Cindi Madsen: Cinderella Screwed Me Over

“As a marriage counselor, I’ve seen lots of couples in every stage of their relationships, and I can tell you that Stephanie and Anthony are a great couple. They communicate well, which everyone knows is a key to having a good relationship.” Karl glanced at me and smiled. “Someone recently informed me, though, that communication isn’t the key to a good relationship. It’s realizing that we all communicate differently. She might’ve been onto something. I guess it’s about figuring out how to communicate with someone different from you. So, may you learn to understand each other, even when you don’t.”

He raised his glass. “To the happy couple. I wish you a lifetime of happiness together.”

Drew nudged me. “Go knock ’em dead.” He leaned closer and whispered, “And if you see anyone who needs put in his place, you know what to do.” He made a slapping motion.

I shot him a dirty look before making my way up front to give my toast.

“Hope I didn’t steal your speech,” Karl whispered as he handed me the mic.

“I just want credit when all your counseling sessions go better,” I said with a smile. But the second I raised the microphone and looked out at all the people, my knees started shaking and I felt light-headed and queasy.

“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Darby, and the beautiful bride is my very best friend. She and I have gone through a lot of ups and downs together, and I’m so honored to be with her on one of the happiest days of her life.” My throat went completely dry. I eyed the glasses on the table, wishing I’d brought mine with me. I cleared my throat and licked my lips. “Those of you who do know me know I’ve been skeptical about the whole happily-ever-after thing.”

I could see the fear in Steph’s eyes, so I charged on with the rest of it before she passed out. “But because I’ve known Stephanie for so long, I can see when she’s truly happy. Being with Anthony has made her happier than I’ve ever seen her. I’ve watched their relationship from the beginning. Watched the way they’ve changed each other’s lives. And I can say, without any hesitation, that these two have what it takes to make it. So today, I feel not like I’m losing a friend, but like I’m gaining one…” I twisted to Anthony. “That’s right, Anthony, you should’ve read the fine print. You’re stuck with me, too.”

Laughter sounded through the crowd.

“I guess what I’m saying is that they’re a great example of what love is and how amazing it can be when you find the right person.” I raised my glass, happy to have the hard part out of the way. “To Anthony and Stephanie. May their union be filled with love and laughter.”

Stephanie put her hand over her heart and mouthed, “Love you.”

“You, too,” I mouthed back.

…

Stephanie’s dress crinkled as she threw her arms around me, and her veil pressed against my cheek. Moments ago, she and Anthony had taken their first spin around the dance floor as husband and wife. “I’m married, and your curse is broken. I knew we’d find the right guys someday.”

“Hey!” I said. “I wasn’t cursed.”

“Yeah, you kinda were. And it’s my wedding, so that means you have to listen to everything I say.” She pulled back and pinned me with a serious glare. “Now that you’ve found him, let go of all that old crap, okay? Just let yourself be happy.”

“I am really happy,” I said, unable to keep a silly grin off my face—no doubt I looked like she did whenever she talked about Anthony.

“Speaking of your awesome boyfriend…”

Jake stepped up next to me and put his hand on my back. “Congratulations,” he said to Stephanie.

“Thanks.” Steph motioned to the dance floor. “You two should go dance. I’ll say good-bye before we leave.” She glanced behind me. “Mrs. Hildabrand’s coming. You better go before she gives you the talk about children and being too old, like she gave me earlier.”

“Yeah, we already heard it.” I took Jake’s hand. “But I don’t really want to hear it again.”

He and I stepped onto the dance floor. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me in close. I locked my hands behind his neck.

“You sounded like you really meant that toast,” Jake said. “That you actually think two people can make it.”

I smiled up at him. “I guess that maybe—just maybe—if you do find the right person and you’re both willing to work at it, the odds get a little better.”

He hugged me to him. “It’s okay to say I was right, you know. I’ll only hang it over your head for a month or two. A year at most.”

I shook my head, moving with him as he glided us across the floor. All around us, people were dancing, laughing, and talking. Mom and Dwight were sitting at our table, big smiles on their faces; Drew and Lisa were dancing to the left of me and Jake, laughing as they spun around the floor; Devin and Anne were dancing, too, obviously enjoying their childless evening together. Stephanie and Anthony stepped onto the floor, huge grins on their faces as they gazed into each other’s eyes.

I was surrounded by happy, in-love couples, and surprise, surprise, I was one of them.

The thing is, I thought I’d been in love before. I’d been sure of it. And while I did love those guys, this was something different. Just when you think you’ve kicked a bad habit is usually when it sneaks back up on you. I hadn’t just fallen off the men sobriety bandwagon this time; I’d tumbled off and couldn’t even see the wagon anymore.

Over the past several days, I’d learned a lot about Jake. He blasted awful eighties metal first thing in the morning. He was beyond crazy about knowing the score of every baseball game, no matter what teams were playing, and often went to “just check the score” and ended up watching the rest of the game. He didn’t rinse his whiskers down the sink after shaving, so they crusted onto the porcelain and were almost impossible to get off. He also snored, which made it hard to fall asleep.

Eventually, I might find those idiosyncrasies a little annoying. But I was willing to overlook them because I loved the way I felt whenever I was with him. I loved the way he kissed me. Loved that he would come over and help cook dinner. Loved cuddling up next to him and falling asleep. I loved that he somehow looked past all of my issues and loved me anyway.

But mostly, because I just loved him.

Like any relationship, we’d have ups and downs. But there would also be the part where we’d share our hopes, dreams, and disappointments. In each other, we’d find the support and understanding we needed to make it through another day.

The truth is, fairy-tale beginnings are easy. It’s what comes after that’s hard. Life doesn’t have a clean-cut ending. My relationship with Jake was better than a fairy tale, though, because it was real. Real life love requires forgiving another person’s flaws and loving him or her anyway. And even though tacking the words “happily ever after” onto the end would be easier, there’s something pretty amazing about loving someone else, flaws and all.

When the song came to a close, Jake lowered his lips to mine. As I kissed him back, I felt myself falling deeper. Found myself believing that the forever kind of love did exist.

That’s when it hit me. I had to go through a lot of bad relationships first, but I’d finally found him. My very own Prince Charming. Turns out they do exist.

Touché, Cinderella. Touché.

This book all started with a conversation I had with Christy Walters, one of my very best girlfriends about the unrealistic ideas we had about how relationships would be. I uttered the phrase, “Yeah, Cinderella really screwed us over,” and right then, I knew I needed to write a book about all the things fairy tales forgot to teach us, while somehow pulling off a romance. Thanks to my Aunt Malinda, who was one of the first people to read it and told me how much she loved it. She was also one of my very first writing cheerleaders, and I’ve always been grateful for that—it totally kept me going. Ariane Love, thanks for reading an early draft as well. I could go all mushy, mushy about missing you and Christy, but I’ll refrain and just say thanks for being awesome girlfriends. Also to my friend, Amanda Price (I almost typed Crowther. Lol), whose character traits tend to show up in all of the girlfriends I write in my books. Thanks for saying all the right things as I was going through the editing process—I’m glad to have found another girl so much like me.