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“I don’t think you can compare our situations,” I said. “Nor should you. I married a random girl I met one drunken night in Las Vegas, and you’re marrying the love of your life. Those are two very different kinds of commitment.”
He nodded. “That’s true. But then again, I also remember you telling me that night that the girl you were about to be betrothed to in Vegaswasthe love of your life.”
“Sure,” I said. “But I was incredibly intoxicated, I had a huge life decision weighing me down, and I probably would’ve said anything at that point to justify the insane choice I was making. I just wanted a distraction, and getting married on a whim seemed like as good a distraction as any.”
Why am I getting into all of this again?
“But enough about all that,” I said. “That’s not a great story, with an even worse ending. Let’s move on to happier topics, like the fact that you are soon to be somebody’shusband; how does that feel?”
Kyle smirked, and then started talking about how excited he was to start this new chapter in his life and I settled in to hear him go on for a while. He really was in love, as hard as it was for me or anyone else who knew him in college to believe. And I was happy for him, even though his powerful feelings for this woman gave him a tendency to go on and on. After a short while, I let my mind wander a bit as Kyle told me more about her ‘crazy’ extended family. I also let my gaze wander a little, and then noticed that the woman I was looking at before was now being blocked from my view by a couple of her friends. I could see her every once in a while, whenever she leaned to the side to speak to her friend on her right, but then she would sit up straight again and disappear behind a short-haired woman with tan shoulders.
“What are you looking at?” Kyle asked, turning to look over his shoulder. “Are your brothers here?”
“No,” I said. “I was looking at nothing. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.”
I asked Kyle a few questions about how the ceremony was going to go, what food they’d be serving at the service afterwards, and before I knew it, he was bringing up stories of the past and he and I were laughing about all the dumb shit we did in our twenties. Soon, I got completely caught up in the conversation. An hour later, as I was paying the check for my multiple coffee refills and my over-salted eggs, I remembered the woman.
I looked up, ignoring whatever it was Kyle just said, and looked at her table.
It was empty.
She was gone.
“You okay?” Kyle said, his expression imploring. “You look like you just got some really bad news delivered to you. Or, like you are about to get sick. Were the eggs reallythatbad? Do I need to make an official complaint?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Sorry. Just—nothing. Never mind.”
“Yeah?”
I smiled and looked at him. “Yeah. Totally. Now let’s go. Your fiancé is probably wondering where you are by now, best not to keep her waiting. This whole wedding is really about her anyway, you know that right?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I know. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I just want her to be happy, you know?”
I smiled, not sure how to respond to that.
We stood up and headed for the door, and I thought more about what Kyle said, about all the things he mentioned when he was talking about his wife-to-be. I wondered whether or not I would ever feel that way about someone. I didn’t really believe in love, at least not in the way it’s portrayed in movies. I had loved people in the past, and I understood familial love to be one of the most powerful forces in the world, but I had long ago given up on the idea that I would meet someone one day and decide I would be happy to spend the rest of my life with them and no one else.
It was unrealistic, and it only led to heartache, which is why I always kept my relationships short, sweet, and strictly fun. It had been working for me so far, and I had no intentions of fixing what wasn’t broken.
Which is why I didn’t care one way or another that I hadn’t met the women from a few tables over. There was a chance we could’ve hit it off, I might have asked for her number, and we could’ve met up while we were both in town, but then what? Maybe we’d exchange a few flirty texts, go back to our lives, and move on. It sounded like fun, but nothing I couldn’t replicate with a different, beautiful woman that I met at the wedding or at the next luau.
No harm, no foul.
Everything was gravy, we were just two ships passing in the night or whatever the saying was. That’s what I kept telling myself at least. Besides, someone who looked like that was probably already taken—why wouldn’t she be? She was breathtaking, and if she could afford to come to a resort like this, that meant she probably lived a very glamorous life. What I had to offer—casual sex with a wealthy man—was a dime-a-dozen kind of offer for her.
Best to just forget about her and move on. She was one pretty woman in a world full of pretty women.
… Oneverypretty woman.
* * *
The Following Summer
I didn’t even know how or when he did it, but at some point in between the time I got home the night before and the time I left for work that morning, my son William slipped an article titled “The Benefits of Buying Your Child a Cellphone” into my briefcase. He had been asking for one for months but I had been adamant that he was too young. The article, of course, outlined all the emergencies in which a cell phone might be helpful, but it didn’t include anything about how cell phones also gave children access to the internet, which they may or may not be responsible enough to handle. The article also didn’t mention that cellphones were distractions that could keep kids from doing their homework or paying attention in class.
There were other reasons too, I was sure, for why my ten-year-old son was better off not having one, but I couldn’t spend any more time worrying about that. I had ignored my work emails for long enough and I had to go home during my lunch break which meant I had to actually get something done that Monday morning.
I put the article away, shaking my head and laughing, and opened up my email to get to work. An hour later, my brother Adam stuck his head through my office door and smiled at me. “Hey there,new boss, any chance you want to put that newly inflated expense account to use and take your favorite brother out to lunch?”
