantage of that opportunity? "Uh... yeah... we just decided we were better as friends," she said with a shrug. "Trent's great. He's... amazing." Her eyes went to him, where he sat with Monica at the front of the room. She was laughing and patting him on the arm, and he looked mildly uncomfortable, though not necessarily pointed at her, just in general. Bree knew that this wasn't his sort of thing. He didn't like being the center of attention. Monica relished it, clearly.

"Well, it's awesome that you're singing that hit song of yours at his wedding," Simon added. "I don't know a lot of singers as famous as you who would've agreed to do that."

Her face flushed, Bree looked away. "It's hardly a hit, but thank you."

"I'd say it's a hit. They play it on the radio where I live, in Kansas. Lots of girls at my college know who you are and even try to dress like you. Seems like you're pretty popular if you ask me." He shrugged and went back to his dinner. Flattered, Bree tried her best to focus on her dinner as well, but all she could think about was how amazing it was that other girls wanted to be like her. Maybe they'd all learn to follow their dreams and become musicians, artists, actresses, whatever they'd like.

More than anything else, though, she was looking at Trent. He glanced at her briefly and then looked away. That was about all she'd gotten from him that day. She wanted more--so much more--but it seemed pointless to try to talk to him about missed opportunities at this point when he was so close to getting married.

Close wasn't the same as complete, though. If she had a chance to tell him how she felt, would she take it? Would he listen? And even if he felt the same way, would he take a chance with her or the easy path of sticking with Monica? Bree didn't know, but she wanted to find out.