No Wedding After All
“Why are you so quiet today?” asked Alice. “We agreed, remember? Saturday wed go and pick out bedroom furniture together. But you look a bit down. Whats wrong?”
David knew this was the moment now or never. He needed to say it.
“Alice… Theres something I need to talk about. Its about the wedding.”
Alice had been waiting for this conversation. Theyd both agreed theyd keep the celebration simple, but she could tell David wanted to give her a proper English wedding lots of guests, a photographer, organisers… Shed been hoping that hed finally bring it up for real.
“Dont drag it out. I think I know what youre going to say,” Alice said, smiling.
But David said something else entirely.
“Lets postpone it… Lets put the wedding off for a bit.”
That was not the conversation Alice had been preparing herself for.
“Postpone?” she stared at him, stunned. “What sort of sudden decision is this? Why? We were just talking about ordering the invitations! You even helped pick them! And we went through who to invite! Have you changed your mind about marrying me?”
Like some tragic drama, she expected he was about to say his feelings had gone.
But David, as usual, caught her off guard.
“Its just… Im struggling a bit for money at the moment,” he mumbled. “Theyre late with my wages, saving is near impossible, and Well, weve only been living together for six months. Feels like its all a bit soon, dont you think?”
“Soon?” Alice spluttered. “David, weve been together three years! Three years relationship and half a year of living together and thats too soon for you?”
David didnt look as frightened now.
“Dont start, Alice. I dont want a row. Its just a pause. I havent gone off the idea, but weddings cost a fortune.”
“Alright Then how about we just nip down to the registry office, just us, and then have a little do with friends?”
“Alice, then it wont be a proper wedding.”
“And who actually cares!?”
“But you always wanted”
“Ill cope.”
His excuses were getting odder by the minute.
“Alice…”
“Just be honest. Has something happened? Are you not sure you love me anymore? Or is there someone else? Because its expensive isnt cutting it.”
David shook his head.
“No, Alice, I promise. I just want everything to be perfect, you know? I cant give you the perfect day right now. And yeah, weve only lived together a short while. We should figure out if this really works”
As much as his words made some sense, Alices instincts were on high alert. David wasnt usually so determined to convince her of something. Hed been the one pressing to get married quickly in the first place.
Yet she pretended to believe him.
After that conversation, David turned into the model boyfriend making up for the delayed wedding. He suddenly became attentive to the smallest things he used to overlook, always checking in at the shops about what she wanted, always did the washing up himself but he was always so moody. Not just pensive gloomy sighing late at night, staring at the ceiling, fobbing off Alices questions with “Its nothing, just tired.”
Alice tried not to put pressure on him. Later, later, later, whispered her inner voice.
A couple of weeks later, they were invited to visit Davids parents. Alice was reluctant. She just didnt feel like it. And with David avoiding any talk of weddings, she was certain his parents would bring it up it would be awkward.
But they had to go.
Of course, the subject of the wedding came up.
“So, are you two finally going to give us a day to look forward to?” his mum asked, as his dad wandered off to watch the telly. “Weve got a venue in mind. A table for twenty. What day shall we book it for?”
David sat there with the same sour face as Alice. What was there to book? There would be no wedding.
“Mum, we talked about it. Were postponing,” he croaked.
“Postponing? Whys that? Money troubles?” His mum looked at him sternly. “David, as a man youre supposed to plan ahead for things like this.”
After dinner, while the men poked at the insides of some broken gadget in the conservatory, Alice went to the bathroom to sort herself out.
It was spotless, almost like a private clinic. Not a speck of dust or a scrap of makeup anywhere except for a bottle of shower gel and some shampoo his mum kept her lotions back in her bedroom. Alice always wondered how she could be bothered to lug it all in and out every time.
As she dried her face, she heard voices. The bathroom carried sounds from the kitchen always had, whenever anyone was telling secrets. David had gone back in, chatting with his mum. Alice listened.
“David, youre not thinking of breaking up with Alice, are you?”
Alice stopped mid-wipe, heart pounding. She pressed her ear closer to the cold tile, making sure she didnt make a sound.
“Mum, Ive told you. Its just postponed, not cancelled.”
“Postponed thats just an excuse!” hissed Mrs. Barnett. “I see you tormenting yourself. Why do you need her? You know shes not wife material. A wife is supposed to listen to her husband, and she Why get married if itll end in divorce after a year?”
“I do love her, Mum,” David said.
Alice even melted a little at that.
But then came his mums next remark, which wiped away every tender feeling.
“You love her? Shes a cunning one, David. I told you! Shes already set you against us before even becoming your wife. Youve stopped helping your sister, you never come to your fathers allotment anymore… Shes changing you, and not for the better.”
Alice stood as though glued to the wall, shocked. Set him against his family? When? Shed always made an effort to be polite, even when Mr. Barnett tore into her new haircut. It had hurt, but she bit her tongue!
She couldnt remember a single time shed deliberately driven a wedge between David and his family. In fact, shed always encouraged him to see them she knew how important they were to him.
Then it hit her: the delay wasnt about money. It was his mother, looking her in the eye and fibbing, who was against the wedding!
Alice hurried out to join them.
“Ah, Alice, there you are!” said Mrs. Barnett, sweet as anything. “We were just saying theres no point in waiting and waiting. I know youre young, but I dont approve of unmarried living arrangements.”
How polite.
“Of course, Mrs. Barnett,” Alice replied. “Well try not to delay too long. As soon as we save enough, down to the registry office well go. Wont we, David?”
“Definitely, Alice. Might as well say were married already,” he said.
That night on the drive home, David tried to put his arm around her, but Alice kept pulling away. She didnt know how to start the conversation, or if she should at all. If he hadnt dumped her just to please his family, surely he loved her But he had cancelled the wedding.
“You acted odd when your mum started talking like that,” she said, watching the streetlights blur past.
“Me? No, she just gets pushy about the wedding and”
“Dont fib. She isnt pushing you to get married. Shes against it. She said Ive set you against her and said we should break up.”
David gripped the steering wheel tighter.
“So you heard that? Look, Alice, my mums just worried Ill get married and shell be left out. Typical, really. Dont take it personally; shell get over it.”
Alice wasnt really bothered by his mums words she was used to mothers who couldnt let their sons go. What upset her were Davids own words: he hadnt defended her, just agreed to whatever would keep the peace.
The issue of the wedding hung in the air. David kept behaving as if hed just sucked a lemon, only now, whenever Alice brought up the future, hed always reply, “Maybe…later”
Then Alice got a chance to check Davids unlocked phone.
“Im just checking the time,” she told herself. “Im not nosing through his messages. Just a quick look…”
On the screen was a message notification from his sister, Emma. Emma was only two years younger than Alice, but acted like a sulky twelve-year-old no job, never went to uni, still living at home, living off her parents.
Her message was pretty blunt:
“Right, so Im not getting the money. Youre under the thumb again! Well, if some girl means more to you than your family, you can get on with it.”
Alice stared. “Under the thumb again.”
Then she remembered…
Before the wedding was cancelled, Emma had rung David (yet again) to ask for money. Alice exasperated said,
“David, shes twenty-seven, living with your folks and asking for handouts. Surely she should start working? Were not made of money.”
Normally Alice wouldnt meddle, but this time it was her money too; she brought just as much home as David, and she wasnt about to support his entire family. David agreed at the time, though half-heartedly “Yeah, youre right, Alice. She needs to stop.”
Now it was clear who was turning the whole family against her.
Alice took Davids phone, found the chat with Emma, copied the message, and sent it to herself as proof. Then she put his phone straight back where she found it.
David, shaking off his coat in the hall, called out, “I got bread, and your favourite chocolate, the one with hazelnuts. I was thinking, Alice, maybe we shouldve”
“David,” Alice interrupted.
“Who else were you expecting, hmm?” he joked.
But Alice wasnt in a joking mood.
“What exactly is Emma messaging you for?” she asked.
David, realising hed been caught, tried the classic tactic of turning the tables.
“Were you going through my phone while I was out??”
Classic deflection.
“It doesnt matter what I was doing, David. I want you to explain. Now.”
David hesitated, his face running through every emotion, from anger to panic.
“Look, Alice, dont give it a second thought. Shes just childish and sulks over everything.”
“Sulks about what? About me telling her to act like an adult?”
“Well, shes used to asking her brother for cash. Thats hard to let go of. But shell get over it, really.”
“Is she the one winding your parents up too?”
“Well yes,” David admitted. “I tried to explain its our money, that Emma needs to stand on her own two feet. But my mum went straight for Alice has got you wrapped round her little finger, youve forgotten your family. But I dont see it that way”
“But you cancelled the wedding,” Alice said quietly. “Alright. So shes worked all of them up against me. Got it. I cant talk to them. But what do you think? Do you really want to marry me? Or are you just putting it off because youre afraid to say no to your mum?”
“Of course I want to marry you! But nows not the time… Maybe later… when things have calmed down…”
There was her answer.
“You know, David, Ive realised something I dont want to marry someone who isnt sure of his feelings or who jumps whenever his sister tells him to. Perhaps its for the best that the wedding is off after all.”
And so Alice learned what many must, often the hard way: love isnt just about the big moments and grand promises, but having courage to stand by each other, even when faced with those we care about most. Better no wedding than a marriage built on doubt.
