In our fishing town there's a rule: if a man wants to marry his bride, he has to light a wishing lantern for forty-nine straight nights.
Xavier Mason lit forty-eight outside my window.
On the forty-ninth night, the whole town came to witness the rite completed.
Instead, I watched him turn to leave.
His buddies tried to stop him. “Xavier, you're really going? Light this last lantern and you and Crystal Thomas are husband and wife!”
“Crystal waited five years for you to light these lanterns. The whole town is watching the two of you now. If you walk off, she'll have no way to save face.”
Xavier waved it off. “You guys cover for me. Crystal's easy to handle, she won't make a scene.”
“Lauren's the one with the temper, and she's already cleaned up and waiting for me at the hotel. If I don't show, she'll tear this little fishing town apart.”
The truth was more bitter than seawater.
It pierced the tip of my heart, but I didn't cry. I turned away and dialed a number. “Dad, the forty-ninth lantern. Let him light it.”
Xavier, this time, I won't be marrying you.
*
“Our Crystal is finally getting married!”
The townspeople were truly happy for me.
On their own, they had dressed up my window with fresh flowers.
Green vines wound around the wooden cottage, and red roses spilled down like a waterfall.
It was the most romantic lantern-lighting the town had ever seen.
By the rules of the fishing town, tonight counted as my wedding night. The lantern lit, the rite complete.
In the yard the coals glowed bright under the barbecue, the smell of grilled fish drifting everywhere.
And the fishing lantern Xavier had made for me with his own hands hung outside my window, waiting to be lit.
“Crystal, you might have to wait a bit. Xavier's stomach started hurting, so he went to the hospital in the city.”
Robert Dickerson, one of Xavier's buddies, rubbed his hands together as he lied for him.
“It's fine. No rush.”
The man I was waiting for was still on his way too.
I sat beneath the lantern, waiting for one of the town elders to set the flower pin in my hair.
On all those nights Xavier had lit lanterns for me, I'd carefully chosen twelve kinds of flowers and wound them, layer by layer, into a grand bridal crown.
I'd made a wish once: that I would wear the most beautiful flower pin I'd crafted with my own hands when I married Xavier.
I asked an old master to teach me. Wiring the loops, setting the pin, working in the center blooms. Every step, I did myself.
More than once I pricked my fingertip, and blood ran down onto the petals.
I wrapped the cut in tape and kept working the flowers.
In the end, it was done.
But the man I wanted to marry had already gone.
My fingers brushed gently over the blossoms, finishing the last of the offering.
“Why isn't Xavier here yet?”
As night fell, the wind picked up over the town, and the people grew anxious.
Before, Xavier had always come before dark to light my lantern.
He'd said he wanted to be the first light to fall against my window.
He couldn't bear to leave me waiting alone in the dark.
I turned to look at Robert.
He hurried to explain. “Crystal, Xavier's out buying flowers for you, he's almost here! You know how he is, he loves a little romance.”
“Yes. I know.”
When Xavier loved someone, he gave them romance without limit.
On our first date, I ran an hour late because of work.
He texted me. “Thank you for being late. You gave me time to prepare a surprise.”
At the flower shop next door, he'd begged the owner to teach him, then made me a bouquet of roses by hand.
“Crystal, you fishing-town girls see flowers as beauty and as a blessing. From now on, every holiday, I'll bring you flowers, and pray for blossoms in full bloom, the moon whole, and you safe and well.”
Once I had to travel for work and came home after several days away.
From the light switches to the shoe cabinet, the water dispenser, the refrigerator, every place I might pass through was covered with little notes of how much he missed me.
He'd save up our everyday photos, make them into albums, and hide them on my bookshelf.
I'd come across one by accident, and the moment I opened it, it was full of sweet memories.
Fireworks, candlelit tables, balloons, a drone confession. Every popular grand gesture there was, he gave me.
Lighting the lanterns was the last of them.
Forty-nine nights, and for every one of the first forty-eight, Xavier had brought me a surprise.
Tonight, I was looking forward to it more than ever.
I just never imagined Xavier's "surprise" this time would be cheating on me.
I quietly changed into the deep-red bridal gown and came downstairs, unhurried.
Not a trace of impatience on my face.
It made even Robert feel guilty. “Crystal, don't worry, Xavier's definitely coming!”
I smiled and said nothing.
Even if Xavier showed up in time.
This forty-ninth lantern, I would never let him be the one to light it.
