Promise Me Forever

Joe stared at the girl before her, raising his eyebrow in question. What was there to talk about? Joe certainly thought Lacey was alright with the wedding. She had agreed on having the wedding today.

“About what?” Joe chirped happily, hoping that whatever Lacey wanted to talk about was nothing.

“Us.”

Joe felt his stomach do a front flip.

“Well, me, as well,” Lacey added.

“Is this about our wedding?”

“Sort of,” Lacey sighed, flopping herself down onto the sofa.

Joe followed, but sat opposite her so they would be facing each other. “Well, then, what do you want to say to me?” he asked, trying to guess what was on Lacey’s mind.

“Have you always wondered why I dated you in the first place?” Lacey asked, but she didn’t wait for Joe to answer. “No, it wasn’t because I liked your looks, or had a secret crush on you when you were a huge hit – well, you were cute then as well, but the reason why I came up to you a couple months ago was only because…” she trailed off, and looked down at her lap in guilt.

“Only because what?” Joe urged, almost shouting. He knew something terrible was going to be dropped on him. Something that was going to break his heart on the day he was going to get married. But why didn’t he see this coming before?

Lacey didn’t answer, and continued staring down at her lap in shame.

“Because what?” Joe repeated. This time, a little louder.

Lacey slowly raised her head up again and looked at Joe before speaking again. “That night I came to the dating service was purely because my ex-boyfriend had broken it off with me. We were on and off, and I was okay with that. But that night, when he broke It off, it was different. We were really over. I still wanted to date someone that was special to me, so I went to that dating service.”

Joe slightly lowered his head, wishing he hadn’t begged Lacey to continue on. He knew where Lacey was going on with her explanation, and he didn’t want to hear anymore of it. He was Lacey’s rebound boy.

“I’m sorry about your ex,” he muttered.

“I’ll be honest with you here, Joe,” she continued. “I cheated on you with Lucas. There,” she said, as if she had needed to desperately get it off her chest. “That’s why I don’t want this wedding. I can’t do that to me, or you, that I had never been honest with my relationship with you.”

Joe felt crushed, like a huge object had just whacked him across his body, or like a sharp object jabbing him non-stop in the heart. He wanted to make it stop, but he didn’t know how. It was a terrible feeling. But one thing that had surprised him most was the words that had come out of him next.

“Are you and him still dating then?”

Joe knew he should have been shouting at her. Telling her how much of a terrible girlfriend she is – telling her that they were over. Surely, he knew that Lacey would definitely be surprised by his reaction.

“No, we’re not,” she said. “I’m sure this relationship between us is over, and I’m sure you don’t want to have a wedding anymore. I think I’ll go and call the wedding off.” And with that, Lacey walked out of the room without another sound.

For once in his life, Joe had never felt more alone. But he pushed that feeling aside, trying to put his mind on something else. There was something inside his head, telling him to do something, knowing that this was the one opportunity.

Joe got up from his seat and began walking out of the room. There was something important he had to do, but just as he began walking down the long corridor, the sound of the infamous wedding tune came on. Joe raised his eyebrows in confusion and began running down the long corridor to the actual wedding venue.

When he reached there, he saw from the distance a bride, in a beautiful white dress running down the aisle, with the priest and audience in complete confusion, as they had just been told that the wedding was been cancelled, yet, a bride was still coming down the aisle.

But Joe noticed the defined features of the woman running down the aisle and smiled to himself.

“Kourtney?” he said, as she reached him.

“Joe,” she said, completely puffed. “I see your wedding is cancelled.”

“As is yours,” he guessed. “What happened?”

“I’m a runaway bride,” she answered simply. “You?”

“Lacey and Lucas had got it on together,” he replied. “So Lacey and I broke up. I guess we were never meant to be, and all this time I thought we were. I would have thought Lucas would tell you about his date with Lacey.”

“Looks like he didn’t.”

“And, I was just about to go to you,” Joe bought up.

“To tell me about Lacey and Lucas?” she questioned.

“No, to tell you that I love you,” he clarified.

A smile quickly grew onto Kourtney’s face. She was beaming with happiness, as she let out a small sigh of relief, glad that she hadn’t ran out on Lucas for no reason. “Joe, I love you too.”

“What about Lucas?”

“Lucas is…” she paused for a moment, thinking of a way to explain this to him. “Well, lets put it this way, Lucas is my ‘Lacey’. I thought I loved him all this time, but I realised I didn’t love him as much as I love you. I thought he was perfect for me, but I realised that it didn’t matter how perfect he was because he didn’t complete me. He never could. But you, well, you’re different.” She quickly added.

“That’s a relief to hear,” he grinned. “Because I was going to go down to your church and propose to you.”

Kourtney beamed with excitement and took a step closer to him. “Were you really going to propose to me?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “But I’d do it another way.”

“Oh really, how?”