So, if you've read the summary, you'll know this story happens after 3 years of relative loved up bliss. Naomi and Emily are renting a flat in Bristol together now, and with both girls working full time, don't see as much of each other as they used to when they were at college. But they love each other, like fierce, you know?

Naomi will be the main POV, but there will be Emily and other additions later in the story. I hope you don't hate me too much for the first chapter, but here goes...

Naomi

Fuckedy fuck fuck fuck!. This dress was definitely designed by a man, I know that for sure, a woman would have made it at least physically possible to get over your head without creasing it to fuck.. I said we should have made this event informal. I hate big occasions, and squeezing myself into this tighter than tight cream silk shocker is making me wish I could have another three large drinks before setting off.

I blow a wisp of treacherous hair out of my eyes when the dress finally drops over my shoulders and reluctantly settles over my body. Fucking formal wear. I hate it. Mind you, looking at myself in the mirror, I have to admit now I'm poured in, it looks kinda hot on me. I don't have huge boobs, but the ones nature has granted me look quite sexy pushed up in the matching cream satin and lace under wired bra I bought specially for this day. The neckline is low for me, I never go for the cleavage look normally, and the silk clings to my thighs and bum a treat. Emily will growl that husky little growl when she sees it, and I would go through an awful lot to hear my little redhead growl, whatever the occasion. Dyeing her hair vivid red last year seems to have woken the inner animal in my life partner. It may just be my imagination, but since she did our sex life has gone up several notches, and believe me, it was never exactly subdued in the first place.

Only last night, we...but I stop myself immediately. This dress is not one that will stand too much sexual tension. I'd better save my daydreams for after the ceremony, when we can literally let our hair loose and get down and dirty. My mouth dries at my own dirty thoughts, so I distract myself by putting on my white gold curb chain and crucifix (Emily's third anniversary present to me last May) and slim gold eternity bracelet (that was my second anniversary present). I know that Emily won't be able to show off her last two anniversary presents in quite the same way. She's always had her ears pierced in several places, but the tiny white gold bar in her left nipple and the equally petite gold and amethyst stud in her navel are for my eyes only, unless we're on the beach somewhere, and even then I get jealous if someone even looks in their direction. Never quite got over the feeling that someone could take her away from me. Ever since we got together, I have this nagging feeling that she's gonna wake up one morning and realise she's under achieving with me and go out and find a hotter dyke to love. Lucky for me, she doesn't seem to want one.

I sneak a last look at my bum in the mirror before I make for the door of our flat, and promise myself I'll keep off the cream cakes this month (honest) if only the seams stay intact for the next few hours.

Then the door shakes with heavy knocking, and a voice echoes in the corridor outside "Coming in Campbell, ready or not. Your lesbian public await"

Great, now Mrs Butler at number 38 will be welded to the door spy glass, trying to discover how 'gay' my friends can be. She's bad enough if she catches me and Em stumbling in at stupid o clock in after a night out, giggling and goosing each other as one of us fumbles for the keys. How she's going to feel about a lesbian posse turning up to accompany me to the venue is predictable in the extreme. I can see her pinched homophobic little face in my minds eye now. Lips pursed like they've never been opened and her eyebrows so high they disappear into her hairline. Oh well, fuck her. Today's gonna to be a good day. I'm determined.

I open the door and Effy stands there beaming at me like some game show compère. I can tell she's been on the juice already, and my patented Campbell overdrive hits the red line immediately.

"Fucks sake Eff, can you at least wait until after the ceremony to get wasted" I scowl, which only makes her laugh more. The tall blonde girl with her laughs too, but even louder, and I hear the click of Mrs Butlers door. We are two seconds away from neighbour from hell territory, so before anyone else can say a word, I'm ushering us all down the corridor and into the lift. As the doors close, I hear a faint "Well!" from the end of the hall, and thank God we'll be away for the next two weeks at least.

Eff and Jenny (yeah that Jenny, back from Oz and totally enraptured with my best friend) giggle all the way down to the ground floor and I roll my eyes in what I hope is a grown up manner until they finally settle down. The ping of the lift door opening reveals more friends waiting in the lobby. Jamie from accounts, Annabelle from my work group and my mum of course, resplendent in some foliage green thing with added feathers. She looks like an exotic pot plant, but I resist the urge to water her...just.

After lots of air kisses to avoid smudging my carefully applied make up (another thing I usually avoid like the plague, but today is kinda special) we tumble out of the glass doors and into the street. Two cars are waiting. One for me and my mum, the other for my friends. We pick up two more of our friends on the way, and within 15 minutes, the big cars are pulling up smoothly outside the registry office . As soon as I see the Georgian pillars and stone steps, my heart begins to race. Fuck me Campbell, I breathe silently, you're getting fucking married!

The driver gets out and tips his hat as he opens the door. I smile at him only a little bit shakily for a second, but then see some people on the steps and my nerves increase a hundred fold. Standing right at the top (of course) with a trademark scowl is Katie fucking Fitch. Sister of the bride no less. Or at least one of them. Ems and I had a small disagreement about the exact status of our union last week, neither of us wanting to be the 'groom' but eventually she disarmed me, with her normal mix of sweet words and entirely inappropriate sexual promises. Handcuffs indeed, where do you even buy fur handcuffs? (Don't answer that)

To be honest, I don't know if that wasn't the last time we actually had sex. Normally it was a nightly (OK, sometimes twice nightly) event, even three years into our relationship, but for some reason, as the ceremony got closer, she became more and more distant. I called her out over it two days ago, but she made some excuse about working too hard and wedding nerves. I let it go, because I'd been getting home well knackered myself lately, what with the new job, shifts and all the planning to make today special. I wasn't allowed to see Emily's dress, of course, bad luck as my mum kept telling me, but with her metabolism, Emily could eat just about whatever she liked and still stayed trim and sexy. We may be three years older, but she can still melt me with a single look. She's guaranteed to look stunning in whatever she wears today.

I climb the steps, noticing that the Witch Queen of Mordor is absent. Well that was pretty much a certainty, I suppose. Three years I said, didn't I? Well Katie had thawed more than a fraction towards me, and I actually got on OK with Rob and James, although age hadn't mellowed Emily's little brother one bit. He still spent most occasions having conversations with my tits and 'adjusting' himself, but at least he had stopped calling himself Britney and stealing his sisters clothes. But the Goblin Matriarch was still implacably opposed to what she saw as our 'unnatural union' and I never really expected her to be here. Rob gave me a hug, which I fended off as much as I could, considering how much time I had spent trying to keep this dress wrinkle free and James stared at my tits and asked them how they were doing. I thought briefly about making a snarky remark, but fuck it I'm getting married today I thought, and the sheer improbability of that statement made me light headed all over again.

Emily would be arriving any time now, so I stood with Eff and Jenny, nodding at Katie and hoping she would be able to keep that stony mask on for the duration. I didn't need her approval any more, but I wouldn't have put it past her to shout out something inappropriate during the 'just impediment' section, just to wind us up.

Ten minutes later and we all start to look anxiously down the road for the other wedding car. Emily had been staying overnight with her friend from the Bristol Evening Post, what was her name? Ellie, I think. I tapped my foot anxiously as we waited. Luckily the weather was good for October, and just a cool breeze told you that summer was over. Rob ran down to the corner of Corn Street to see if there were any traffic hold ups, but he came back seconds later shaking his head. Fuck, I thought, something's happened. Effy must have seen the look on my face and came over, murmuring the normal platitudes. Brides prerogative, last minute make up issues and the normal bullshit designed to make you stop tapping your foot and calm the fuck down, but as the ten minutes turned to 15, I started to really worry. A flunky from the Registrars office came out and had a whispered conversation with Rob. I guess he was used to late brides and over running partners, but he tapped his watch firmly when Rob tried to bargain with him. I could already see strangers congregating on the steps below us, getting ready for the next couple to show. My face must have been a picture, and I wished desperately I hadn't given up smoking last year. Ems had nagged me until I did, citing cancer and other life threatening diseases. The fact that she withheld sex for three whole days had nothing to do with my final decision to quit of course.

So now she was fucking 'unfashionably' late, and my patience was just about at an end. Where the hell was she? I could see people eyeing each other and looking at their watches repeatedly. Rob, James and Jenny were making frantic phone calls, but Effy just shrugged when I lifted an eyebrow. "Voice mail" she said quickly "Don't panic Naoms, she'll be here...she loves you like nothing else"

"I'm gonna fucking kill her when she does arrive" I grated "This could be the shortest marriage on record if she doesn't hurry the fuck up"

There was a cold heavy feeling in my stomach, and I know it was stupid, but my inner demon kept saying over and over "Told you. She is too good for you" I dismissed the vicious little fucker and said to myself " Emily wouldn't do this to me, she just wouldn't"

The fifteen minutes clicked round to twenty and then suddenly in the distance I could see the white bonnet and shiny grill of the hired Mercedes at the end of the road. As I spotted it, so did every one else, and I heard the collective sigh of relief around me. My anger evaporated instantly, and I barely suppressed a sob of joy. Jesus, this was way too fucking stressful a way to start a marriage.

Seconds later, the limo pulled up at the kerb, and the driver jumped out of his door and rushed round to the back doors. He pulled it open and Ellie, or whatever her name was got out. Her face was flushed and she wouldn't meet my eyes, as I stood there waiting for my bride to emerge. In fact, then I noticed the driver avoiding looking at me, and that cold dread was back in my belly.

Finally Ellie looked up at me standing on the steps and I saw tears running down her cheeks. She started to cry, but I wasn't having that, no sir. Dropping my small bouquet on the steps I ran down to the car and opened the heavy door wide, expecting to see Emily sitting there with that shy smile she reserved for big occasions. But it was empty and in one second my whole world collapsed around me.

I could hear ten people talking at once, and even though I couldn't hear sentences, I heard the words 'jilted at the altar' alright. Who even used that phrase any more I thought stupidly. There is no altar in a register office. Someone was questioning Ellie, but all I could hear her say was, "She's gone, she's just gone"

I think someone tried to put their arms around me. It could have been my mum, but I shrugged them off. She wouldn't, she couldn't have, I thought brokenly, not my Emily. She wouldn't do this to me...not like this, not this way.

But she had, and as the embarrassed crowd started to disperse, Effy and Jenny surrounded me and held me tight as my heart shattered into a million pieces.

I don't remember anything clearly about the rest of that day. I recall vaguely being back in our (no, my) flat and having lots of large glasses of single malt whisky put into my cold hands, but the rest of it was a blur. I could hear people phoning other people, and the sound of their ring tones as people called back, but as for the actual conversations, not a thing.

Sometime that evening, I was put to bed, and the stupid cream dress peeled off me. I could hear sobbing, and thought drunkenly that I had never actually heard Effy cry before. Then nothing. Just blackness and the considerate cloak of unconsciousness.

Well guys, that's chapter one. Is anyone still with me? I have no idea how it feels to be 'left at the altar' But my best guess is that it's totally humiliating and long term life changing. Someone like Naomi, with her inbuilt 'dragons' must suffer even more. Where is Emily, and how could she be so cruel?