I was too stunned to respond, so Ethan simply squeezed my hand and walked me back to the table where my daughters were waiting. My ten-year-old whispered that their father’s face looked like a tomato, while my five-year-old immediately asked whether Ethan could sit beside her. Across the reception, Jason avoided looking in our direction. Even Brittany seemed distant, barely speaking to him during their first dance. But I could think only about Ethan’s unexpected confession.

In the parking lot afterward, I finally asked whether he had meant what he said. Ethan admitted he had liked me since my first week at the company. For two years, however, he had watched me recover from a marriage that left me feeling small and didn’t want to become another person demanding something from me. When I asked him to pretend to be my date for Jason’s wedding, he immediately agreed because it was the closest he believed he would ever get to asking me himself. Then I asked about the mirror. Ethan smiled nervously and admitted there was another part of the story.

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