She Tried My Wedding Dress

Nina Caldwell and Aaron Beckett have been together for seven years, and the wedding is ten days away. Nina planned and paid for nearly all of it - the gown, the venue, the vendors, the favors, the budget. Then, at her final fitting, she pushes open the fitting-room door and finds her fiance bent over another woman, fastening the back of the very gown she finished paying off the day before. Confronted, Aaron only shrugs: "She's never worn one. Just let her try it." Camille, soft-voiced and wide-eyed, pleads, "Nina, don't get me wrong." In the mirror, the two of them look exactly like the couple who came to be fitted. Nina doesn't cry and doesn't argue. She lifts off her veil, slides the engagement ring from her finger, sets it in the tray on the counter, and says, one word at a time: "This wedding isn't for rent." It takes her ten days to go from the woman who paid for everything to the woman who finally walks away.