Allie’s responding giggle is angelic, musical and wholly deceptive. “Te diré todo.”
“I don’t like this,” I mutter, letting myself out of the bridal suite. Ignoring the crowd upstairs, I slip out a side door to head towards the woods.
Matt was right; I do know where he is. It was our spot when I lived in the dorms. After finishing up on whatever job site his parents had him working at, he’d come visit me. There’s a nature preserve on campus, and we’d hunker down in the duck blind. Get high, fool around, and catch up with each other since we no longer lived next door.
Matt isn’t surprised to see me when I duck under the roof; he gives me a nod in greeting as I crouch to climb down into the blind. The air is humid and dank, like wet leaves and weed, despite how airy the wooden observation hut is. The reed-covered windows, paned with spiderwebs instead of glass, overlook the pond.
“Your suit is going to be filthy.” I hand him the bottle and sit next to him, not bothering to protect my own black three-piece suit from the grime.
He takes it, trading me for a lit joint, which explains the weed smell. “So’s yours. You look good, though.”
“Don’t let your mom hear you say that,” I tease, smoothing my vest down. “You good?”
Matt nods, taking a deep swig of the champagne. “Never better.”
“Really? Because you’re hiding in a duck blind with your ex, an hour before you’re supposed to get married, chugging champagne and smoking…something.” I take a puff. It’s familiar, but I can’t place the strain. “Pretty sure those are all red flags.”
“Just CBD. For the nerves.” Matt shrugs, taking another guzzle from the bottle, while I take a deeper hit on the joint to soothe my own anxiety. It’s got more skunk to it than CBD should have, but maybe I’m just a snob. He lets out a heavy sigh. “Blake, are you happy?”
I cough, panic shooting through me at the implication. “Dude, if there is any question you shouldnotask your ex an hour before your wedding, it’s that one.”
Matt smacks my arm and steals the joint back. “You’re not my ex.”
“I amdefinitelyyour ex.”
“Okay, you’re notjustmy ex.” He takes a quick drag. “You’re also my best friend, whom I love and adore eternally.”
“Again, weird thing to say to your ex right now, dude.” With a laugh, I take a long drink of the champagne, mostly to keep Matt from drinking the whole thing. The bubbles hurt my nose as I chug as much of it as I can. I belch. “Save that for your wife.”
“Trust me, Allie knows I love and adore her eternally, too.” Matt snorts.
“Areyouhappy?” I ask, already knowing the answer because I know him better than everyone does, except perhaps Allie.
He nods. “When everyone isn’t stressing Allie out, yeah. I didn’t realize this wedding would be such a big deal for everyone else. I just wanted us to have a good time, not have to manage everyone’s egos and hurt feelings.”
“Sorry, have you met your mom?” I tease. “I don’t know what you expected.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Matt rolls his eyes. That boyish grin with the gap between his teeth is as charming as ever. “So yeah, I guess I’m happy.We’rehappy, and we’ll be happier once this is all over. I just… I just always thought it’d be you up there with me.”
I smack his arm with a dramatic gasp. “Matt! Again, things not to say to your ex!”
“Fuck off, that’s not what I meant!” Matt laughs. “I meant as my best man, dipshit. Once things got serious between Allie and me, I knew she was it for me, and I was it for her. It wasn’t like that with you and me. You never wanted to get married for one,but I always knew you were meant for more than this place, that you’d never be satisfied with the life that I could offer you. But Allie wants the same things I do.”
“What’s that?”
“Peace and quiet, mostly,” he snickers. “A comfortable, boring life, with good friends and maybe a dog, where our biggest problem is getting our families to respect that we don’t want kids,” Matt scoffs. “But strangely, the biggest battle we’ve faced so far has been about you. We had all these jokes that you’d be the ring bearer, or flower child or something, after my mom convinced us that it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to be an attendant.” He shakes his head, brow furrowed. “But then you never responded to the RSVP, and you stopped messaging us, and we didn’t know what to think. Like, we didn’t want to lose you, but what if…”
I take Matt’s hand. “You won’t lose me.”
Matt squeezes it. “I wanted to uninvite Jess for that shit she pulled, but you know Allie’s soft spot for her.”
“I mean, Jessica is her twin,” I shrug. “I was just her college roommate.”
Matt raises an eyebrow at me. “Yeah, but one of you manipulates all of Allie’s insecurities, and the other lets her be herself. Guess who I’d prefer to have around?”
“Giving her room to be herself is your job now, dude.” I rest my head on Matt’s shoulder, taking a pull from the joint when he holds it up to my lips. “You make everyone feel like everything is gonna be okay, and you need to do that for Allie, too. She internalizes everything, and she needs you to remind her to stop caring so much.”
Matt elbows me. “I’m a little offended you think I don’t know that. I’m about to be her husband, after all. I’m not that dense.”
