Free Her Story by Christina Casinelli Page A

high school somewhere out west. He had followed his high school sweetheart to Rhode Island when she had been accepted to RISD, and even though their relationship had fizzled, he had fallen in love with the state and never left.
     
    There was something different about Kyle. He had a smile that just lit up the room and drew her to him. He was exactly what she needed, but had never known she wanted, in a boyfriend. He was thoughtful, but not too mushy. He was sarcastic, but not in a hurtful way. He kept her on her toes, but was never condescending. They got along wonderfully, hardly ever arguing, and after two years they decided to move in together. The year that followed in that tiny, one bedroom apartment was the happiest year of her life. They cooked meals for each other and read together in bed at night. Well, at least the nights that he was home. There was always a case that needed his attention, or a promotion he was chasing. Eventually his job took a toll on their relationship, and they decided to take a break. Or, well, she had decided. After the third week in a row of him pulling extra shifts she had slowly packed up her belongings and moved in with an old friend from high school. He had barely noticed her belongings were gone until she came back for her collection of books and the sofa.

It was during this break that she had met Linus, the man standing up at the altar, waiting ever so patiently for her to reach him and have her father pull back her veil, kiss her cheek, and give her away. Linus was an accountant. He was very tall, very skinny, and very meek looking, yet very strong. Linus was extremely uptight, and obsessed over the smallest details. He wasn’t necessarily a liar per say, but massively over exaggerated the tiniest detail. He wasn’t exactly a prude, but their senses of humor just weren’t in line. They argued constantly, and there were so many things about him that annoyed her beyond belief. Yet he had asked her to marry him, and she had said yes.

They too had been introduced through mutual friends, in a sense. That mutual friend just happened to be a bartender at a local watering hole at which she had become a regular. Linus had been his roommate. They did have the same basic interests. They were both sports fans, even though they never rooted for the same team. They both loved movies, even though she liked to go out to the theater to see new movies, and he was more than content to just sit at home and watch the same ones over and over again, quoting the lines along with the script. A love for music was also something they also had in common, but then again their definitions of music weren’t even close to similar. Yet he had asked her to marry him, and she had said yes.
     
    And now here they were, standing in front of a least 150 of their closest friends and family members, getting ready to make an eternal commitment. Though she wasn’t devoutly religious, she still didn’t believe in divorce. This was it. This was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

He snored. Could she really marry a man that snored? But then again, what’s to say she didn’t snore? Kyle didn’t snore, that was for sure. She stared straight ahead, not at Linus, not at the pastor, not even at the stained glass window behind the altar, but just straight ahead. What was she doing? Why was she doing this? Linus wasn’t the right one for her, she knew that, and half of the people sitting in the pews with tears in their eyes probably knew it too. Her mother definitely knew it, and had been very vocal about this fact throughout the entire wedding planning process. Then what was she doing here? Why wasn’t she running out of the church and jumping on the back of a Fed-Ex truck like Julia Roberts in “Runaway Bride?”

Finally, they had made it to the front of the church. Her father placed her hand in Linus’, pushed back her veil, and kissed her ever so lightly on the cheek before turning and