The final part of the wedding ceremony was the traditional bouquet toss.
The host was still calling out for all the unmarried girls in the audience to come up and catch the flowers, when Marylin suddenly skipped the whole ritual.
Instead of throwing the bouquet, she simply placed it straight into Zoey's hands, then turned to the host with a bright smile.
"Let's end the bouquet toss here," she said. "I'll just give it to my bridesmaid. More than anything, I hope she finds her happiness soon."
Looking at the calm, gentle Zoey in front of her, Marylin remembered the joke they once shared:
that if both of them were still unmarried by thirty-five, they would just be together instead.
Now, as her own thirtieth birthday was approaching, she had already married. No one wanted Zoey to find her own happiness more than Marylin did—to fall in love and live sweetly, just as she had.
