Page 4 of Inspiring Dominic

I almost choked on my drink, and Alex was punching his chest like his drink had gone down the wrong pipe.

“You’re joking, right?” Owen asked.

Wes smiled in that ‘I’m happy as fuck’ kind of way that I’d never seen on him before. “No, I’d never lie about this.”

“What was all that mess you said before?” Johan asked. “About single women?”

Wes waved him off. “Man, I was just fucking with y’all and trying to pretend to be the same old Wes. Didn’t seem right to make this announcement at GrandP’s funeral.”

Slowly, my friends started looking to me since I hadn’t said anything yet, but honestly, I didn’t even know what to say except, “Congratulations, Wes. I’m happy for you. And it’s nice to meet you, Denise.”

Denise smiled. “Thank you. I couldn’t wait to meet Wessy’s friends. He talks about you all so much, I already feel like I know you.”

“Denise, we only wish we could say the same about you,” Johan muttered.

When Alex asked how they met, it opened the floodgates for Denise to start talking … and talking … and talking … and laughing … then more talking. By the time Wes walked away to introduce her to a few more people, I was questioning so much about my life and how I’d ended up in this exact moment, my mind didn’t even know where to start.

Johan shook his head as he watched Wes parade Denise around. “Can we talk about the fact that this dude had his woman sit in a whole other row at church so that we wouldn’t know he brought a date?”

“Do you think she’s pregnant?” Owen asked.

“If they aren’t, Wes must really be in love,” I pointed out.

“I guess that means it would have been fine for you to bring Lyn,” Alex said, looking at Johan. “Had she not had that other obligation.”

“Who’s Lyn?” I asked, noting the way Johan’s eyes widened before he briefly looked to Alex and then seemed really interested in observing the crowd.

“My bad, man,” Alex stated. “I thought he knew.”

I wasn’t the type to ask the same question if folks didn’t want to answer, so I remained quiet and waited to see if Johan would explain. When he finally told me, “Lyn is my fiancée,” I’d already assumed he was serious about the woman. Yet, I didn’t get what the big deal was.

“Why do I get the feeling you didn’t want to tell me?”

“It wasn’t that,” he clarified. “It’s just, you know I’ve been traveling to Boston a lot lately and went to visit Alex at his job. Lyn works with Alex, and we went on a bunch of dates. I hadn’t planned on proposing, but last week, I did. Only reason I didn’t say anything is because I wasn’t sure how you would take it.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about, man? I’m happy for you and I can’t wait to meet Lyn.”

“Well, that’s kind of the thing,” he said. “You’ve met her already.”

My breathing slowed, knowing that there was only one reason Johan wouldn’t have told me about her.

“Nah, man, for real?” I asked, already shaking my head.

“She’s changed,” he defended. “She’s not who she used to be.”

“So let me guess, Lyn is Evelyn … your ex-wife,” I presumed.

Johan nodded. “Yeah, man. We’re back together, and we’re going to give it another try. I know you two don’t get along, but I love her, and as my best friend, I want your support. But if we don’t have it, I’ve already made my choice.”

“Wait, what am I missing?” Alex asked. “Johan, you and Lyn used to be married?”

“Yeah,” Johan confirmed.

Alex raised his eyebrows as if certain things were suddenly making sense. “Is that why you never wanted to double date? You figured Mac would remember her? Wait, does Mac even know her?”

“She knows her,” Johan admitted. “And we didn’t want to tell you in case Mac slipped up and told Ava, and then the chain would continue.”

“Because I’d be the first one to tell you that this is a bad decision,” I added.

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