The suburban restaurant was slowly filling up with guests. Everyone was waiting for the newlyweds, who, after their marriage registration, had gone off somewhere to drive around town and take photos. The crowd kept glancing eagerly at the elegantly decorated tables, while the band on stage tuned their instruments. The parents of the bride and groom mingled among the guests, greeting people and accepting congratulations.
Inna nodded to her cousin—it was her only daughter who was getting married today. She offered an encouraging smile, as if to say, “Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be fine.” Standing a little apart from the other guests with a bouquet of flowers in her hands, Inna felt a bit out of place. Beside her, her teenage son shifted restlessly from foot to foot, his face practically screaming, “Mom, why’d you drag me to this lame wedding?” Maybe she should’ve left him at home, but then he’d just spend the whole day glued to his computer. Still, he’d probably be bored here too—there weren’t any kids his age, just older teens or little tykes.
Inna scanned the room and locked eyes with a man standing by the opposite wall, chatting with her sister. His face seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place where she might’ve seen him before. Suddenly, the stranger smiled and started walking toward her.
“Hey there!” he said as he approached. “I recognized you right away. You’re Inna, right?”
She nodded.
“I’m Max. Remember Lyuba and Vitaliy’s wedding? I was the best man, and you were the maid of honor.”
That’s it! Now she knew where she’d seen him. But back then, twenty years ago, he was a tall, skinny, kinda awkward guy. Now, standing before her was a grown man—polished, confident, reminding her of some famous actor. He looked nothing like the boy from his youth.
“Well, I guess I’m not exactly the same as I was back then either,” she thought to herself, but aloud she said, “Hey, Max! Good to see you…”
**************
That had been her last summer before graduating high school. August smelled of rain and sunflowers, ripe plums, and marigolds. Her older sister was getting married and had chosen Inna to be her maid of honor.
The wedding was held in a “shack”—a big tent set up right in the middle of the yard. Inside, there was one long table with benches covered in homemade rugs. The walls were decorated with hand-drawn posters and garlands of fake flowers. In fact, Inna had come over to Lyuba’s the day before the wedding to help decorate the tent and prepare the “giltsya,” a traditional decorated branch. Along with other young girls—friends and relatives of the bride—they cut strips of colored paper and tied them to a cherry branch that the bride’s father had cut from the orchard. They also made small bouquets of fresh flowers, which, by custom, would be given to each guest the next day.
One of the older women, who was busy preparing the wedding feast in the summer kitchen, passed by the tent and called out to the girls, “Why are y’all so quiet, like a bunch of mice? Come on, sing something!”
She started off herself:
“Oh, on the viburnum bush, a nightingale sang…”
“I begged to go home, but he wouldn’t let me…”
The girls joined in, hesitant at first, but soon their voices grew louder. Things got livelier after that—“Green Leaves, White Chestnuts,” “Fly, Fly, Gray Geese”… they sang folk songs as if by unspoken agreement, feeling that modern tunes wouldn’t suit the old-fashioned giltsya, the bright August evening, or the thrilling anticipation of the celebration to come. Each girl secretly imagined herself in the bride’s place—how would it be when it was her turn? They giggled quietly, nudging each other with their elbows.
The groom, Vitaliy, approached their group, accompanied by a stranger. The guy struck Inna as funny-looking—unruly hair sticking up on his forehead, slightly protruding ears. When the girls stared at him, he got shy and looked down.
“Inna, come over here!” Vitaliy called out.
She set aside the half-finished bouquet she was working on and slowly got up from the table.
“What’s up?”
“Come meet your best man. This is Max, my college buddy. He’s from Bila Tserkva. And this is Inna,” he said, turning to the guy. “Lyuba’s sister. Y’all get to know each other, relax a bit. I gotta go—my future mother-in-law’s looking for me…”
Inna glanced at Max from under her brow. She’d heard from her sister that Vitaliy’s best man would be a friend from out of town, but she hadn’t pictured him like this. She’d imagined some mature, handsome guy, maybe someone like Tom Cruise… not this weird dude.
“I gotta go, I still have bouquets to finish,” she said with a hint of irritation in her voice.
“Sure, go ahead…”
He lingered by the fence for a while, staring out at the street, until Aunt Zoya, Lyuba’s mom, roped him into helping carry dishes into the tent. Every time he passed near Inna, he’d sneak a quick glance at her. And she pretended not to notice him at all.
******************
It was already night by the time the girls finished the last of the wedding preparations. The giltsya, adorned with flowers and ribbons, stood in a place of honor. The tent walls were decorated, and the bouquets were tied. People started heading home. Most of them lived nearby, but Inna had a long walk to the other side of town.
“Max will walk you home,” Aunt Zoya decided.
“He’ll get lost on his way back,” Inna replied, as if the guy wasn’t standing right there.
“No worries, I’ll find my way. I did orienteering in school,” Max chimed in.
“Well, alright then. We can’t have a wedding without a best man, can we?”
They walked down a quiet street, where the darkness was broken only by squares of light spilling from house windows. Street lighting was scarce back then—lamps only worked in the town center, and on the outskirts, folks had to carry pocket flashlights. That night, though, a full moon shone brightly in the sky, so even without a flashlight, everything was visible. Neither of them spoke. Inna had never been much of a talker, and her companion clearly wasn’t either.
When they reached the river, Inna couldn’t help but admire the scene before her. The still, calm water, bathed in moonlight, reflected the shadows of the willow trees along the bank. Every leaf stood out sharply, as if etched by a master engraver. Above it all stretched a deep violet sky, sprinkled with stars that, for some reason, always seemed closer and brighter at the end of summer than at any other time of year.
“It’s so beautiful!” she blurted out.
“Wanna go for a swim?”
“I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“We can just go in like this…”
“No, I don’t want to!” Inna frowned. The sense of beauty and harmony with nature was gone, shattered.
“Alright, suit yourself.”
They walked on in silence. Finally, Max spoke again.
“Tell me something,” he suggested.
“Like what?”
“I dunno, about yourself. You still in school?”
“Yeah, I just started eleventh grade.”
“Where do you wanna go after?”
“Not sure, maybe a teaching college.”
“I’m studying to be a lawyer.”
They fell silent again, as if they’d run out of things to talk about.
“This is my place,” Inna said as they approached a five-story building near the city park. “Thanks for walking me. You’ll find your way back okay?”
He nodded.
She’d already grabbed the handle of the entrance door when Max called out, “Inna, wait!”
“What is it?”
He stepped closer and suddenly wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in and kissing her. It was completely unexpected. Embarrassing as it was to admit, at sixteen, Inna had never kissed a boy before. Her more experienced friends had told her all sorts of stories, but she’d always thought it wouldn’t be like that for her. She’d imagined it would be like in the romance novels she devoured by the dozen—her heart would stop, her soul would overflow with happiness, all that stuff. And now this idiot—there was no other word for him—had ruined everything. Where had he even come from?
She pressed her hands against Max’s chest and angrily pushed him away.
“Listen, you,” her voice trembled with indignation. “Try that again, and you’ll regret it! Don’t let me catch you doing that ever again!”
“Inna…” he started to say something, but she wasn’t listening. She darted into the building and slammed the door in his face.
************
The next morning, Inna was back at Lyuba’s place bright and early. The usual pre-wedding chaos was in full swing—last-minute tasks in the tent, cooks running back and forth with pots and plates, someone looking for something, someone calling out for someone else…
Inna entered her sister’s room, where Lyuba was already in her wedding dress. A friend who was training to be a hairdresser was styling her hair. Inna pitched in, handing over bobby pins and hairspray, then helping Lyuba put on her veil before the girls started on her makeup.
Soon, the groom and his friends arrived to “buy” the bride. A crowd of curious onlookers gathered in the yard—practically the whole street showed up to watch as Lyuba’s younger brother and other male relatives haggled with Vitaliy, trying to trick him. First, they brought out another girl wrapped in a tulle shawl, and only after the ransom amount seemed satisfactory did the real bride appear at the doorstep, handed over to her future husband.
Well, technically, he was already her husband, since Vitaliy and Lyuba had registered their marriage earlier. Today was for the church ceremony and the actual wedding celebration. Everyone planning to attend the church piled into cars, as the couple had decided to get married not in their town but in a neighboring village with a stunning old church. Inna ended up in the same car as the newlyweds—Lyuba’s dad was driving, Lyuba sat up front, and in the back were Vitaliy, Inna, and Max. Being so close made them both awkward, and they tried to keep their distance, shifting away so they wouldn’t accidentally touch. Vitaliy noticed and started teasing them, which only made them more embarrassed.
Inna loved the church ceremony—the solemn atmosphere, the flickering candlelight, the emotional faces of the family, and the priest’s heartfelt words to the couple left a deep impression on her. The only downside was having to hold the heavy crown over her sister’s head. Since Lyuba was pretty tall and wearing high heels, Inna’s arms, raised high, soon went numb. She couldn’t wait for the service to end. Suddenly, she felt the weight lighten—glancing up, she saw Max holding the crown with one hand. She nodded at him gratefully.
***************
Back home, the feast began—everything as it should be: toasts, gift-giving, shouts of “Kiss! Kiss!” Midway through the party, when the guests started dancing, some neighborhood boys “kidnapped” the bride, and the groom had to pay another ransom to get her back. There were plenty of fun moments—the groom washing his mother-in-law’s feet and putting boots on her, the parents and godparents being hoisted on chairs, and the giltsya being taken apart and pieces of the wedding loaf passed among the guests, who in return showered the couple with gifts…
Finally, one of the most emotional moments arrived—removing the bride’s veil and replacing it with a headscarf. Twice, the groom’s mother tried to cover Lyuba’s head with the scarf, and each time Lyuba dodged it. On the third try, though, she accepted it, officially becoming a married woman. The veil was then passed to the unmarried girls, each taking a turn to dance in it for good luck in finding a husband. Since Inna was the head maid of honor, she got the honor first. And, of course, she had to dance with Max.
Years later, when Inna thought back to that dance, what stuck with her most was how she’d been terrified of losing the veil. It wasn’t pinned to her hair, just resting on her head. She kept one hand on Max’s shoulder and the other clutching the darn thing. And he kept looking at her, smiling for no apparent reason.
“Why are you staring like that?” Inna asked.
“Because you’re really beautiful,” he whispered in her ear.
At that moment, the song ended, and Inna, with great relief, passed the veil to another girl. She fled into the house, claiming she had a headache, and stayed there until the wedding wound down and the guests started to leave.
Max walked her home again, but this time they moved quickly, not stopping anywhere. They were both exhausted from the long, eventful day. When they reached her building, they caught their breath and looked at each other. It seemed like each wanted to say something, but neither had the courage.
So they just said:
“Thanks for walking me. See ya!”
“Good night!”
And they parted… for twenty years.
****************
Now, here they were again, standing side by side, looking at each other with curiosity, as if trying to spot traces of those half-childish features in their grown-up faces.
“Your boy?” Max nodded toward Inna’s son, who stood nearby, completely engrossed in some game on his phone.
“Yeah, mine.”
“You two look a lot alike. I’ve got a daughter, Snizhanna. She’s over there, standing by the palm tree.”
Inna glanced over and saw a tall, blonde girl, about the same age as her son, Denis.
“Where’s your wife?”
A shadow seemed to cross Max’s face.
“She passed away two years ago. Cancer…”
“Oh, I’m so sorry…”
“It’s okay. And you—why are you here alone, without your husband?”
“We got divorced. He lives abroad now.”
Just then, the newlyweds finally arrived, and everyone started taking their seats at the tables. Inna and Max ended up next to each other, with their kids seated across from them, side by side. The teens sat with an air of indifference, each in their own world, clearly uninterested in the wedding and itching to get home. Inna and Max, on the other hand, struck up a conversation. They started by reminiscing about that long-ago wedding where they’d met, then moved on to sharing interesting stories from their lives. Talking came easily, as if they weren’t just casual acquaintances but old, close friends.
The wedding carried on, a modern celebration with new rules and traditions that hadn’t existed in their youth. Both felt a pang of nostalgia for the old-fashioned charm and folk customs that were inevitably fading into the past. They’d been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of that unique, authentic world in their younger days. Now, it was considered outdated, replaced by European or American innovations.
Only one moment reminded them of that earlier wedding—when the band played “The Pine Tree Burned…” and the groom’s mother removed the bride’s veil, replacing it with a white embroidered headscarf. Just like back then, the veil was passed from hand to hand among the unmarried girls, from oldest to youngest, each dancing in it. When it was Snizhanna’s turn, Inna nudged Denis.
“Go on, ask her to dance.”
He sighed in annoyance but complied.
They danced outside on a large asphalt area, behind which grew neatly trimmed trees and bushes—part of what they called “landscape design.” Under one of those hedges stood Max and Inna, watching their kids. The teens looked so serious and focused, as if this wasn’t just a dance but some critical test. Then the music stopped, Snizhanna took off the veil and said something, and both she and Denis burst into laughter. They were the same height, both blond with big eyes, somehow subtly resembling each other.
“What are you thinking about?” Max asked.
“I’m not sure… I just felt a little sad that I never had a real wedding, or a wedding dress. We just signed the papers, threw a party for friends, and that was it.”
“Same here,” he chuckled. “But that’s no reason to be down, right?”
“Of course not.”
She suddenly started looking around with concern.
“Where’d the kids go? They were just here, and now they’re gone!”
“They’ll be fine. They’re just wandering around. They’re not little anymore.”
Inna shivered slightly. A cool breeze was blowing in from the nearby river.
“Cold?” Max asked, and without waiting for an answer, he put his arm around her shoulders. “Warmer now?”
She nodded. They were close now, and she felt so comfortable with his arm around her. She turned her head, and their eyes met.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, just as she had all those years ago.
“I was thinking about kissing you, but I’m scared you might hit me again,” Max replied, completely serious, though a mischievous glint danced in his eyes.
She smiled and gave a tiny shake of her head.