I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before plastering on a smile again.
“Congrats,” I hissed.
It was pointless. Hopefully, at this point, everyone was halfway into a celebratory glass of wine and wouldn't notice my half-hearted congratulations.
I walked briskly through the double doors, and the host directed me to a large table in the back. The restaurant was bustling with life. Before I even approached, I knew that most of the noise was coming from my friends.
“Mattie.” Garrett stood and greeted me with a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey.” I made the rounds, giving quick hugs to everyone seated.
Will and Lauren were at the head of the table. Across from them was Ben, Garrett’s other best friend from college, and his wife, Jennifer. Jennifer and Ben had also been together since college, so I was close with them. Jenifer was one of my best girlfriends.
To Jennifer’s left was Nadine. Nadine was Jennifer’s childhood best friend and also went to school with us. She had broken up with her longtime boyfriend last year, which made me feel a little bit of relief at not being the only unengaged, or unmarried, one in the group.
I settled into my seat, and Garrett handed me a glass of wine before raising his own drink.
“Now that we’re all here, I want to congratulate Will and Lauren. I think I speak for everyone when I say we all thought this day would never come. Cheers, buddy.”
We all shouted cheers and clinked our glasses. I detected the tiniest bit of irritation when I caught Lauren's eye. Even though they had been dating for a year, I hardly knew her. Whenever we hung out as a group, she always seemed to have an excuse not to come. I sensed she didn’t like us all that much, especially Garrett. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Garrett loved to bring up Will’s crazy single days any chance he got. I’d be annoyed with him too.
“How’s work going?” Jennifer asked me, handing over a basket of bread.
“Just the typical grind.” I grabbed a roll. “Oh, but maybe you’ll think this is exciting. Today I got to pitch to a professional athlete. Apparently, he’s a former Olympic snowboarder.”
“No way.” Now Nadine was also leaning in, listening to my story. “Who was it?”
“Giles Stone.”
Jennifer squealed. “Oh my god, I know exactly who that is. He’s so hot.”
Nadine nodded her agreement.
“Who are we talking about?” Garrett asked, slinking a hand behind my chair, and leaning in. “Me, I hope.”
I rolled my eyes. “Giles Stone. He’s a professional snowboarder and apparently a professional asshole. I had to pitch to him today about that Colorado property I was telling you about. He stormed out after a few minutes and couldn’t have been ruder.”
“Bummer,” Nadine said.
“Why are the hot ones always shitty people?” asked Jennifer.
“Except for us, right?” Garrett gestured to himself, Will, and Ben.
“No, you guys were pretty shitty.” Jennifer laughed. “It just took our hard work to turn you into upstanding life partners, right girls?”
“Cheers to that,” I said, grinning.
We both clinked our glasses and offered them to Lauren who looked uncomfortable. After an awkward few seconds, she tapped her glass on ours and returned to staring at the menu, not saying a word.
I caught Jennifer’s eye, and we shared a knowing glance. It was always like this with Lauren.
“Oh my god. Look at the picture Steven just posted.” Nadine shoved her phone into Jennifer’s eyesight, and they both peered over it.
“Stop. That cannot be his new girlfriend.”
They started to gossip about an old acquaintance. I smiled politely and waited until they were ready to discuss something different. One of the cons of having two best friends that had grown up together was that I would never be caught up on their inside jokes or know all the same people they knew. They almost reminded me of sisters, which made me feel a pang of sadness.
I was close with my sister, Frankie, who was a few years younger than me. She moved to Atlanta after college, and now we only saw each other a few times a year. Thank god for texting, or I’d be distraught about it.
