It is a beautiful wedding - small and simple, but romantic and full of meaning. You and I are truly soul mates – each able to anticipate the other's needs and desires and delighted to be able to satisfy them. I am amazed my new husband can't read anything in my eyes as you make your way along the receiving line, shaking his hand heartily and planting a quick, dry kiss on my cheek.
"She's a great girl," you chuckle, patting him on the arm and slipping the envelope containing your wedding present into the little silk purse I was holding. A little shiver goes up my spine as your fingers graze the top of my hand.
My husband whirls me onto the dance floor for our first dance and I am light and happy knowing that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with this wonderful, kind, gentle man. He will love me and take care of me and do his best to make me happy. But there is a part of me that he can not touch and that is where my mind goes...to you and the envelope you slipped into my wedding purse.
"I need to run up to the room to touch up my make-up and slip into my 'going away' outfit," I tell my husband who is busy recounting his army days with the buddies who've shown up for the wedding. "I'm going to lock the envelopes from my purse in the room safe."
I pick up the purse and slip upstairs to the honeymoon suite where my husband and I will spend our first night as married couple. I pour the envelopes out onto the bed and shuffle them until I find the one with your handwriting. Inside are a lovely wedding card and a generous check with the notation, "Happiness Always." The check is wrapped around a hotel room card key with a tiny yellow sticky note attached: Room 364.
My heart is pounding as I move quickly out of the suite and take the elevator down to the third floor. The green light clicks on when I slip the card key into the lock and I enter the spacious room to find you sitting on a chair next to the bed.