No Cake

"Hello, Mary." Michael said, as he laid his hand on the back of the chair. He was looking down at the brunette woman, in her white dress, as she sat at the small table on the lawn, along with a mid-fifties looking man, wearing an impeccable brown suit.

Mary looked up and over her shoulder at the sound of her name. It took her only half a second, but she recognized the face she used to spend so much time with. He'd aged, of course. It had been eleven years. His eyes were still that steely grey, and he had a touch of a different grey on his temples. His hairline had moved back a little. He cut a nice figure in his black suit.

"Hello Michael." Mary said, her voice almost devoid of emotion. She started to push her white folding chair back from the table, so she could stand, but Michael put his hand gently on her shoulder, letting her know there was no need. Mary looked back to him, and could tell Michael had anticipated her standing and giving him a hug. He wasn't interested.

They stayed like that, looking each other in the eyes for about five seconds. Mary then turned and looked across the reception, trying to locate her daughter, in her amazing white dress. She wasn't in sight.

"I don't believe we've met." Michael said, stepping around Mary, and extending his hand to Mary's companion to shake. "I'm Mike Nesmith, father of the bride."

The man stood, and took the proffered hand, and gave it three firm pumps.

"I know, I saw you give away the bride. You throw a hell of a wedding!" the man said. "I'm Kurt Hesselbeck. I see you know my wife?"

"Yes, I know your wife." Michael said, glancing back at Mary. His tone was flat.

"Thank you for inviting us,..." said Kurt. "The buffet is excellent, the ceremony was beautiful. I'd like to get the name and number of your planner, for when our daughter gets married." Kurt said, smiling.

"You have a daughter?" Michael asked, his eyes shifting back to Kurt. "Where is she?"

"She couldn't come, the invite was for Mary and plus one." Kurt explained. "Besides, while she's really well behaved, little Mary would have been very bored here. I know we'd have had to take her phone from her!" Kurt was smiling while telling Michael of his pride and joy.

"How old is she?" Michael asked, curious.

"She'll be eleven, in two months." Kurt said. "I'm going to have to come up with something amazing for her birthday. We gave her a helluva party for ten!"

"Another girl, huh Mary?" Michael asked, not looking at the woman he was asking.

"Another?" Kurt asked, not understanding.

"What do you do, Kurt?" Michael asked, as he moved to the other side of the table, and pulled out a chair. At that signal, both men sat down, and Mary's heart became like lead in her chest.

"I'm purchase manager for the Q-Mec corporation. I keep the rare-earth metals coming for phone production." Kurt explained, happy to talk business. "I've been in the position for about six years? Yes, six years. It takes me overseas a fair amount, but the pay and benefits are great."

"That's amazing Kurt." Michael said. "You got a card?" Michael was digging into the breast pocket of his suit, and then pulled out his wallet.

Kurt withdrew his own wallet from his hip pocket, pulled out a business card, and held it out to Michael, across the table. Michael exchanged it with his own business card.

"East Alliance Shipping, huh?" Kurt said, after scanning Michaels card. "I've used you guys. You do great dockside pickup of hazardous materials, and ship fast. What do you do there?"

"I'm head of comptrol." Michael said.

"Whew, you're that guy? How big is your fleet?" Kurt asked.

"Over three thousand trucks now." Michael said. "We just added another two-hundred of the security armored haulers. I'm working on disbursement now."

"I can't imagine the daily logistics of your job. I just deal with extraction and shipping from overseas. That's mostly block-tonnage." Kurt said. "You must plan things like the allies did the D-Day invasion."

"Yeah, we have our moments." Michael admitted. "We just got our security clearance upgraded, we're going to be getting some interesting government contracts soon, I hope."

"Government contracts?" Kurt asked. "Nice. Lots of money to be made there!"

Michael nodded in agreement.

"Do you have any of the pie?" Kurt asked.

"I get four percent." Michael said.

"Four percent? Of what?"

"Of East Alliance Shipping." Michael said. "When I took over logistics and planning, I got a big bump and a half a percent of everything every year, capping in two years. Same deal as the board officers get."

Kurt whistled in appreciation.

"No wonder you could do this..." Kurt said, gesturing around him at the four hundred people wedding reception, held on an island in the middle of a lake. "... Pretty impressive!"

Michael nodded politely in acknowledgement.

"I think I just footed the bill." Michael admitted, while looking around at the event from where he sat. "Kim and her husbands mother did most of the planning. My job was to throw money until it happened. I admit, I kind of balked at the releasing of the butterflys, that was fifteen grand just for that."

"I'd never seen anything like that." Kurt said. "Everyone at the wedding got one of those Chinese food containers, with a live butterfly in it. Rather than throw rice, there was this beautiful rising shower of color and life. It was beautiful."

"It was." Michael agreed. "I just didn't know how expensive it would all be. Apparently, there's a profession called "butterfly wrangler," and this is all they do. Having them for a week, having them hatch and take care of butterflys is apparently a labor-intensive job."

"It was amazing." Kurt said. "How many were released?"

"I don't know exactly,..." Michael confessed. "The wrangler set up for five hundred guests. I think Kim invited her entire graduating class. I spoiled her a bit, her life has had some..." Michael glanced at Mary. "... amazing difficulties dropped into it."

"Oh? What did she get a degree in?" Kurt asked.

"She's working on being a pediatric surgeon." Michael told the man. "She's got a ways to go, but she's determined. If I'm lucky, her sister, little Mary, will shoot high too."

"You have a daughter named Mary too?" Kurt gushed. "Wow, what are the odds? Here's Mary, my wife, and we have a daughter named Mary, after her!"

"Yes, my little Mary was named after her mother too." Michael had a strange tone in his voice, Kurt thought. "She's seventeen now. She's going to graduate top of her High School class."

"That's amazing!" Kurt beamed a smile at Michael. "You must be so proud! Has she picked a school?"

"I ~am~ proud." Michael said with a slight smile, the first one he'd let show since he approached the table. "Mary went through a really bad period, eleven years ago. She came close to ruining her life a couple of times, until about age twelve. She was pretty depressed."

"Is she okay?" Kurt asked. Mary was looking at Michael, an unreadable expression on her face. Her breath quietly hitched in her chest.

"I think she's okay now." Michael said with a nod. "She got a lot of counseling. It took a while, and we had one very, very bad incident, but she managed to put some things behind her finally. When she did that, she blossomed. She's still blossoming."

Michael sat back and took a deep breath. He looked around at everything, except Mary.

"Mary has a good selection of colleges making her offers, we have a few months yet to pick. She wants to do something in engineering." Michael said.

"A woman engineer?" Kurt marveled. "It used to be, you'd never see women in the physical sciences! Do you think she'll have a hard time, because of the gender bias?"

"If she does, she'll smash anything that gets in her way." Michael said, proudly. "She still has some rage in her, but she aims it well now. Anything she can't handle, I'll be there."

"That's excellent!" Kurt smiled broadly. He was very much admiring and liking Michael. "It sounds like you have a wonderful family!"

"I almost didn't..." Michael confessed. "... but you know, I really do."

"We talked about having another child,..." Kurt said, smiling at Mary, who sat there silently, her eyes focused on the small plate of half-eaten food in front of her. "... but our little Mary was a difficult birth, and my wife got a little hurt."

Michael gave a polite smile.

"Daddy, here you are!" said a young womans voice. From out of a small crowd, came Michaels daughter, the bride, in her flowing wedding dress. "I've been looking for you. Why aren't you at the head table?"

Michael turned in his seat to look at his oldest daughter. He'd been hoping to get this matter settled before Kim and Mary saw things.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Hello, I'm..." Kims voice trailed off as she saw who her father was talking to, seated at the table. It only took her a couple of seconds to recognize the face.

Mary looked at the bride, a mix of emotions running across her face. She started to take sharp, shallow breaths, and moisture began to gather at the bottom of her eyes.

Michael stood quickly, and placed himself between Kim and Mary, blocking Kims view. Kim shifted where she stood, looking at the older woman as best she could around her father.

"Kim, no." Michael half-whispered to his daughter. "No. Not now. Not here."

Kim locked her eyes on Michaels, her steel grey eyes looking into his, trying to understand what was boiling up inside her.

Kurt stood, and started to come around the table, extending his hand toward the bride. "Hello young miss, I'm Kurt Hesselbeck, and this is my wife Mary, as you know. We've really enjoyed being here on your special day."

Kim stood, tension coming off her. She looked from Kurt, who was sensing something wasn't right, and back to her fathers face.

"...what?" Kim whispered.

"Kim. Go." Michael said, his heart breaking for his daughter. He was working to keep things, himself and his daughter, under control. Much longer, and he would lose that control. "I've got this. I'll explain later."

Kim looked back to Kurt, whose confusion was growing, then she stepped to the side to look at Mary.

Mary had tears dropping down her cheeks, as she seemed to shrink into her chair.

"Go, Kimmy." Michael reinforced, his tone soft. "You have to go. Go to your friends. Go to your sister. Now."

Kim heard the quiet commands her father was giving her, and they registered through the cascade of pain she felt.

"Okay..."

"Kimmy..." Michael quietly said, as his beautiful daughter started to turn. "... don't tell Mary, and keep her away."

Kim stopped and considered for half a second, and saw the wisdom in what her father was saying. She nodded, and ran her finger across one eye, then the other, trying to control her tears before her makeup was ruined. Then she turned and walked away, into the crowd which parted for her.

"What happened?" Kurt asked Michael, as Michael faced away, toward his retreating daughter, and wrestled himself back into shape inside. He took a deep, cleansing breath.

"I'm sorry about that." Michael said as he turned back toward Kurt. "I'm afraid I need to move onto father-of-the-bride duties."

"But what happened?" Kurt was looking from Michael to Mary, lost in what had just happened. He moved to kneel beside his crying wife, wrapping his arms around her. She leaned into him, and began to quietly sob into Kurts shoulder.

Michael stood on the other side of the table, and looked at Mary levelly. "I think Mary reminded Kim of someone she used to know."

"But they know each other, Kim sent Mary the invite." Kurt said. "How could Mary remind Kim of someone like that?"

Mary made a small wailing sound into Kurts chest.

"Kurt, I'm sorry to ask, but..." Michael had tried to not ask, but what little he knew about the timing of things... his curiosity and rage demanded he ask. "... does your daughter have steel grey eyes?"

"What?" Kurt asked, a little annoyed at the question. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"...nooo..." Mary whispered as she shrank some more into her husbands protective arms.

"Hon?" Kurt asked, his confusion growing.

"Grey eyes?" Michael asked, his voice steady. "With a dark ring around the outside?"

"Yes, she does!" Kurt replied angrily. "Now what's going on?!"

The crowd was giving the unfolding scene space now.

"Kurt, I like you." Michael admitted. "I think you're a good man. I need your cellphone number, there's some things to share. Explanations." He pulled his phone out of his breast pocket.

"What?" Kurt said, pulling Mary into him tighter as she openly cried.

"What's your number?" Michael asked again.

"Fine." Kurt near spat. "It's 555 555-5555!"

Michael entered the number into the new profile he was creating on his phone.

"Hon, what it is?" Kurt asked Mary softly. "What's happening? Do you want to go?"

"Kurt, I'm sending you some pictures, of my daughters when they were kids. Around ten and eleven. Some others too." Michael said, as he finished creating an entry for Kurt Hesselbeck on his phone.

"Oh god..." Mary muttered as she drew her fists to her temples and pressed into her husband.

"There's going to be some pics that have their mother and myself in them too." Michael said, as he opened a folder on his pictures files, and started selecting images. "You should look at them later."

"What is this crap?" Kurt accused. "What are you doing to my wife?!"

Michael stopped his finger moving, and looked at Kurt. "...What am I doing to your...?"

"Yes!" Kurt snarled.

Michael looked at Mary, so small, so vulnerable, huddled against this man that Michael suspected she'd been deceiving for so, so long.

"Kurt, Mary wasn't invited to the wedding." Michael stated.

"What?" Kurt's face showed his disbelief. "Of course she was. How do you think we got in here?"

"I don't really know, but did you ever see the invite? They were white, embossed, and about six by nine. Not small."

Kurt's face shifted slightly, as he realized he hadn't ever seen the invite.

"...stop it..." whispered Mary.

"About eleven years ago, the thing that hurt my daughters so much, was their mother walked out of their lives." Michael stated, narrated really. His tone was flat, controlled. "She'd left a note, saying she was tired of our lives, tired of the paycheck-to-paycheck situation we'd been in for years."

Kurt was just staring with dwindling anger at Michael as he knelt there.

"She'd complained about things. It was hard for her." Michael said. "We were in a small apartment, Kim was twelve, Mary was six. It was a handful for her. I wasn't quite bringing in enough money, I hadn't gotten on the managerial track regionally yet.."

Michael stopped, took a deep breath, and composed himself.

"Then we found out she was almost two months pregnant, with our third." Michael said, looking off into the distance.

"So, I think she'd just had enough." Michael continued, and while doing so, he started selecting images on his phone again. "I don't really know. I have a one-page note from her, left on the table, as she walked out the door that last time."

Michael made decisions on a couple more images, and added them to the list.

"I looked for her. I called and emailed." Michael said as he was finishing his choices. "Nothing."

Kurt could feel his wife trembling and shaking as he held her, but he was watching Michael. Even though Michael's tone was so even, the pain in the mans voice was palpable.

"The girls didn't handle it well." Michael confessed. "I didn't handle it well."

Michael sent off the pictures to Kurts phone.

"Eventually, I got an amazingly lucky break. I started to bring in money we could use. We had a lot of friends, including a social worker, who got Mary into counseling. Things improved, money-wise, but the girls... they can't understand why their mother abandoned them."

Kurts phone chirped, signaling it had received a text.

"I have to go, but I'm going to say two things in parting..." Michael said, looking toward the head table. "One is, I'm sorry. I never dreamed this would happen. I don't know how to handle this, and I've probably done it wrong. Please remember, I'm sorry."

Kurt frowned, not understanding.

"The second is... everyone in my genetic lineage has grey eyes. It's a dominant trait, apparently."

Kurts face lost its tension, and his eyes widened slightly.

Michael looked at Kurt, sympathy showing on his face.

"I'm sorry." Michael said again, then turned and strode toward the head table.

Kurt pushed his wife away from him slightly, to gaze at the woman he'd married eleven years ago.

Mary looked back through tear-filled eyes and sobbed "I'm so sorry..." over and over.