The priest had one of those terrible, nasal, droning voices. My brother always did have terrible taste. "We are gathered here today in the presence of family and friends, together under God, to bring together this man and this woman"--here he pointed at Mike and Claire--"in holy matrimony."It was stupid for them to make everyone go through this again. Mike and Claire's first wedding was unbearable, and that was before they'd had that fight over buying the house, and gotten divorced; that was before Mike had become obsessed with Claire and she'd taken out a restraining order. And that was definitely before Claire decided to go all Mother Theresa on us and forgive Mikey, teaching him the unfortunate lesson that stalking pays off.
Even stupider, however, was that Claire had insisted--absolutely insisted--that the wedding be today because her parents were in town. Like they wouldn't come on another weekend (perhaps one after the nullification of the restraining order went through) to see their daughter get married (albeit again). I mean, it wasn't like they couldn't afford it. Claire's parents had so much money they didn't even know what to do with it. The pooped out gold, or something.
But perhaps the stupidest move of all was that Mikey invited me to the wedding. Me. The cop. Who was obliged to carry out the law, even in stupid instances.
And maybe I was a little happy I'd come when I saw that awestruck look on Mike's face when Claire came out in the same stupid wedding dress she wore last time--it was like she was the stinking second coming or something. It was almost like they took "hopelessly in love" to a new level--those two were hopeless.
And then, when Mikey stepped across the chalked line that marked a hundred feet and I had to pull out my cuffs--well, then I was really pissed I'd come to the stupid, stupid wedding.
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