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“You ready for this thing?” He gave the lapels of his snazzy suit a tug and turned his eyes ahead.
“Sure as hell am,” I said.
And I meant it. Sure, I had a lot on my plate, but I was beyond psyched to see my friends get married to a pair of amazing women.
“There you go.” He flashed me a smile.
“What about you?” I asked. “You ready to not think about the word ‘wedding’ for the next few years?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ve been doing this support-bros thing for the last few weeks, and I’m kinda starting to get used to it. Kinda glad to be on the sidelines handling all the groomsman nonsense, you know? And I’m sort of thinking I kick ass at it.”
“Yeah?” I asked with a smile. “I mean, you’ve been a huge help.”
“And I haven’t just been a huge help,” he said, grinning. “Been taking notes, too. Thinking I might even be ready for when my turn comes to be standing at the altar. Or hey, might open a business, you know? Lend my services out to some weddings around the city. ‘Theo’s Best Man Backup.’”
I laughed, but the mention of opening a business brought me right back to Shania. Damn—the girl was buried in my brain like a worm or something—a really sexy worm with a killer body and a face like an angel. So, a hot worm. Weird, but it fit.
“You cool, bud?” His expression turned to one of concern.
“Yeah,” I said. “I think so.”
Theo seemed hardly convinced. “Come on. Let’s get a drink in your hand, and you can tell me what’s on your mind.”
I paused, taking a look at the guy, with his red hair slicked back and looking sharp as hell in his suit. I’d been friends with him for years, and he’d always had my back—that moment was no exception. While I’d been moving up in the DJ world, he’d been kicking serious butt as a professor at UCLA, and I couldn’t have been prouder of the guy. I made a mental note to grab a drink with him and get some one-on-one time when this was all over, thank him for being the good dude he’s always been.
“That obvious?” I asked.
“When you know a guy for over a decade,” he said, “you tend to know when he’s bullshitting you. Especially if he was never that great at it in the first place.”
He had me there.
Together we stepped into the building, which was impressive as hell. The Ebell was an early twentieth-century, part events hall, part theater, all glitz and glamour from an LA that almost seemed lost to time.
And they had the place decked out. It was insane. The ladies and their small squad of planners had pulled out all the stops, and the dining hall where the reception dinner was being held looked like something out of a fairy-tale fantasy. Only the best for my friends, right?
The early evening light cast an orange glow through tall windows of the space, people slowly filling in and beginning to mingle. Theo and I rolled up to the bar, and soon each had a beer in our hands.
“OK,” he said. “So what’s up?”
“First thing is that we keep this on the down-low.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Top-secret shit?”
“Just stuff I wanted to keep hidden until this was all over, you know?”
“Got it,” he said. “Mega-encrypted, ultra-classified.”
“Works for me.” I allowed myself a small smile.
I went into it, telling him about Shania and the business and everything else. When I was done I felt like I’d pushed a two-ton safe off my chest.
“Holy shit,” he said. “You and Shania?”
“Me and Shania.”
He shook his head and brought his beer up to his face. “Weddings, man. Like magic.”
“Something like that,” I said.
“And now you’re mixing business with pleasure.”
“I know,” I said. “Maybe a stupid move, but damn, I believe in her. And it’s killing me to see her struggle.”
“Always were a big-hearted dude like that,” he said.
“No, I wasn’t.” I laughed. “You toured with me, you know the kind of shit we got up to on the road.”
He titled his head to the side, as if conceding the point. “Sure, sure,” he said. “But since then. You’ve changed. We all have.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t know if it’s for the better.”
Right at that moment Shania stepped in among a small crowd. My eyes went right to her, and I couldn’t stop staring. She was dressed in a light blue dress, one that hugged her flawless body perfectly and made me feel like I was seeing something out of a dream.
“There it is,” Theo said.
“There what is?” I asked.
“That look. That’s the look of a guy who just saw a woman he’s crazy about.”
I sipped my beer, letting it hang on my tongue for a moment before bringing it down. There was no denying it—this little “arrangement” we’d had, or whatever it was, had become something more than that.
