Living Room, 2030
"Kids, there are wedding traditions that date back centuries. The bride shouldn't see the groom before the ceremony. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. And of course, the groom shouldn't see his fiancée in the dress before the big day."
Ted Mosby adjusts his glasses with that mischievous smile his children know so well.
"But what happens when there are three people in the equation? What if the bride has two fiancés? Do the rules multiply? Do they cancel each other out? Or does the universe simply decide it's too complicated and throw in the towel?"
His two children look at him curiously.
"Because believe me, when Lily Aldrin decided she wanted a wedding dress, and Robin Scherbatsky and Alyx offered to accompany her, traditional rules were the least of our concerns. The important thing was surviving the night."
October 2006 – A Random Street in Manhattan
Ted and Robin were walking aimlessly after dinner. Well, not aimlessly exactly. They were arguing about whether hot dogs with ketchup were a culinary abomination (Robin: "In Canada we eat them like that, Ted. Not all of us live in a condiment dictatorship").
And then Robin stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wait."
Ted stopped and saw Robin looking at a store.
Well, not exactly a store. She was looking at a sign stuck in the window of a shop that looked like it had been closed for decades.
"Annual Wedding Dress Sale. Designer Samples. Up to 90% off. Doors open tomorrow, 8:00 a.m."
"What's up?" asked Ted.
Robin pointed at the sign with a trembling finger.
Ted approached to read it. "Wedding dress sale? So what?"
"I just remembered Lily, you know," Robin said calmly.
And they kept walking.
11:00 p.m. – Wedding Dress Shop Line
Robin, Lily, and Alyx were set up on the sidewalk. They had secured a relatively good spot: position #12 in line. Ahead of them, eleven women with bridal dreams. Behind them, another fifteen.
Lily had brought blankets, pillows, snacks, a flashlight, three bottles of water, and a highlighted copy of Your Dream Wedding in 30 Days.
Robin had brought a denim jacket, an attitude of "what am I doing here?", and her phone. She certainly hadn't expected that telling Lily about the shop and the sale would lead to camping on a sidewalk for wedding dresses.
Alyx had brought a sketchbook, a pen, and a bag of peanuts.
"This is incredible," said Alyx, looking around. "The social hierarchy is already established. The ones at the front are the alphas. The ones at the back are the betas. And we're in no-man's-land: the ones who arrived late but not too late."
"You and your obsession with analyzing everything," said Robin.
"It's my survival mechanism. If I observe, I don't get stressed."
Lily was too excited to get stressed. "Look at that one over there. She has a copy of Vera Wang: The Collection. Limited edition. I covet it."
"Are you going to steal it?" asked Robin.
"If necessary."
The night wore on. The whispered conversations of the other women created a constant murmur. Some talked about their fiancés, others about their mothers-in-law. One was crying because her mother couldn't come from Ohio.
"It's like group therapy, but with more lace," observed Alyx.
And then it happened.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A car parked right in front of the line started honking. The alarm—or maybe an electrical fault—made the horn sound intermittently.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"What's that?" asked Lily.
"A car," said Robin. "With a broken alarm."
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"It'll turn off by itself," said Alyx confidently.
It didn't.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Five minutes passed.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Ten minutes.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Half an hour.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"I'm going to kill someone," muttered Robin.
A woman from position #5 got up and walked to the car. She looked inside. It was empty. No note, no way to contact the owner.
She pounded the hood in frustration. The car responded with another BEEP.
"This is insane," said another woman. "How are we supposed to sleep like this?"
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
2:00 a.m. – No One Had Slept
The car was still beeping.
Lily was curled up between Robin and Alyx, her head covered with a blanket. "I can't take it anymore," she moaned. "Every time it stops, I think, 'Oh, maybe it won't start again.' But it does. Why does it come back, Robin? Why does it keep coming back?"
"It's going to be okay, honey," said Robin, though she herself had insomnia-induced dark circles. "Let's play a game. Let's sing along with it."
"Sing?"
"Yeah. Every time it beeps, we sing a note."
BEEP.
"La..." sang Robin.
BEEP.
"...la..." continued Lily.
BEEP.
"...la..." added Alyx.
BEEP.
"This is stupid," said Lily.
"Very stupid," Alyx agreed. "But less stressful."
3:00 a.m. – The Situation Was Unsustainable
Robin suddenly stood up. "That's it."
"What are you going to do?" asked Lily.
"I don't know. But something."
Robin planted herself in the middle of the line.
She raised her voice:
"Ladies! Women about to get married and their companions! I need your attention!"
Everyone looked at her. Even the woman crying for her mother stopped crying.
"I know we're here for a common goal: cheap dresses from expensive designers. But there's a threat preventing us from resting. A threat that robs us of sleep, sanity, and possibly our ability to choose a nice dress tomorrow."
BEEP.
"That car," Robin pointed. "It's been tormenting us for hours. And its owner, somewhere in this city, sleeps peacefully while we suffer."
"What do you suggest?" asked a woman.
"That when he appears, we wait for him and welcome him as he deserves."
"With what?" asked another.
Alyx, who had been observing everything with her sketchbook, timidly raised her hand.
"I have an idea."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SPECIAL PROMOTION
Subscribe today and take advantage of the "THE DUNPHY" discount, valid until! Don't miss a single chapter of this story. IN MY PATREON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you enjoyed it, leave a Review and Power Stones.
✅ Early access to 22 new chapters
Join LEGEN - DARY Level on Patreon
👉 https://[email protected]/cw/Day_bluefic
@=a
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Three women. One sidewalk. Forty wedding-obsessed strangers. And a car that won't stop beeping. The dress mission has begun, and it's already a disaster.
Who do you think will crack first under the beeping torture? Robin, Lily, or Alyx?
Drop your answer in the comments, follow the story, and support with power stones. Every stone is one less BEEP in the night!