Free His Only Wife by Melissa Brown

walked down the aisle, multiple wardrobe changes, and five hundred guests cooing over their vows. But Brinley just wanted a beautiful dress and the location of her dreams. It was after much convincing on Tiffany’s part that she even agreed to have a photographer.
    “You’ll want to treasure these moments,” Tiffany had reminded her.
    Brin had pointed at the top of her head. “They’ll be right here.” Then she’d tapped her chest, right over her heart. “And here.”
    I’d been touched by her sentimentality, but knew Tiffany wouldn’t take no for an answer. And to be honest, I agreed with her. I knew we’d want the photos to show our future children, to hang in our home, to bring us back to the day we vowed to love each other for the rest of our days on this earth.
    “You’re hiring a photographer,” Tiffany had replied. “Consider it my gift to you.”
    “Wow.” Brinley’s eyes had been wide as she’d taken in the generosity of that gift. We were lucky to have such generous people in our lives. Jesse had made the proposal a reality, and now Tiffany was giving us the gift of tangible memories.
    “It’s my pleasure. Besides, it’s purely selfish on my part. If I can’t be there, I want to see the pics.”
    Brin and I had exchanged a glance, and I knew immediately that we were having the same thought. As much as it seemed to make sense to do this on our own, it was a bittersweet decision and one that was, in the grand scheme of things, unnecessary. It was in that moment that we decided to invite the members of our new family—the family we were creating for ourselves.
    The very next day, we’d invited Tiffany to join us at our wedding. I’d also asked Jesse to meet me at the local coffee shop for an early meeting, knowing I couldn’t get married without him there.
    My hands had shaken and my heart had raced as I’d waited for him to arrive. He’d taken one look at my face and his expression had gone flat. He saw my pale skin and my shaking hands tap, tap, tapping against the tabletop. I knew what he was thinking; he thought I was using. But I wasn’t. I was just scared as hell—scared of rejection, scared of being vulnerable, and ultimately scared of feeling something for Jesse that might not ever be reciprocated.
    “What happened? How can I help?” His voice was low, his eyes kind.
    “No, no.” I shook my head, giving him my best reassuring smile. “It’s nothing like that. I just—I have something to ask you.”
    Jesse sat back in his chair and studied me as he waited, his expression reserved, as if he was waiting for me to drop a bomb. “All right.”
    My voice cracked as I finally said the words. “Brinley and I would like to invite you to our wedding. You and your wife, that is.”
    He licked his lips and smiled wide, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Well, I’ll be damned. I thought you were eloping?”
    “That was the original plan, but now… Well, we decided we want our…our family to join us.”
    He pursed his lips slightly and I did my best not to react, not to be disappointed in the fact that I’d clearly made him uncomfortable with that word.
    God, I’m an idiot.
    Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
    “You know, I had a son once.” He stared down at the table. “He, uh…he died when he was very young.”
    “Wow. That’s awful, man. I’m sorry to hear that.”
    Jesse rubbed his goatee, his eyes staring off into space as he spoke. “We didn’t have any more children. We just couldn’t get past it, ya know? It’s the reason I started using. I needed an escape.”
    “I can only imagine.”
    “I’m still not over it. I don’t think a parent ever gets over the loss of a child. But now, it’s like you’re giving me another shot, kid. Is that weird?”
    He pursed his lips, waiting for a response. All I could muster was a soft shaking of my head. Of course it wasn’t weird. He was offering me another shot too.
    “Your first meeting at NA, I knew I wanted to