Wedding Reception
Fiona wore a simple blue dress that fell gracefully to her knees. Her softly curled hair rested just above her shoulders and she carried a small white clutch that matched her heels.
She was ready to attend her distant cousin’s wedding, Nala and Derrick. They had flown back to Singapore from California and held the wedding reception here.
Although Fiona and Nala only kept in touch through social media these days, they had been inseparable during elementary school. Family ties had grown weaker with time, but they had never disappeared entirely. When Nala invited her to the wedding, Fiona knew she couldn’t say no.
As soon as Fiona stepped into the reception hall, there were only a few guests. Nala’s family gathered around. She greeted Nala’s parents, the only relatives she knew. Nala’s mother, her mother’s older sister, was one of the few familiar faces in the room.
Nala was family, but attending her wedding, felt more like attending a friend’s wedding, especially when their grandmother passed away two years ago. She really went all alone.
Fiona had been raised by her grandmother after her parents died when she was a child. Nala had been the closest family she had left, at least until Nala moved to California.
Fiona had also asked one of her best friends, Ethan, to accompany her. She didn’t want to attend alone. Her other best friends were Stella and Charlie. Stella was on her way back from her business trip, but she wasn’t going to make it in time and Charlie had declined the invitation without hesitation. He hated weddings.
So Ethan became her unfortunate–but willing–companion.
Ethan walked away to get a drink while Fiona looked around the reception hall, wondering if there were any relatives she might still recognize.
Then suddenly she saw someone that made the cheerful chatter and soft music faded into the background.
Her breath caught.
Austin had just walked in.
What is he doing here?
Every sound around her seemed to disappear. Her heart pounded so violently that she could hear it in her ears.
Five years.
In five years, she had imagined countless versions of what it would be like to see him again, yet none of them had prepared her for this moment.
Her first instinct was to turn around and leave.
To run.
Because she had never expected the ghost she had spent years trying to bury to be standing only a few steps away.
Dressed in a white turtleneck beneath a tailored brown blazer, Austin looked every bit as composed as she remembered. His sharp, cold eyes swept across the room, barely acknowledging the guests around him. He rarely smiled, and today was no different.
For a brief moment, his gaze continued searching, until it found hers.
Time seemed to stop.
Across the crowded hall, their eyes locked. Neither of them looked away, as though the years that had passed between them had vanished in an instant.
Fiona could feel the curious glances around them, and her heart raced even faster.
Only then did she notice the rose boutonniere pinned to Austin’s blazer.
He was part of the groom’s family.
The man she had searched for five years ago.
The man who had disappeared without a single explanation, cutting off every possible connection to her as though she had never existed.
She had moved on. At least, she had convinced herself she had. But she never forgotten him.
Yet seeing him standing only a few steps away made her heart lose its rhythm. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She simply stared at him, stunned by his sudden appearance.
“Finally found you,” Austin said, a genuine smile spreading across his face.
Fiona forced a faint smile.
“Why are you here Austin?” Fiona sounded upset.
Austin didn’t answer.
“Can we talk somewhere else?”
“What for?” she asked, masking the storm of emotions threatening to surface.
From across the hall, Ethan quietly watched the exchange. He had no idea who the man was, but the expression on Fiona’s face told him enough. She looked as though she had seen a ghost.
When Fiona noticed Ethan watching her, she gave him a small reassuring nod.
I’ll be okay.
I know him.
Understanding the silent message, Ethan nodded back and let her go.
Without another word, Fiona walked out of the ballroom toward the quiet garden terrace, where framed wedding portraits of the newlyweds decorated the entrance.
She stopped beneath the soft evening lights.
Her heartbeat echoed loudly in her ears.
Fast. Painfully familiar.
Why now?
Why did you come back now? When I’d finally learned how to live without you?
But seeing him again made her realize one painful truth.
Before she could gather her thoughts, Austin reached for her hand.
Confusion flickered across her face, yet she didn’t pull away. She simply stared at their joined hands, unsure of what to say, unsure of what this unexpected reunion was becoming.
These were the hands Fiona had once held so tightly. The hands that had comforted her whenever she was falling apart.
Austin looked at her as though he had forgotten how to breathe. There was something unfamiliar in his eyes —relief, perhaps, or guilt. Fiona couldn’t tell. She no longer knew how to read him.
Austin stepped closer.
His gaze dropped briefly to her lips.
For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her.
For one suspended heartbeat, Fiona didn’t move.
Her mind went completely blank.
Then reality crashed over her.
She stepped back abruptly, releasing her hands from his.
Regret immediately crossed Austin’s face, yet there was no denying the longing in his eyes.
“I’ve missed you, Fiona.” His gaze never left hers. “More than you know.”
Fiona stared at him, trying to steady the storm suddenly raging inside her chest.
“Austin…” she said quietly, shaking her head. “You can’t do this.”
She took another small step backward, forcing herself to create a little distance between them.
“We haven’t seen each other for five years. You disappeared without a word.”
Her voice remained calm, but the hurt beneath it was impossible to hide.
“There are so many things you still have to explain.”
She swallowed before continuing.
“Please… don’t do something like this again.”
A faint, bittersweet smile appeared on her lips.
“At the very least, we deserve the chance to clear up everything that happened before.”
Instead of looking discouraged, Austin smiled—a genuine smile that reached his eyes.
Fiona couldn’t understand him anymore. He looked unexpectedly warm, almost excited to see her, and that unsettled her more than his silence ever had. Something didn’t add up.
“You have every right to decide.”
His grin turned teasing, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere between them.
The warmth in her chest was quickly replaced by the ache she had spent years trying to bury.
How unfair.
He had vanished without a single explanation, leaving her to wonder what she had done wrong.
She had spent nights searching for answers that never came, forcing herself to move on from someone who had simply disappeared from her life.
And now….
He had admitted that he had missed her, and somehow that hurt almost as much as his silence.
As if those words alone could erase the silence he had left behind.
Fiona looked away, blinking back the sting in her eyes.
As Austin started to speak, Derrick came between them.
“Austin, we will start. Oh Hi Fiona.” Derrick smiled warmly at her.
Fiona was stunned. She knew Austin had a brother but they never met. It felt like Derrick knew who Fiona was. She realized that Austin was Derrick’s best man,
Before Austin left, he asked Fiona’s phone.
Fiona hesitated.
“Please, let me call you, Fiona. Or would you rather I ask Nala for your number?”
No.
He couldn’t involve anyone else.
Fiona unlocked her phone and voluntarily handed it to him.
Austin saved his number in her phone.
He looked at her for a long moment before handing it back.
“This time,” he said quietly, “I won’t disappear.”
Then he turned and walked away.
Fiona remained still beneath the soft garden lights, her phone still warm in her hands.
She stared at the screen without seeing it.
Five years ago, he had disappeared without a goodbye.
And somehow, with a single sentence, he had made her remember everything.
