Runaway Bride: Singles' Party With the Wrong Man

On the eve of our wedding, Olivia Smith tells me that she wants to attend a bachelorette party.

Not wanting to disappoint her, I agree to let her go. I even tell her to not drink that much at the party.

She leaves a kiss on my cheek bashfully and tells me that she will make me the happiest man tomorrow.

But on the next day, I can't reach OIivia via phone at all. Instead, I notice a post her childhood friend, Aiden Jones, has uploaded to his Instagram feed.

"Tomorrow, you'll become another man's wife. Please let me claim you one last time."

There's a close-up photo of two people smushing their cheeks together.

After putting down my phone quietly, I inform everyone that the wedding has been canceled.

The moment I sent the message, every group chat blew up. People began speculating about why I had suddenly called off the wedding. After all, everyone knew how much it meant to me.

Before long, my parents called. Mom's voice carried a trace of confusion and worry as she asked, "Nat, what's going on? Why did you suddenly call off the wedding? Did something happen?"

I thought I had already grown numb, but the moment I heard my parents' voices, tears still welled up in my eyes.

For my wedding, they had spent most of the savings they'd built over a lifetime. By most people's standards, the wedding I had planned for my fiancee, Olivia Smith, was already impressive.

But she had expensive tastes and wanted everything to be the best. She demanded an extravagant reception, a custom-made wedding gown, and a diamond ring designed just for her.

As someone at the very start of my career, the pressure was almost too much.

Yet, Mom and Dad could see how much I loved Olivia. Without hesitation, they handed me the money, saying, "As long as you're happy, we'll do whatever we can to support you."

I knew that was the savings they had scraped together over a lifetime of living frugally.

The line went quiet for a few seconds. I didn't know how to begin.

Was I supposed to tell them that I couldn't even reach Olivia and that I had just seen a photo of her with another man on the day before our wedding?

I couldn't bring myself to say it. So, I claimed the signal was bad and hung up.

…

As it turned out, canceling a wedding was far easier than planning one. The wedding I had spent a whole year preparing was called off in just one morning.

Yet in all that time, I never received a single call from Olivia.

Part of me had imagined that if she could just give me a reasonable explanation, then maybe we could still make things work.

Sometimes, I couldn't help mocking myself. If being a lovesick fool were a competition, I'd probably be the undisputed champion.

Then, I saw another Instagram post by Olivia's childhood friend, Aiden