JEREMY
The ceremony was beautiful. Evan and Raphael had written their own vows, and by the time they were done, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Every time I snuck a glance at Sean from my place at Evan’s side, he was looking right at me.
I wanted to go to him after the ceremony, but the photographer whisked us away after I finished playing the recessional music. We had pictures taken in the lovely gardens of the hotel. Then the photographer suggested we take photos with the choirs leading the counter-protest. Evan and Raphael loved the idea, so we headed to the front of the hotel, where the choirs were set up with food, water, and shelter. Evan had a local bakery send over a sheet cake as well.
As soon as we rounded the corner to the front of the hotel, music began to play from speakers set up on the porch. It took me a second to recognize that it was the backing track for “Marry You” by Bruno Mars. One of the men from the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus started the song, but soon, the rest of the singers joined in. It was so beautiful and joyous. Evan was in tears, and Raphael was pretty close.
A warm body pressed against my back and strong arms pulled me close.
“Hey, you,” Sean said.
“Hey.” I leaned against him. “Did you know about this?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “The DJ grabbed me after the ceremony. He’s friends with one of the guys in the Gay Men’s Chorus, and they came up with the idea.”
I turned my head so I could kiss his cheek. “It’s wonderful. What a perfect way to drown out the protesters.”
The singers surrounded Evan and Raphael, and many of the other counter-protesters joined in the fun. Sean was swaying us to the beat and singing under his breath.
He stopped abruptly as his body stiffened. “Shit.” He pulled away and barked, “Stay here.”
He ran around the singers toward a group of protesters. That was when I saw three men with baseball bats had crossed the police barricades and were headed toward us. The police car was nowhere to be seen.
I heard Sean shout, “Marco!” and saw him shed his jacket. Marco raced up beside him, and they met the trio when they stepped onto the grass in front of the hotel.
My breath caught when the one in front took a swing at Sean. My man deftly ducked the bat and swept the other man’s legs out from under him. Was it wrong that I was turned on by watching Sean kick someone’s ass?
Marco took on the other two men simultaneously, grabbing a bat in each hand and ripping them away from the assailants. In a flurry of hand and foot movements, they were both down in seconds. The other security guards quickly joined them to secure the three men.
The song ended just as a police car came racing down the street, lights flashing and sirens wailing.
“Damn it,” I muttered. Most of the people hadn’t noticed the altercation until now. I hurried over to Evan.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said, “But let’s get everyone away from the action so we don’t have a panic. Didn’t you get them a cake? Why don’t you two cut it for them so they can get a little bit of the wedding experience.”
Thankfully, the food canopy was in the opposite direction of where the melee happened, so we were able to get most of the people away from it. There were some onlookers who stayed behind, but even they got bored after a while.
Evan and Raphael cut the cake and fed a piece to each other, much to the delight of all present. An older woman that everyone called Sister Beth took over serving and shooed the newlyweds away.
The wedding coordinator advised us that it was time to go back inside. I glanced over to where Sean, Marco, and Tony were now speaking to a pair of police officers while the would-be attackers were put in handcuffs. Sean’s jacket was still in a heap on the grass.
“I’ll be right there,” I said to Evan. I jogged over to where Sean’s jacket lay, picked it up, and shook it out. I brushed the bits of grass off and continued toward my man.
“I’ll sue!” one of the men in handcuffs yelled. “You attacked me first!”
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Aside from the dozens of witnesses, including me, there were cameras everywhere. Right on cue, one of the police officers said, “We’ll need to see the security video.”
Tony stepped forward. “I got this. My company monitors the hotel’s security cameras. My brother has his setup in Mr. O’Neil’s office today because of the wedding and the protest. Mr. O’Neil has a hotel to run and a wedding to get to.”
Another assailant pointed at Marco. “What about him? He assaulted me.”
The officer standing next to him got in his face. “You were the one with the baseball bat, Frankie. So maybe you should shut up.”
I took the opportunity to sidle up to Sean. “Hey there, handsome. I have your jacket.”
Sean’s head whipped around, his eyes wide and glassy. When he saw me, he pulled me into his arms and held me tightly. He was trembling, so I wrapped my arms around him, uncaring that his jacket fell on the ground again.
