I smacked my hand to my forehead in frustration, “aaaahhhhhhhh getting married is tough! My heart goes out to the poor suckers who got married before me and I will advice the lucky un hitched men to not get married!”
“Hahahhahahahaha stop! You will make the right decision” said Natasha kissing me on my forehead and then she went to call Joanna.
“Eenie meenie mynah moe” I said and assigned one finger each to Gary, Wade and Sean.
This is stupid and frustrating, I thought. My phone beeped and I saw it was a text from Gary: I am the perfect best man. I groaned as my phone beeped twice and I saw they were texts from Wade and Sean.
Wade: I’m sexy and you know it! Come on I would make the best best man. Pun intended. I rolled my eyes and scrolled down to the text from Sean.
Sean: I would make the ideal best man and you know it, I don’t need to sell myself to you! It was followed by a winking smiley.
Oh Lord what was I going to do? I can hardly have three best men at the wedding that would be ridiculous!
I resigned myself to my fate and switched on the TV while Natasha gushed on the phone with how great the wedding was going to be. Well lucky for her she didn’t have to choose from three bridesmaids to choose the maid of honor. Some people have all the luck.
“So have you decided?” asked Natasha.
“Not yet!”
We were driving around town because Natasha wanted to get out of the house after being confined to it for 2 days in a row. So after dinner we were just driving around, I thought I would take her out for ice cream.
“Well you know that you have to decide soon right?”
“Yeah tell me about it”
“You’ll figure it out”
“Yeah I don’t think so”
“Hey if they ruly love you they will understand if you don’t choose them”
“Really? Sean will blackmail me emotionally and I don’t even want to think what Wade and Gary would do!”
“Well yeah sucks to be you!” said Natasha.
I scowled at her as we stopped by a Haagen Daz store.
“Oh Belgian chocolate ice cream” said Natasha.
I smiled at her enthusiasm and we entered the store, I bought a plain old Vanilla and Belgian chocolate for Natasha and we sat on the hood of my car eating it. Natasha sighed happily as she licked the ice cream.
“Hey Jude look at all the stars in the sky”
I looked up an saw that she was right there were a lot of starts out tonight, it was a moonless night but there weren’t any clouds either. We sat there for sometime and Natasha put her head on my shoulder. I smiled like an idiot at the little gesture and intertwined my fingers with her.
“Natasha!” a voice broke us out of our reverie.
We both looked up to see a good looking brown haired guy walk towards us.
“Jeremy! What, what are you doing here?”
I looked at their exchange curiously and saw Jeremy’s eyes narrow as he saw mine and Natasha’s intertwined fingers.
“Hi, so I see you are dating someone”
“Yes” said Natasha in a shaky voice, she seemed annoyed with this guy for some reason.
“Oh finally someone who can put up with your waterworks!”
“Hi” I said getting off the car, “I am Jude, Natasha’s fiancée”
Jeremy did a double take, “fiancée?”
“Yep”
He recovered quickly to sneer at Natasha and say, “wow finally someone who will put up with your sob stories huh Natasha?”
“Hey you better watch your mouth, you are talking to my wife to be”
“Hey I don’t mean any harm pretty boy just a fair warning”
“Here’s the thing loser” I said now really losing my cool, Natasha looked as if she had frozen and had nothing to say to this pile of shit who kept insulting her. I mean ever since I had known Natasha she had been a strong girl and broke down only when she met her mother. Till then she kept it together.
“I don’t know what the hell is your problem but you couldn’t hold on to a gem like Natasha that’s your problem, you want to get all bitter about it be my guest. But go feel sad somewhere else because if you say one thing against my girl I will break your jaw!”
Jeremy looked at me in panic and attempted bravado, “Your loss man” and backed away. I turned to look at Natasha who looked at me as if I was superman and whispered, “you’re my hero”
I smiled and said, “I’ll be you knight in shining armor forever”
Natasha’s face brightened up with a smile and she jumped off the car and kissed me. She kissed me passionately and all I could think during the kiss was ‘she kissed me!’
I sat her on the hood and kissed her back. We only broke the kiss when a random stranger yelled, “Oi! This is a family place!” We then came back down to earth and realized we were still in front of the ice cream parlor.
Natasha got off the hood blushing and we drove away giggling like teenagers.
“Who was that?”
“Jeremy? My stupid, insensitive ex boyfriend!”
“Aha he seemed bitter about losing you though”
“Oh I highly doubt that, his ego took a beating”
“Why?”
“Because I found a much better man and me will never find a woman better than me even if he tries!”
“That’s true” I said grinning.
We reached home and Natasha cleaned the spare room just in case someone drops by. She had plans to meet Joanna and decide what she was going to wear and they were going to design the bridesmaids dresses.
More joy for her I thought wryly as I changed into my night clothes meanwhile I had yet to decide who was going to be my best man.
Natasha crept into the bed and lay her head on my shoulder and an arm across my chest. I smiled and kissed her forehead and encircled her waist with my arm.
The ext morning I woke and saw that Natasha was still asleep and her hair was splayed across my chest. I brushed her hair aside and saw her frown a little as the sunlight fell on her face. I brushed my thumb across her eyelids, nose and lips. I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her palm.
She opened her eyes and smiled. She sat up and pecked my lips.
“Good morning prêt- sorry good morning wife”
“Not your wife yet” I pulled her down to me and said, “but soon you will be”
She just smiled and stuck her tongue out, she went to freshen up. I glanced at my watch and started, I was late for work. When Natasha got out I told her I would be going to office today and she said she was going to meet Joanna.
I got dressed and left quickly. Once I reached office I rushed to my cabin dreading the pile of papers waiting for my review.
“I got your favorite coffee!”
“Aaahhhhhhhh” I yelled clutching my chest.
“Jesus! Gary, don’t do that.”
“Well I decided to stop by and help you kick start you day.”
“thanks I was craving caffeine!”
“Ha I knew it.”
I sipped the coffee gratefully. “See I know you every need just like a good best man should” he added discreetly.
I looked at him and he said, “I’m just saying, no pressure though” he said backing out of my cabin and then rushed in and said, “just remember though I would’ve pickd you as my best man” and then he rushed away.
I groaned and put my head on the table. Pete entered and I looked up, “Hey Pete are you married?”
“Er no sir”
“Hmm so hey how many best friends do you have?”
“Two”
“Wow I feel bad for you. Just a word of caution Pete don’t get married!”
“But why sir?”
“Have you decided who your best man will be?”
“No, I plan to get married next year so there is plenty of time for that”
“Aha and are you sure if you choose one the other won’t mind?”
Pete gulped as he realized the implications, you see girls weren’t the only one who were sensitive when it came to their friends picking out the bridesmaids, boys were worse. At least girls had one chick they were close to but we boys, well we were a tight knit group one for all and all for one and all that.
“Oh well I will just have to figure that out sir”
“Yeah pick one and hope that the other can’t make it”
Pete just shrugged and went on explaining what work they had been doing and what needed to be reviewed.
I got to work and didn’t realize that it was already lunch time well not until Wade barged in anyway.
“Hey!”
“Erm hi?”
“Why that long face? I got you food!”
“Thanks bro”
“No problem that’s what brothers are for” and then added, “and best man”
I looked up from my chowmein box, suddenly I felt a loss of appetite.
“Just saying” said Wade quickly.
“Ok buddy I need to get back to work”
“Sure sure just saying that I will make the best best man”
I rolled my eyes at him as he shut the door. I ate quickly and got to work again making a few corrections and approving some plans. I called Natasha once to ask what she was doing and she said that she was catching up with Joanna and was deciding colors for the bridesmaids’ outfits.
“Ok” said Sean waltzing into my cabin just as I hung up.
“Guys give me a break!”
Sean sat on the couch in my cabin primly and said, “I am not going to beat around the bush Jude”
“Thank you Sean”
“All I am going to say is that remember the endless times I have been there for you? Stuck around when you were being a bitch and put up with your tantrums?”
“What? I cant believe you’re playing the guilt card!”
“Well a man has got to do what he’s got to do”
“Sean” I said pleadingly but to no avail.
“Anyway all I am saying is remember all of it and keep it in your mind when you decide to choose the best man, that’s all” e got up and brushed his pants and said “no pressure though” and walked out.
Yeah right I thought and got back to work. By the time I get off work I had yet not decided who the best man was going to be. It was irritating and frustrating to say the least. I decided to do it the old fashioned way. I was going to write their names on three pieces of paper and ask Natasha to pick one. Whoever’s name it was would be the best man and the other two would just have to deal with it.
When I reached home Joanna had already left and Natasha opened the door with a huge smile.
“Why the long face?’ she asked.
I sat down as she got me water and I told her about all three boys’ visit and all she did was laughed.
“Don’t laugh!”
“But its so funny! Especially Sean”
‘Yeah funny is his middle name, anyway what did you do today?”
“Nothing Joey and I finalized the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses”
“That is great!” I said in a false cheery voice.
“Oh come on cheer uo I came up with a perfect solution for you”
“Really?” I asked her disbelief.
“Really” she said and proceeded to tell me what to do. I looked at her and smiled in relief, “I don’t know hat I would do without you!”
“Well its good that you won’t have to find out”
I almost told her I loved her right then but something held me back. I picked up my phone and called all three boys and asked them to come home.
Meanwhile I decided to change and freshen up it was the first time since the best man topic had come out that I felt relieved. Natasha had asked me to call the boys for dinner so she set about making preparations.
Wade and Sean came together. Sean was bunking at Wade’s home.
“Hey! What’s the occasion?”
“Wait we are waiting for someone else too”
“Aha and who may that be?”
Just then the bell rang once more and Natasha went to open the door and Gary walked in.
“Ok” said Sean, “what’s going on here?”
“Jude you can’t have all three of us as best men!”
“I know settle down” I said as Natasha set the table.
“So who is it?” asked Wade.
Natasha joined us at the table and smiled at me.
I looked at all three of them and said “Its Gary” and before I could say anything else Gary got up and started doing a victory dance.
“Sit down Gary!”
“Well Wade, Sean” said Natasha, “I wanted you guys to myself”
“What?” said Wade horrified, “I am not going to be a bridesmaid!”
“Interesting as it sounds Natasha” said Sean, “I won’t be one either”
“Well no of course not! I have enough bridesmaids as it is”
“Then?”
“I want you two to give me away”
I watched as Sean and Wade stared at her speechless an Natasha continued, “Please? You two are the closest thing I have to family. My dad’s dead and I have no brothers.”
Suddenly Sean and Wade got up and started doing a little victory dancing of their own. Gary rolled their eyes at them. Wade and Sean came and hugged Natasha, “We would love to!”
“Well” I sad to myself, “all that’s well ends well” as the others chattered happily about the wedding plans.