The Doormat Walks Away

It was the sixth year of our relationship, and Melissa Ferguson still hadn't given me a wedding.

Today, I'd finally made it to the actual banquet, and the hall was packed with people who'd shown up for the spectacle. They whispered, snickered, and threw out jabs, and every word of it reached my ears.

"I can't believe Russell is putting up with this. How many times is this now? Let's guess how long it takes the bride to run off this time."

"I'll bet a hundred thousand dollars she's out the door in under three minutes."

"Wrong. I'd give it five minutes, since making a phone call takes time too. Fine, a hundred thousand it is. Who would've thought his weddings would turn into the hottest ticket in town? A few tries ago, you could've walked right in and found the place half empty."

"Everyone's here for the show, and he's the best part of it. Look at how much money went into this wedding. My guess? Another wasted effort."

"I'll put up half a million. This seat alone cost me a fortune."

The whole hall buzzed with chaos, everyone waiting, calculating exactly when Melissa would walk out. It should have been the most sacred moment of my life, and instead it played out like a death match at a casino. Nobody here had come to wish us well. Not this time, anyway.

"Melissa's coming out, look!"

Someone shouted it, and I turned toward the sound just as Melissa, clutching her wedding dress, jogged toward me, and our eyes met.

The music hadn't started. The handoff ceremony hadn't begun. The officiant hadn't even come out yet. And there she was, hurrying toward me like she couldn't wait another second.

Hope flared in my chest, and color rushed back into my face.

They'd been wrong. Melissa wasn't running. She was rushing to marry me. Wasn't she?

She stopped right in front of me, and while I stood there brimming with hope, she yanked off her veil and kicked away her heels. "Ezra just called. He said someone beat him up, and it's bad. I need to go check on him. This is life or death. It matters more than some ceremony.

"Don't fight me on this. We've been together six years. We've waited this long. What's a little longer?"

With that, she walked out barefoot.

The fury I'd braced myself for never came. I stood there in silence for so long that Melissa's shape blurred out of view, and only then did the world's sound and color come rushing back.

"Told you. Pay up. Three minutes on the dot. You all gave Russell too much credit. Spineless as he is, why would Melissa need five whole minutes? One word from her and it's done."

"Well, that was a letdown. I was hoping for a longer show. Let's go, there's nothing decent to eat here anyway."

"You know, Russell really is a fool. He could've lived the easy life as some rich heir, and instead he's out here hanging himself on a dead tree, practically begging to be rejected. Still, these weddings are a good time. I'll definitely come to the next one."

After the bride left, most of the crowd went home satisfied. Of the ones who stayed, some filmed my humiliation to share with friends, others just didn't want to waste a free meal. Only a handful, out of some sense of decency, offered me a few words of comfort.

No one understood what I was feeling. Only I knew how exhausted I really was.

This was the tenth time Melissa had promised to marry me and then stood me up. She'd been lying to me the whole time, treating me like a stray dog that came running whenever she called. But even a dog eventually gives up on its owner.

I walked to an empty corner and dug out a number I'd carried with me for years. "I want in on this undercover mission," I said. "I'm not afraid to die. You were right. Walking straight into the dark is how you make sure more people get to live in the light."