Craving His Touch

The Wedding Day

The harsh truth is that my mother is a golddigger. That doesn't make her a bad person. My dad, who I think is still at least a little bit in love with her even though she left him for greener pastures when I was five years old, tried to explain it to me once.
    "You have to know, kiddo, your mom grew up really poor. Poor in a way that you and I can't understand. She didn't always have a place to sleep or food to eat. And that's made her... afraid. It doesn't matter how much money she has now. She thinks she needs more because it could disappear at any moment. She loves you kids so much and she doesn't want you to suffer like she did."
    I love my mom. I try to keep what she's gone through in mind and be as understanding as my father. But Dad only sees her when he's picking me up or dropping me off. He doesn't have to live with her. He's not the one standing here, in an ugly, over-frilled aubergine bridesmaid dress (although that's an amusing mental image), at her fifth wedding, waiting to walk down the aisle with his (my) douchey new stepbrother-to-be.
    Colin leans over, whispers in my ear, "You ready to do this, sis?" I can smell the whiskey on his breath. Of course the asshole's drunk.
    "I'm not your sister," I say through gritted teeth.
    "Yet," he says, flashing me a too-bright smile.
    "I'll never be your sister. I have two brothers. Believe me, that's enough. I don't need another."
    "I don't think you have a choice in the matter, Karina. Our parents are getting married. We're going to be family. I'm going to be your stepbrother and you're just going to have to deal with it."
    I open my mouth to explain to him the difference between a stepsibling and a real sibling, to tell him how short my mother's marriages are, to correct him on the notion that this wedding is going to lead to any kind of a new family, but before I can say anything, the music swells and the familiar wedding march starts.
    "Showtime," Colin says. He offers me his arm. I take it, and together we walk down the aisle.