“You know that I mean. Everything happened so fast.”
“Yeah, it did,” Tyler looked down at his feet again, shoving his hands into his pockets. He looked uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to push him with questions.
Half an hour later everyone was seated, and Tyler offered me the microphone to deliver my maid of honor speech. I received a few pity laughs at my jokes, but when Tyler proceeded with his own speech, he got people howling in under two minutes.
“As most of you probably know,” he continued with a serious expression. “I wasn’t the first choice for a best man. I presume I wasn’t the second one either.” Everyone chuckled. “Anyway, I would like to step out of that role for a few minutes and give it back to the person who should have been standing here, trying to say two coherent sentences while sweating in front of you guys.”
Tyler waved to a man from the hotel’s staff, who rolled in a huge screen and left it right next to our table. Chase appeared on that screen, wearing a tux, a glass in one hand and a microphone in the other.
My head turned in Tyler’s direction of its own accord. He did that for Lucas, the man he never even said he liked. For completely selfless reasons. He did it even though he found Chase absolutely annoying. My eyes watered and I could barely hold my tears in. I wondered what Sylvia would say about the face I was making in that particular moment.
I didn’t hear a single word Chase said, but when people started applauding, so did I. Standing up from my chair, I motioned over to Tyler. I waited for him to finish up his conversation with Lucas, who seemed really touched by what just happened. I knew that all my feelings for my fuck buddy were here on my wet-with-tears face, but I didn’t have the emotional stability to try to hide them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked when Lucas finally left. He just waved a hand in the air. I wasn’t going to let him downplay this. “Everything you did…” my throat clenched with so much different emotions in that moment. I was bewildered. Tyler was misunderstood and mistreated, and it made me want to hug him and in the same time poke someone’s eyes out. “Clem and Lucas got married today because of you,” I whispered so that no one could hear me. “And you included Chase even though you don’t like him.” He started shrugging me off, but I didn’t let him. “I am so proud of you.”
I sounded nothing like a fuck buddy and everything like I was fangirling all over him. Tyler’s jaw ticked. Then he offered me his hand.
“Dance with me.”
I looked over to the dancefloor. There were a few couples, including the newlyweds already dancing. I nodded. He placed his hand on the small of my back and we joined the others.
Wrapping his hands around my waist, he tugged me against him with way too much familiarity for two people who supposedly hadn’t spent hours upon hours touching each other. I refused to look around to see if people were watching us, but I felt my cheeks heated both from his closeness and the fact he was publicly holding me in such an intimate manner. It felt like he was claiming me.
“I have a question for you, little Spencer,” he said with a lopsided grin.
“Shoot,” I smiled back, glad he didn’t make a comment about me blushing.
“It’s an important one, so listen carefully.”
I nodded, preparing myself to tell him the truth about my feelings for him, if that was what he wanted to ask me about. He deserved to know he was worthy of love even if it would make him run away from me.
“I know we agreed to be fuck buddies, but lately I’ve been rethinking this arrangement.”
“You have?” I asked, my heart in my throat.
“I have.”
“You want to break it off?”
“I do actually,” he said, his thumb making circles on my back.
“Oh,” I focused my eyes on his chest. “You don’t have to ask for my approval.”
“I am not. The question is about something else.”
“I’m all ears,” I said annoyed with the timing he chose to do this. Couldn’t he at least wait until after the wedding? His hand dropped lower on my back. My eyes shot up to his, sending him a disapproving look. He grinned.
“How would you feel if I asked you out on a real date? Like a normal human being would.”
I blinked, searching his face for a sign he was joking. Although I didn’t believe he would joke with this. He could never be so cruel. I swallowed and a smile stretched my face to the point of pain. My hand traveled up to his neck, fingers sliding in his hair.
“Happy,” I said. “Very, very happy.”
***
Tyler came to pick me up from my parents’ house the next day. He looked rested and gorgeous as always, while I felt and probably looked like a sleep-deprived zombie, even though I certainly had more sleep than him. I was on the phone with Clem, so I just waved him in and led him to the living room.
We hadn’t spent the night together like we planned. Madison wanted him to help her after the guests left. Apparently Parker Wilson, the hotel owner, wanted everything gone by sunrise. I tried to stay with them and help, but Madison definitely wanted me gone. So Tyler shoved me into a taxi.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Clem said to me over the phone, while I looked at her brother getting comfortable in my parents’ living room. I left him there and entered the kitchen.
“I never thought you would turn into a mother hen,” I teased. Then added with a firm tone. “We are both adults. I can handle this.”
Clem had cornered me at the reception after my intimate dance with Tyler. Since we were not in the friends with benefits territory anymore and he planned on asking me out on a real date, I decided to come clean. I explained the fuck buddy situation and the new development. I omitted to share the story about our one-night stand from five years ago. In the light of day and after a few hours of getting used to the idea, her shock had morphed into a disapproval. She had an even more somber view of the situation.
“Is this about Nick?” Clem asked.
“No.”
“Are you depressed about the breakup?”
“No,” I laughed. “I’m not depressed. I’m perfectly happy I broke up with Nick.”
“I don’t understand,” Clem continued. “I thought you got over Tyler.”
“Look. He’s here and we have to leave soon, so I don’t have much time to talk. Just relax, okay? Everything is good. I feel good. We are good.” I paused, then added. “He has been great. I promise.”
When I returned to the living room, I found my mother and Tyler laughing next to one of the shelfs.
“Do you have to show that to everyone that comes in here?” I asked my mother, knowing exactly which photo they were watching.
“He was already looking around,” she shrugged in an attempt to portrait herself innocent. “I just told him where to find the good stuff.”
The good stuff she referred to was a picture of me dressed as an eggplant for Halloween. I was ten years old. It was way beyond the age that would be considered cute and not a laughing matter.
“I tried to change her mind,” my mother giggled. “But there is no changing Hannah’s mind when she decides she wants something.”