Page 57 of Surprise Best Man

Maybe, I considered, maybe I’d been spending too much time thinking about keeping this all a secret. Maybe my stupid attempt at pretending this was all about “stress relief” or whatever dumb shit I’d come up with was all about ignoring the truth that had been in front of my face this whole time.

The truth that I was crazy about Shania and had been since the first moment I’d seen her.

Fuck.

As soon as I thought the words I knew they were true.

“OK, dumbass,” said Theo. “Get over there and talk to her. Something tells me you’ve got plenty to say.”

He was right. The longer I sat there watching her, the more I realized that tonight had to be the night I told her how I felt.

“Thanks, man,” I said, getting up. “Thanks for talking.”

“Anytime, bud,” he said. “Now hurry your ass up and get over there—might be able to squeeze in a third wedding if you don’t waste any time.”

Drink in hand, I strode across the span of the dining area and approached her. When she saw me, her eyes locked onto mine, a faint smile forming on her face.

But right away I could tell that the usual warmth wasn’t there. And already in the few seconds I’d been with her, I noticed her glancing over my shoulder again and again, as if looking for someone.

Something was up. My urge to say something to her about my feelings got pushed aside, replaced by concern.

“You doing all right?” I asked.

“Hmm?” She blinked hard a few times as if trying to remind herself that she was talking to someone. “Yeah, fine. Got a lot on my mind with all this.”

She gestured vaguely toward the room, more and more people showing up by the second.

But the answer was BS, and I could tell. Shania kept glancing over my shoulder, and by this point I couldn’t resist the urge to look back and see what the hell was going on behind me.

It looked like, well, a crowd. I couldn’t spot the any of the brides or grooms, but Theo was back there chatting up some youngish blonde.

Then I spotted James, the guy Shania had been trying to get away from at that party. Sure enough, the guy was watching us, sipping his drink, an expression on his face that I couldn’t puzzle out.

I turned back to Shania, still wanting to probe her to see if I could figure out what was going on.

“Any progress with the spa?” I asked.

“Uh, no,” she said, a tinge of red spreading across her cheeks. “Same old, you know?”

She chewed her lower lip slightly in a way that suggested she had something on her mind, something that she wanted to tell me but wasn’t sure.

Either way, the conversation was stilted and awkward.

“Well,” I said. “Let’s make sure to have a drink before the night’s over. It’s a celebration, remember?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Celebration.”

With that, I took my leave.

What the hell was going on? Sure, she had to have been stressed about the wedding and the spa and everything else, but there was definitely something more to it than simply nerves. I could almost swear that she had something she wanted to tell me but was afraid to.

Did it have something to do with James? What could that possibly be?

I tried to push it all out of my mind as best I could. After all, I wasn’t only here to hang out—I was the best man. Well, one of them, anyway. I had a speech to give and grooms to support and all that good stuff. Getting caught up in whatever was going on between me and Shania would’ve been some serious selfishness.

But I needed a minute—some time to process everything and get my head in the game. So I slipped out of the room, went up the stairs, and soon found a balcony overlooking a huge, amazing garden behind the building. A few people were down below, drinking and chatting, the balcony high up enough that I couldn’t hear them and they couldn’t notice me.

I sipped my now-warm beer, trying to figure out what could’ve gotten into Shania. But before I could even take a few drink, I heard the door open behind me.

“Sean,” spoke a vaguely familiar voice. “Mind if I join you?”

I turned to see that it was James. A small smile hung on his lips, and he had something on his mind, no doubt about it. I barely knew the guy but he clearly had something that he wanted to talk to me, and only me, about.

“Uh, sure,” I said.

He stepped to my side and leaned on the railing. For a moment he said nothing, seemingly fine with simply standing there.

“Good to see you, Sean,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Good to see you too.”

“Incredible day, huh?” he asked.

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