Wedding Jitters

“You aren’t supposed to be here!”

Audrey clapped a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to shout but this was her wedding day and she’d hoped that her first husband, Leonard, would have had the decency to stay away. Yet he’d been following her for days, even showing up at her bridal shower. She knew the old superstition about not letting the groom see the bride on her wedding day. How much worse to have her former husband ogling her in the dress she was going to wear to marry someone else?

“Don’t you think that neckline is a little too low?” Leonard suggested. “You were much more modest at our wedding. Are you already advertising for husband number three?”

“There won’t be a husband number three,” Audrey answered. “Miles is the perfect man for me. He’s kind, and loving, and attentive, and…”

“And unbelievably gullible,” Leonard finished her sentence. “All he sees when he looks at you is that lovely face and that amazing body. Even though he knows you’re way out of his league, he is too much in love to question why you would ever settle for him.”

“I love Miles. I can’t imagine my life without him.” Audrey adjusted the bodice of her gown and smiled in approval in the mirror as she checked the flowing movement of the folds of satin in the long skirt.

“That’s what you told the police about me that morning on the beach,” Leonard said. “You were so convincing, too. All those tears. I almost believed you and I was there when you pushed me off the cliff.”

Leonard stood behind her now, his mouth close to her ear as he whispered, “Those rocks broke my back.”

“Get out!” Audrey screamed. “You’re dead! You’re not supposed to be here!”

Word Count: 300