The woman stutters for a moment, and the man smiles, thinking it's a cute sign of nerves until she turns and runs away, ignoring the gasps and unasked questions that come from the others at the altar and the surprised expression on her fiancés face.
'Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?'
Holding up her dress tight, her shoes just barely staying on her feet as tears blur her vision just enough to make it hard to see the exact direction she is running. She slows down after a few minutes, the small rush of adrenaline is gone as she finally stops and wipes at her running eyes, smudging her make-up unknowingly and without much care for the fact. She looks up at the setting sun over the water -they had planned to finish their vows just as the sun dipped below the horizon- and she tried to take a deep breath, which hitched just slightly.
'I do.'
Another breath, deeper this time, and she sat down on the worn wood of the dock, uncaring at this point of the state of her dress, or even that her shoe just fell off and into the water below her. She ignored all of these trivial facts and put her head in her hands, trying not to cry again.
'Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?'
The sadness and confusion suddenly stopped and she looked up again as anger took over for a brief moment. She started pulling at her engagement ring, the band had yet to be placed, and tried to get it off her finger, off and away from herself. A moment of struggling and it stayed firmly on.
'I....'
The short fit of anger is gone and tears come again. A single set of footsteps approach her slowly from behind, the rhythm familiar. "I.." she starts again, turning to look over her shoulder. She see the sad, lost expression of her love's face, and takes a deep breath before trying to smile, though it's more an unsteady grimace, and manages to choke out, "I cannot imagine.. Not being with you... I.... I'm just... scared." The man seems relieved and smiles, kneeling next to his soon-to-be-wife and kisses her forehead gently. "You never have to worry about that." he assured her, and to that she turned her face downward and begins to cry again, though he sees them as tears of happiness. He pulls her close to comfort her, but what he cannot see is that, in fact, as the sun is long past and below the sea, her tears are full of sadness and heartache and sorrow.