15. Sebastian #3
“I’m so glad you’re going to be a groomsman. I made Seth video call to tell you that.” Diana smiles even broader if that’s possible. Seth is beside her on the couch, leaning back and looking drunk on love, or maybe actually drunk. They must have been celebrating all day.
“Wouldn’t miss it for anything,” I reply, as though I am a person who enjoys weddings. Seth raises an eyebrow slightly. He knows me too well.
Diana takes a breath, her voice wavering with emotion. “You’ve been such a good friend. It might not seem like much, but we don’t have the most supportive families, and Seth doesn’t have a lot of friends. It means a lot.”
My heart softens. I sure know what it’s like to have a crappy family.
Seth’s parents are antisocial, to put it mildly, and haven’t been involved in his adult life that I know of.
He’s one of the few friends I see regularly, but I hadn’t considered that it’s likely the same for him, a shy guy who doesn’t make friends easily.
He and I only connected because we sat next to each other on the first day of computer science class and decided to be study partners.
“I’m thrilled to be part of it. Seriously. Let me know what I need to do, and I’m there.”
“What have you been up to?” Seth asks, changing the subject. He hates talking about his baggage almost as much as I do.
“I’ve been hanging out with Ashley,” I say, stopping myself before I say I slept over. Seth can’t know about the personal side of our relationship or he’ll get anxious about how it might affect the company. “We went running together this morning.”
“She seems so fun!” Diana exclaims. “I watch all her reels. You should bring her to the wedding.”
“Maybe. We’ll see,” I reply as though this is a brand-new idea and not something I’ve been imagining all day. “She could be my plus one or something.”
“I don’t get it,” Diana says, furrowing her brow. “You spend all this time with Ashley talking about your dates and her dates and your respective lives. Why don’t you just go out with each other already?”
I catch Seth’s sharp inhale, but he doesn’t jump in.
“It’s not like that,” I mumble, not wanting to go into this yet again.
There’s no way I can spell it all out for Diana in a way she’ll understand.
Sure, Ashley is sexy, funny as hell, and a good friend, but she wants white picket fences and two kids and a dog one day.
She’s happy to have fun in the meantime, but I know that in the end, she doesn’t want to be playing the field ten years from now.
And I’m not the guy who moves to the suburbs and gets a minivan.
Even if I wanted to try, there’s no way us dating wouldn’t end with me letting her down.
“We want different things,” is all I can say to explain.
“Well, she’s a catch,” Diana says, and before she can keep going, I interject with a question about spreadsheets. Seth responds quickly, likely relieved to drop this conversation. We have a brief work discussion that ends when I realize he’s not paying even a smidge of attention.
“I’ll email you to follow-up,” I say, giving him an out. “You two keep celebrating. I’ll be working tomorrow if anything huge comes up.”
We sign off, and I spend the evening focused on app stuff while intermittently texting Ashley about Seth’s wedding. She sends me outlandish bachelor party ideas, and I send back deeply inappropriate memes in response, and it distracts me from wondering about my dad at all.
Mr. Six Reel (with transcript)
Mr. Six appears wearing a T-shirt with a tuxedo print.
“Hi everyone! I know it’s still March, but we’re getting close to warmer days, and you know what that means. Cottages and beaches and patios? Nope. I’m talking about weddings.
“For those of us in the wedding stage of life, we know the season starts in May and can take up every other weekend for the next few months. Hope you’ve been saving up, because engagement parties, bachelor parties, showers, gifts, and fancy attire all cost money.
“Even before Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn enlightened the world to it, many of us already knew that weddings can be prime spots for a single person to find some overnight companionship. It might last a few hours, or it might last forever. Weddings have the perfect mix of alcohol, music, people who cleaned up nice, hokey sentimentalism, and the existential fear of ending up alone. I must admit I’ve had my share of weddings where I left with a new special someone on my arm.
“Have you had a wedding hookup? Did it turn into something long term? Share in the comments.”
Comments:
Absolutely. I know there’s this stereotype that women at weddings are desperate and looking for love, but I’ll embrace it. I’m sappy and if there’s a hot guy that wants to take me home and take the edge off my singleness, I’m in. I’ve had some good times.
Oh God, I’ve started bringing a random date to stave off the guys who watched Wedding Crashers too many times and see it as an instruction manual. Just because I’m here in a dress doesn’t mean I want to sleep with you.