Page 74 of The Barkeep and the Bro

We got dressed in the room in silence. Mitch entrusted me to keep track of all the food and the catering staff we hired while he did his duty as father of the bride. Natasha was arriving tonight to be his number two, and I was thankful to have the assistance. I wanted him to have nothing to worry about tonight.

I ironed my white button-down shirt that went with black pants. A traditional waitstaff ensemble. Mitch wore a charcoal suit that fit his solid body perfectly and made my mouth water. There would be no more sexytimes today. We were showered and dressed and had a wedding to attend. It didn’t matter that I discovered how much I loved giving head and desperately wanted to do it again.

“It looks fine. Why do you keep undoing it?” I asked.

Mitch watched himself in the mirror and tied his tie for the millionth time. “It’s not how it should be.”

“It’s a tie.”

“The knot isn’t big enough. It’s not falling down to the appropriate length.” The baby blue fabric shook in his hands.

It all clicked.

“Nervous?”

“Me? I’m not the one getting married.”

“It’s a big day.” I took the tie from his hands. I put it around my neck and tied a plump knot. “Ellie’s getting married.”

“Everyone is having emotional reactions around me today. Everyone is waiting to share with me how momentous today is. Yeah, I know,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I’m nervous because I don’t want to fuck up the food and spoil the beauty of this wedding.”

That was his way of showing he cared. He wanted everything to be perfect for this momentous night.

“The wedding is going to be awesome. You pulled it off.” I loosened the tie just enough and slipped it over Mitch’s head. I tightened it to fit his neck, then put down his collar.

“Weddings always get me thinking about…”

I brushed lint off his shoulders and stepped back to check my tie-work. “About what?”

He said nothing and shrugged. I pulled him by the tie.

“About what?”

He pushed me back and rolled his shoulders. “Relationships. Love.”

The serious stuff. The stuff I had no clue about. My relationships went the distance of a paper airplane. He might’ve been stoic, but there was a heart beating underneath that wall of stone.

“How does it look?” I nudged my chin at his tie.

He checked himself in the mirror. “You do good work. How do you know how to tie such a good tie?”

“Years of desk jobs and fraternity formals.”

“Interesting mix.”

I shrug my shoulders. “I’m an interesting guy.”

His dark eyes lingered on me, sending my heart into my shoes. “I’ll see you out there.”

* * *

I was soexcited when Natasha arrived. I needed a heavy dose of fun and levity to forget about the jumble of emotions fluttering inside me. Did weddings bring out this shit in everyone?

Together, we corralled the waiters who would be passing out food and cleaning up dishes during the cocktail hour. We did the final prep of the food, putting it in ovens and keeping it warm. Then we organized the food on trays. My fingers got cramped from organizing mini dishes on mini doilies on the trays. We checked all the lighters for the buffet table trays to make sure they worked. We set everything out. All we needed were guests.

Because of this, I wasn’t able to attend the ceremony properly, but I caught glimpses here and there. The wedding party lined up outside the doors, whispering fun things to each other. I gave air hi-fives to everyone I recognized from college. I had no weirdness about working tonight. I was part of the fun!

The piano music started, a simple melody of a song that sounded familiar. It put a lump in my throat. Chalk it up to wedding fever. Natasha and I prepped more food in the kitchen, doing it in shifts to compensate for limited oven space.

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