42. James #2
I found Esther a minute later, standing outside the men’s room, Tony’s phone in her hand.
“You’re up, buttercup,” she said.
Everyone cheered as the wedding party was announced, Will and Monika leading the charge across the dining room in a streak of teal.
I could tell by the flush in Will’s cheeks that he’d been drinking.
Theo wasn’t wrong. Will had a drinking problem, but I couldn’t help liking drunk Will.
Other than during sex, it was the only time he let his guard down.
Fuck, am I really going through with this?
Keeping with the Sleeping Beauty theme, the dining room was decorated like an overgrown forest, each table tucked under a hanging bouquet of ferns and briars. Derek sat two rows back, sandwiched between Tony and some new blonde model. Apparently, he’d moved on from Sharron Moore.
Catching my eye, he raised his glass in salute. “You tell him, or I will,” his smirk said.
Will fell into the chair beside me at the long table reserved for the wedding party and placed his sweaty hand in mine. “Jesus, I’m so fucking drunk right now.”
We bumped shoulders, and I welcomed the pressure, knowing, if Robert got his way, it would be gone soon.
“I just spent the last two hours rewriting my entire toast,” he slurred. “And now it’s all one big jumble in my head because Enrique made me drink tequila with a fucking scorpion in it.”
Setting the scorpion bit aside for now, I asked, “Why’d you change your toast? I’m sure the one you wrote is perfect. Trust yourself.”
Before he could respond, the music switched to an upbeat Bollywood tune, and Andy and Nandi were introduced as husband and wife for the first time.
Nandi had changed into a dark cranberry gown overlain with bronze lace flowers, and her hair was now up, showing off her long, slender neck and a pair of ruby earrings the size of strawberries.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said, beaming at her guests. “Andy and I are touched that you all made the journey up here, and we’re honored to share this day with you.”
“He looks really happy, doesn’t he?” Will murmured beside me.
I’d been so taken by Nandi’s wardrobe change that I hadn’t paid Andy much attention. But, yeah, he did look happy. Radiant, even, with a huge smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Yeah, he does.”
The boat pushed off from the dock, and the music changed again, this time to something quiet and conversational, all violins and cellos. Servers emerged, and my stomach lurched, though not from seasickness or the petite crab cakes. How can I go through with this? How can I not?
There were so many eyes on us—including Derek’s—that I barely tasted the meal. How did Will live like this? I couldn’t hear their huddled whispers or read their lips, but that made it even worse. Now, I was left to imagine the awful things they were saying.
Just before the dessert course, the emcee stepped up to the podium and introduced Will. “Now, while we let that wonderful meal digest, please welcome the best man, William Chapman.”
I gave Will’s hand a reassuring squeeze, though I wasn’t sure who I was reassuring, him or me. I hadn’t felt this nervous on someone else’s behalf since Theo’s middle school recital.
A record-scratch hush fell over the room as Will made his way up to the podium, and I balled my hands into fists, ready to fight every one of these judgmental assholes. Will paid his dues. Leave him alone.
He placed a hand on either side of the lectern and swayed gently with the boat as he looked out over the crowd. “You know that part in romantic comedies where the heroine throws out her prepared speech and speaks from the heart instead, and it’s, like, a million times sweeter?”
He mostly held it together, barely slurring his words. Not a single fork scraped a single dish. Even the kids were still.
“This is not that.” He caught my eye and smiled. “Although you never know, right? Life is full of surprises.”
He trained his smile on Nandi and Andy next. “People are always praising women for transforming men, but I want to thank Nandi for leaving Andy alone. He’s already perfect, and he’s the best brother ever.”
Fuck, he was wasted. He sounded like the drunks at the Starlight, swaying arm in arm as they headed back to their cars at the end of the night. On the bright side, maybe he’d pass out before Derek had a chance to fuck everything up.
“When we were little, Andy and I used to share a room, like the kids in Mary Poppins,” Will said.
“We didn’t jump into any painting or anything magical like that, and our nanny was getting it on with the pool boy, not the chimney sweep, but otherwise, it was exactly like that.
Well, until Mom and Dad decided we were too codependent and forced us into separate rooms.
“It was awful. Other than my brief stint as an only child, I’d never slept alone before, and neither had Andy.
That’s why we started sneaking into each other’s rooms late at night.
I think we made it about a week before anyone caught on.
That was when Mom and Dad started locking us in.
Now, you’d think that would be the end of it, but nope.
Four-year-old Andy wasn’t going to put up with that shit and decided he’d knock a hole in the wall between our rooms. He started with a baseball bat, and when that didn’t work, he taped a pair of scissors to the front of his Power Wheel and rammed the wall repeatedly.
He didn’t make it all the way through, but the damage was significant. ”
“True story,” Andy shouted over the laughter.
“Man, Mom was so pissed,” Will said, speaking directly to Andy.
“Well, until the contractor showed up, that is. He was so hot, though not as hot as you, Nandi.” Will cringed.
“Sorry, that was a terrible segue. I blame the scorpion. Besides, everyone already knows how hot you are. But do they know how cool you are? I remember the first time I met you. I was so nervous because Andy had a habit of dumping girls who were mean to me, and I didn’t want to ruin this for him.
So, when I walked into his house, I did my best to make myself as small and unthreatening as possible.
I thought maybe if I hid in the corner, you wouldn’t accidentally say or do something to upset him. ”
That was it, wasn’t it? Will had spent the last decade trying to be as small and unthreatening as possible. No wonder he’d become a kindergarten teacher.
“I needn’t have worried, though,” he continued. “The moment I stepped into the house, you smiled at me and asked if you could give me a hug. It was a really good hug, too. Not enough to turn me straight, mind you, but pretty damn close.”
I felt Derek’s gaze on me, and when I turned to stare him down, he pulled back his shirt sleeve and checked his nonexistent watch.
“The best man is supposed to tell an embarrassing story about the groom,” Will went on.
“And I’m told if you do it right, no one will ever ask you to be best man again.
Now, I have a lot of Andy stories, and nearly all of them are embarrassing.
But my favorite is the time we threw Mom and Grandma Chapman a Mother’s Day barbecue. ”
“You cannot tell this story,” Andy said, his face chalk white.
“It’s too late now. I already started.” Will took a swig of his champagne, forgetting he was supposed to wait until his toast was over.
“Anyway, Andy was in charge of the music, and he did a great job. He even played some Herb Alpert, which was Grandma’s favorite.
But after the party, he forgot to disconnect his phone, and the whole neighborhood was treated to quite the show.
It started at a normal volume, but then got louder and louder, almost like someone was trying to figure out why the sound wasn’t coming through their headphones.