The Perfect Love Story

          It is as I had feared it to be. The unwanted guest had once again arrived to spoil the party like it had on so many previous occasions. I tried to push it out of my mind, but my eyes would keep on wandering back to the spot where it lay, making a mockery of my efforts to avoid its kin on this special occasion. 

          I know you might be thinking that I am being crazy, obsessing over such a small thing as a crease on my otherwise magnificent tuxedo, but what you have to take into consideration is that I had been preparing for this day for a long time. Now that it had finally arrived, I wanted it to be as perfect as I had envisaged it, and the crease threatened to ruin that perfection. 

          Fortunately, my disappointment did not last long though. The door in front of me finally opened to reveal a sight right out of my dreams. There she was, my friend and childhood love, looking resplendent in her white gown and her flowing locks. Her mere sight had set my heart aflutter on so many previous occasions, but today she was looking even prettier than I had imagined her to be. My eyes could not help but lose themselves in her beauty for one final time, and my mind wandered back to the moment when I had first seen her all those years ago in school.

          Of course at that time she was an ungainly adolescent who was yet to blossom into the lovely woman who stood in front of me today. However, even then her manner had a charm that proved too hard to resist, even for a typical middle school book worm like me. Somehow, we went from being total strangers who sat on the opposite ends of the classroom to unusual acquaintances, and finally to close friends who would talk daily about matters big and small. The transition continued and was finally complete when in between the frequent late night calls and our escapades from the humdrum of school life, I fell in love with her. It took me a while to gather the courage to tell her this face-to-face, and even more to get over her guilt-ridden rejection. However, our friendship finally came through this major impediment, and we went on to become even better friends.

          Alas, how I wish that I could say that we co-existed happily ever after, but one-sided love is like those fictional leviathans that would rear their ugly heads from time to time, destroying everything you had built and leaving you broken in their wake. The years that followed after were a blur of depression, anger and loneliness with brief moments of false epiphanies and doomed resolutions.

          Until today, that is. When I had first heard that she was getting married to the man of her dreams, I had almost descended into another phase of depression. However, I soon realized that this was a God-given opportunity to find some much needed closure, and more importantly, make everything right once and for all. This thought excited me so much that I had been looking forward to this event, and when the chance to give away my best friend came up, I latched onto it eagerly.

          So here I am, looking as handsome as I could make myself and in the most expensive clothes I could afford, staring at the woman I loved like a deer caught in the headlights of an onrushing car would.

          “What is it? Why are you looking at me like that? Is my dress too tacky?” she asked in a tone of concern.

          “No. It’s absolutely perfect. You are gorgeous. I am just lost for words, that’s all.”

          She let out a nervous laughter. “Wow! That’s some high praise coming from one who works with words for a living.”

          I finally recollected myself enough to take her arm and start the walk towards the dais, where her handsome groom-to-be was waiting with an expression of disbelief to mirror mine.

          “Are you okay by the way? I am sorry I had to ask you to give me away given our past, but I didn’t know who else to go to,” she said. There was a strange expression on her face. Was it concern or a shade of guilt?

          “I am fine my lady,” I answered playfully. “The perfect ending to the perfect love story, isn’t it?” Her curious expression became even more strange.

          “But would it end?” she answered. I turned my face away.

          As we walked together for one final time, I steered the conversation towards her future husband and the wedding arrangements. I could tell that she was nervous, so I tried to lighten up her mood with some characteristically poor jokes. By the time we had arrived at the dais, she was a bit more like her usual self. I feigned a customary smile at her perfect prince, glad that the ordeal was finally over and I could go back to my seat.

          She had frozen in her spot though, though. The groom stretched out his hand to take hers, but her hand showed no sign of accepting this proposal.

          “What’s wrong?” the groom asked in a surprised tone. A long and uncomfortable pause followed before the bride finally seemed to be come out of her stupor.

           “I… I… I am sorry. I can’t do this,” she blurted out.

          She stepped back suddenly, taking me along with her and whispered in my ear, “I know that I have rejected your advances so many times over the past because I never saw my dream guy in you, only a friend. But over these past few days, I have thought long and hard and come to realize that I’d rather spend my life with you than with anyone else. Do you think we could give each other a chance?”

          The guests had started to realize that something was wrong. The groom was looking at me with a shocked and incredulous expression. What had just happened? What should I do? How should I feel about this turn of events?

          Then, my eyes turned to that crease once again. “You had to ruin everything, didn’t you? My friends were right: one day you would rob me of all I hold dear.” And then I stormed off.