Page 8 of Falling Hard
He couldn’t contain his happiness.
The word slammed into me like a brick. My throat felt as if it were closing, and I tightened my hand around the glass.
I felt ill. He was in love with someone, and it was her. Her!
"I know for you, love is a concept you can’t grasp, but Solenne and I are in love, the sort where I don't want her to be away from my side," Luke said, his smile trembling at the corners of his mouth, like even he couldn't believe what he was saying.
My stomach twisted so hard I thought I might be sick right there; each word he spoke was like a kick in the gut that I hadn't braced for.
However, I kept my cool. "Well, marrying Serene is certainly a way to keep her in your life."
"Our lives. She'll join our little world. You and I are a team."
Lucky fucking me. I could see it now: me, him, and Serene, skipping down the street, me the third wheel to their Laverne and Shirley act.
"I want you to be my best man. It's unorthodox, but you’re the closest friend I have, and I just couldn’t imagine getting married without you by my side. Besides, you'll look better in a tux than half my friends."
I choked on my champagne and nearly sprayed it across the rug. The words didn't compute. It was like Luke had learned a new language that I did not speak. My stomach was in knots. Best man? Watch him promise forever to someone else, while I smiled next to him.
"What? Best man? Me?"
Luke smiled. "Hell yeah. You're the only one who knows every single embarrassing story about me, and I can trust you won't tell a soul."
Since he had no brother, and I was the next best thing, it made sense, but I didn't fucking want to do it.
"Luke, have you really thought this through? My parents are divorced, so are yours. I thought you were smarter than that. My best friend can't have been an idiot this whole time."
"Love makes us normal people do unexplainable things."
I stayed silent. Was he saying I was abnormal? What gave Luke the impression I was incapable of love? Beside me, he went on about new beginnings and how things would change, when all I wanted was for them to stay the same. The more Luke rambled, the more I realized that I was losing the man I'd secretly loved my whole life—well, since I’d been old enough to fall in love.
"Will you do it? Be my best man?"
Even though every part of me screamed‘Say no!’,I held my poker face steady, and out came the word, "Yes."
"Knew you'd come through for me. You always do," Luke said in a softened voice.
I would stand by his side and watch the only man I’d probably ever love marry another woman, and when it was over, I'd cling to the friendship I had sacrificed everything for.
4
BREAKING DOWN
Unsurprisingly,after Luke left, I barely got any sleep. All night a voice kept hounding me, suggesting I fight for him. Save him. Stop him before it was too late.
I pressed the pillow hard against my ears, as if I could smother the noise clawing its way out of my head.
Nothing worked; the voice wouldn’t stop.“He needs your help. Luke is making a big mistake.”
Tired of fighting it, I eventually opened my eyes and took a deep breath. The voices were right. Well,Iwas right, since those were my internal thoughts.
Luke was about to destroy his life, and as his friend, I couldn't just stand next to him while he made the worst mistake ever.
Which is exactly what I explained to Tami, the barista who made the gigantic mistake of asking how my day was going.
She kept her smile in place, but I saw the flicker of uneasiness in her eyes before she looked down and closed the lid on my cup.
"Remind me again, who is Luke?"
