Chapter Two Speeches
While Emma introduced Luis to several important guests his eyes sought out Danny, giving him an apologetic smile, able to imagine the awkward exchanges he had missed.
Luis hadn’t fussed with the dress code, merely unbuttoning his collar and taking off his tie.
Yet he still managed to be the best dressed-man at the party, wearing Burberry cotton trousers, shot through with silk which gave them a shimmer in the evening sun.
Over the years he had maintained a rigorous routine at the gym and his shoulders remained broad while his once coal-black hair was now a salt-and-pepper mix.
To many observers Danny and Luis appeared to have little in common.
A keen long-distance runner, slim in stature, Danny had a discreet strength whereas Luis looked like he once enjoyed team sports.
Luis’s thought process was rooted in facts and to the point; he was knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects and able to converse in three languages.
By contrast Danny’s thoughts hopscotched from subject to subject, often sounding jumbled in the only language he knew.
What seemed to be an odd couple was eventually reframed, as onlookers assigned them familiar roles – some version of a husband and a wife.
John strode off to greet Luis while Danny stayed put in the herb garden, watching as Emma and John escorted Luis through the social groups that he himself had drifted past without a word.
Luis, as a man, was recognizable to these people as one of their own, distinguished, professional, successful, with a sturdy Swiss wristwatch.
After spending an acceptable amount of time mingling Luis took leave of the conversations and arrived at Danny’s side where they stood for a moment, unsure whether a kiss might be a spectacle.
At a private party like this people would notice but probably no one would care.
However, caution had so muddied their minds that it required a conscious effort to push any concerns aside.
In the end, Danny kissed Luis on the lips with as much propriety as if he were placing a full stop at the end of a sentence.
Luis, in response, took hold of the frayed-string racket, spinning it in his hands.
Danny observed, ‘No one else has dressed up.’
Luis glanced at the other guests.
‘But you knew this before you arrived, no? You wanted to turn up and play the odd one out.’
Danny considered the idea.
‘I’ve never needed to play at being the outsider.’
Standing on the steps to the conservatory Emma clinked a knife against a glass, signalling that the moment had arrived for speeches.
Parents gathered their children as the waiters topped up champagne flutes in preparation for a toast. Keen to hear every word Danny and Luis took up positions close to the front.
Danny had always loved speeches, not political or professional speeches but ceremonial ones at birthdays, weddings or anniversaries.
Witty or drunken, he loved them all, but his favourite kind were emotional speeches where lips trembled and words faltered.
John spoke first. Even though he was a partner at one of the most ruthlessly adversarial London law firms, his manner outside of court was that of an absent-minded academic, able to afford this bumbling, bespectacled English gentleman routine because there was never any question of him not being taken seriously.
‘When I asked Emma to marry me, I was sure that the answer would be no. My destiny, I believed, was to be the man she dated while she figured out what she did and didn’t want from a relationship.
The truth is that she should have said no.
I wasn’t ready for her. I wasn’t good enough, not even close.
Instead of ditching me to find the man she was looking for, she gave me the chance to become the man she was looking for and a husband worthy of her.
She taught me everything that is important in life.
Here we are, all these years later, with our beautiful children and our dearest friends.
I’m forever grateful to Emma for seeing in me someone I didn’t know I could be. ’
Moved by the tenderness of his words Emma took a beat to collect herself before joking, ‘I knew I should’ve gone first.’
After the laughter subsided she began, ‘It has been brought to my attention that I can seem annoyingly happy most of the time, infuriatingly optimistic and irritatingly upbeat. But when I met John, I was lost. I’d been hurt and hurt again and I was one heartbreak away from becoming jaded.
John taught me that love could be healing, that it didn’t involve anger or manipulation.
He showed me that love can lift you up, it can make you tall and it can be straightforward without any agenda other than our mutual happiness.
He is the best husband and father a woman could wish for. ’
The guests raised their glasses saying ‘to John and Emma’ or ‘to Emma and John’.
Danny also raised his glass, unable to join in the chorus of toasts because he was crying.
Luis turned to him, observing his tears.
On the cusp of asking what was wrong, Luis caught himself.
A sentimental soul, who often cried, tears from Danny needed no explanation.
Except as the guests broke apart Danny wanted to explain – but Luis was already congratulating the married couple.