Not an accident. The groom pushed it. The bride slapped him. The film kept rolling. No cuts. No music. Just the raw, unedited reality of a marriage starting to tear at the seams.
It's always playing. Somewhere. For someone who typed just wrong enough to find it.
"I think I have the wrong number," I said. "I was looking for—"
What I meant to find: a tasteful venue for a friend's upcoming nuptials, some romantic film screening at an old theater downtown.
"Ticket?" she said.
And that was only the first wedding.
Inside, the lobby smelled of stale champagne and something else—something like old flowers pressed between Bible pages. The woman from the phone sat behind a counter of cracked red leather. She wore a beaded flapper dress and a veil so long it pooled on the floor.
When the film finally ran out—white static hissing like a confession—I woke up in my own bed. The sun was rising. My phone was in my hand.