Chapter 11
Danny stands at the front of the aisle beside Brooks and Cabot. While they wait for the wedding to start, Brooks and Cabot loudly discuss their latest business idea, which they describe as on-demand Christmas tree delivery for New Yorkers.
“Dude,” Cabot is saying. “And in October?”
“Pumpkins,” Brooks says.
“That’s what I’m fucking talking about.”
“Booyah.”
“Laugh out loud.”
“Hey, Danny, you want to build an app for us?”
Julian did not want to invite them to be part of his wedding party, but, as he told Danny a few months prior, it was this or he allow his parents to choose the DJ. One must pick one’s battles.
When Julian comes down the aisle, his parents stand on either side of him. Danny knows the Olsen parents are annoying but also, god, the way Cecilia looks at her son.
The bridesmaids arrive next in various shades of blue.
Eve smiles her stage smile at the crowd and Danny thinks, That’s the woman I’ll marry someday.
He waits for her to look at him so they can silently share this thought, but she doesn’t.
She looks everywhere but at him. This is objectively not a big deal and not worth reading into.
Danny needs to stop overthinking. She probably does not want to marry Danny.
Okay, no, stop the spiral. Stopping the spiral in three, two, one.
Doesn’t want to marry Danny! No, STOP. Gigi is coming down the aisle, for Christ’s sake.
Can you stop being an anxious little freak for one second?
Gigi, gorgeous in her long silky dress with her dark hair pulled back, fixes Danny with this split-second look like, Hey, bro, you’re making a face that’s going to ruin my photos, and this makes Danny smile and then he watches his best friends get married.
In the back part of his mind, he’s thinking that this is not something they have as of yet designed the app to account for: for the siblings and parents and friends who are not in the love story but are nonetheless part of it, setting good examples and bad ones.
The officiant asks if they do. And they do.