Mia’s Choice
I walked toward the quiet side of the building.
I’d imagined leaving the ceremony unable to stop smiling. Now I couldn’t look at my wedding ring without feeling foolish.
“I married you because I never felt small with you,” I said when we stopped.
“You aren’t.”
“Right now, I don’t know what you’ve been thinking when you look at me.”
“I look at you and see the man I want. That hasn’t changed.”
“Then why was I the last person to know?”
Before she answered, her mother rounded the corner.
“Your father’s asking where you are.”
“I need a minute with my wife,” I said.
She barely glanced at me.
“Let him settle down,” she told Mia. “You can have the first dance with your father. Like I suggested.”
Something in me went still.
She was still arranging a wedding that would work better without me.
“No, Betty,” I said. “You don’t get to remove me from my wedding because I’ve objected to you.”
This time, she looked at me.
“Someone has to consider Mia.”
The anger came hot enough that I had to wait before answering.
“You think marrying me is something she’s enduring.”
“That’s your interpretation.”
“Then tell me what needed fixing in our photograph.”
She said nothing.
Mia stepped beside me.
“Answer him, Mom.”
Her mother looked startled. I’d never heard Mia speak to her that way.
“This is humiliating.”
“Being told our wedding pictures would look better if I changed my height was humiliating,” I said. “You just weren’t the one feeling it.”
She turned to Mia. “After everything I’ve done?”
Mia looked toward the reception doors. Music drifted outside. People were waiting to celebrate a marriage we hadn’t managed to protect for an hour.
“Could we get through dinner and—”
“No,” I said quietly. “Putting it off is how we got here.”
Mia closed her eyes briefly.
“You’re right.”
I faced her mother.
“If you want to stay, this ends now. No arranging me, no explaining me, no telling Mia how to work around me. And I need you to acknowledge what you did.”
“You want an apology for a stool?”
“I want you to stop pretending it wasn’t an insult.”
“Mia, are you hearing this?”
“Yes.”
“He’s making you choose on your wedding day.”
Mia was looking at her mother, her eyes wet.
This was the part I’d been afraid of: that standing up for myself would cost her something she loved.
“Mia,” I began. “If you need—”
She turned to me.
“I need you here. I wanted her here, too. But you haven’t done anything that needs forgiving.”
Then she faced her mother.
“Howard isn’t making me choose. You keep asking me to celebrate my marriage by leaving my husband out of it. I won’t do that.”
“Mia, think very carefully about your next words,” Betty said in a low voice.
Mia swallowed.
“I won’t have you treating my husband this way. If you won’t respect him, then you need to leave.”
Betty glared at her. “You cannot mean that.”
“I do.”
“I’ll miss your first dance.”
Mia’s chin trembled.
“Then you’ll miss it.”
Her mother waited. Mia stayed beside me.
May you like
Finally, Betty turned and walked toward the parking lot.
Mia didn’t call after her.
