Shout, indeed...

August 23, 1992...

"Shout! Lift your hands up and shout! Kick your heels up and shout!"

Chad groaned, leaned over the wine glasses and crumb-covered plates, and stage-whispered to the girl that had taken an empty seat at the table with him. "Well, it's officially a wedding reception now!" She was gorgeous, and he didn't see a ring. If she understood his joke, she may just be a keeper! He held his breath as she looked at him out of the corner of her champagne-sparkling eyes. She leaned back his way and whispered back with a wink, "Nope...they haven't played 'Celebration' yet."

And that's how Chad and Hope fell in love.

Theirs isn't the first story of romance beginning at a wedding. The stage is set so perfectly. Music, slow dancing, candlelight, flowers to pluck from centerpieces and tuck behind ears...how could anyone not feel the flush?

May 9, 2010...

"Shout! Lift your hands up and shout! Kick your heels up and shout!"

Chad looked to his left at Hope, the candlelight still accenting her exquisite silhouette and doe-soft eyes, just like it did eighteen years before, the night they met. He leaned in, his lips brushing her earlobe, and stage-whispered, "Well, it's officially a wedding reception now." She turned to him and what he saw wasn't the smart-alecky, mischievous grin he'd expected, but a smirk, oozing with disdain. "Nope. They haven't played 'Celebration' yet." Her monotone voice and loathing stare stunned Chad.

Hope took a delicate bite of cake and gently placed her fork on the china plate. "Chad, honey, that joke was funny the first time, but I have to say...it got a little crusty after, oh, I don't know...the seventy-third time. Kind of like everything else about you." She was wringing her hands now, watching them as if she weren't the one moving them. "I'm sorry, sweetie." She stood, rested her hands on the table, leaned down, and kissed the top of his head. She turned and walked away. He dropped his head and saw her rings lying on the table where her hands had rested.