Page 59 of Surprise Best Man

It brought a tear to my eye. The man knew how to work a crowd. And there wasn’t the slightest whiff of oversentimentality to his speech. It was clear that he meant every word, and that the guys meant more to him than he could even say.

But when he got to the second part of the speech, the part about my Sam and Pepper coming into the lives of Will and Noah, the tenor changed. As he spoke, talking about the love they shared and how he couldn’t wait to see them get started on this next, new chapter of their lives, something happened. A sadness seemed to fall over him.

And then I noticed that during the speech he hadn’t looked at me once. When he did, it was only for a second. It was almost as if he…didn’t want to.

It was all so strange.

He quickly wrapped up, applause sounding as he took his seat. And still, he didn’t look at me.

Something was going on—no doubt about it. Was he upset about our conversation earlier? I’d been distracted as hell, and I regretted it. But with everything that was going on, I’d been worried about James, wondering if he was going to do something in revenge for me turning down his oh-so-generous offer, and I’d been a million miles away.

And it had really, really sucked, because Sean was the one person I wanted to see when I showed up. Sure, the girls, but only he could calm me down, make me feel like I had nothing to worry about.

Part of me wondered if I should cut the bullshit and tell him what had happened with James. But I thought better of it, not feeling like a fistfight would be the most appropriate course of events for the night.

After Sean was Theo, best man number two. His speech was fun and breezy and light, hopping from anecdote to anecdote about their time in Lover Boys—all PG-rated, of course. But though I wanted to laugh along with everyone else there, I found myself totally preoccupied. It was exactly what I didn’t want to have happen.

OK, I thought as Theo sat back down among the applause. Talk to Sean. But don’t be weird about it. Do a little check-in, make sure that he knows everything’s cool—that you know everything’s cool.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how weird it was for Sean to be acting that way. He’d always been calm and chill and easygoing—not at all the type to be upset because he felt like he’d been socially slighted or something.

And as I sat there thinking, working through the salmon on the plate in front of me even though I didn’t have the slightest bit of appetite, I could feel James’s eyes on me.

Sure enough, every time I looked up he’d be regarding me out of the corner of his eye, his attention more on me than the date he was with. It was creepy and unsettling, and while I was looking forward to the wedding, I was more than happy about the idea of never seeing his ass again. Thinking of his “deal,” asking me to be his…live-in prostitute, was enough to make my skin crawl. He’d been bad in college, and money had only made him worse, more entitled.

Some people never change.

Finally the dinner was over, and after a few forks of a petit four for dessert that I didn’t at all have the stomach for, I at last had the chance to get up and get out for some fresh air. The dinner guests all rose, the event turning into a party-type thing. But I wasn’t in the mood for celebrations. I wanted to clear my head, get my thoughts straight, and talk to Sean. Once that was taken care of I could be the sunny, supportive maid-of-honor that my ladies deserved.

Glass of wine in hand, I stepped out into the garden. It was quiet and peaceful, and by now the sun was down, and the silver thumbnail of the moon was high in the night sky among a few silver-sheened sweeps of clouds.

“OK,” I thought. “Take two minutes. Take two minutes, and that’s it. You don’t want to spend the entire night spazzing out, right? And it’s probably nothing anyway, just you being weird.”

I felt calm after my kind of pep talk. But right when I turned to head back into the party to find Sean, I stopped stiff in my tracks.

I didn’t need to find him—he’d come to me.

And he didn’t look happy.

“Hey, you,” I said, trying to play it cool. “Great speech.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Public speaking’s never really been my thing.”

“You kidding?” I asked. “You’ve spent, like, half your life in front of crowds.”

“True,” he said. “But there’s a big difference between playing music for them and trying to make them laugh.”

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