Imperfectly Real (A Series of Imperfections) (22 page)

I chuckled and stood up.

“Emma!” Mrs. Sloan gasped. “You can’t do that!”

“It’s my wedding day, Mom. I can do what I want.” Emma directed her attention back to me as she walked me out of the room. “Then when he shakes his head and rolls his eyes tell him to look under the bed.” She winked.

I walked the whole way back to Shane’s room with a smile on my face. It was so typical of Em to play things off. This was so not her thing, but she was doing it to make Shane happy. Now
that
was true love.

I let myself back into the room. Shane was anxiously pacing the floor—his hair a serious mess from his hand constantly rifling through it.

“You are such a sap,” I said leaning down to grab a beer from the mini fridge.

“About time you got back! I had to send Rob on an errand so he would get the Jäger away from me.” Shane calmed himself. Stopping in front of the mirror to tie his tie, he asked, “So, did she like it?”

“Yep.” I plopped into the armchair, waiting for it to come. I knew it was killing him.

Finally his curiosity got the better of him. “Did she send you back with something?”

“Nope. But she did tell me to tell you to pull yourself together.”

As if on cue, Shane shook his head and went into a fit of eye rolling. I had to hand it to the girl, she knew him well—probably better than I did. “Calm down. Look under the bed.”

Immediately Shane dropped onto all fours and picked up the bed skirt. He chuckled as he reached under the bed and started dragging something out. It was a basket with an assortment of goodies in it. I stood and joined him in order to get a better look. Shane passed me the Post-it note that Emma had scribbled on.

Inside the basket was a bottle of Blue Moon, one bottle of Guinness, one can of Red Bull, a bottle of Advil, and
the
picture. It was the picture that had made Shane realize he had feelings for Emma—that she was more than just a friend. Shane smiled and sniffed simultaneously.

“Don’t you start crying on me,” I teased, gripping his shoulder.

The door flew open and Rob entered, a bottle of Jäger in his hand. “Aww, are we having a moment?” he quipped. Rob’s comment was just sarcastic enough to bring Shane back to earth. “Now if you two ladies are done weeping, get over here and drink some deer blood with me!”

“I can’t believe you’re letting this idiot marry you guys,” I said as I made my way back to the armchair. It was sure to be a long, and interesting, day.

The music started and I watched intently as Elizabeth made her way down the aisle, holding Emily’s hand while towing Felix behind her in a wagon. I smiled watching her giggle as Emily fell. They took their places and everyone turned their attention toward Emma. She made her way down the aisle as Black Betty played. I’m sure Mrs. Sloan had had a conniption over that one. Even though I had already seen her, she still took my breath away. Shane was a lucky dude.

Emma took her place across from Shane under the beautiful archway and they gazed into each other’s eyes. I looked at them for a moment as Rob started his speech. My gaze drifted over to Elizabeth, standing next to Emma, with Felix and Emily at her side.

There would be no point in me boring you with the details of the ceremony because, well, it was just a wedding. Rob made the crowd laugh, of course. He said things that were inappropriate and I chuckled every time Mrs. Sloan cringed. It was so Emma, and she loved every minute of it.

The only things noteworthy were the vows. Shane and Emma had decided a long time ago that they were going to improvise them. They wanted to just say what came to their minds in the heat of the moment, and it was beyond emotional and sincere. People cried when they spoke their heartfelt, and truthful words. They bantered back and forth with amazing promises.

Shane: I will always remember to put the toilet seat down.

Emma: I promise to bring you coffee without you having to ask.

Shane: I will never let you go to bed angry.

Emma: I promise to always eat the mushrooms when we order the supreme pizza.

Shane: And I will always eat some of your French fries, just so you don’t feel guilty about it.

Emma: I promise to always believe you when you tell me I’m beautiful.

Shane: I will always be the big spoon.

Emma: And I promise to be the little spoon.

Shane: I will give you hugs. A lot. Whenever I want.

Emma: And I will always accept them.

Shane: I will never forget that our love is friendship set on fire.

Emma: I love you more.

Shane: More than anything else.

I had to admit that even I got a little misty-eyed listening to them make their promises to each other. I was extremely happy for them, and with each promise I couldn’t help but look in Elizabeth’s direction. I wanted to say those words to her … to let her know that I could promise her true love like that.

It was sometime after the vows when I had a sudden moment of clarity as I looked upon Shane and Emma. Elizabeth was standing next to them … on their left. My mind flashed back to the advice my father had shared with my mother. “When nothing goes right, go left”. The words that my father had spoken to me in my dream resounded through my head. I kept trying to shake them, but I couldn’t. Somehow, someway, I knew I needed to help Elizabeth. Even though I wanted her to be mine, even more so I wanted her to be happy. She
deserved
to be happy.

After we took pictures—most of them included me high-fiving Shane—the true fun began. I had to hand it to them, the Sloan’s sure knew how to party. Two words—open bar, people. Open bar.

I watched on as my two best friends shared their first dance as husband and wife. They swayed back and forth to the beat of “I Won’t Give Up’ by Jason Mraz. It was the perfect song—full of promises and meaning for the both of them. Halfway through the song, Elizabeth brought Felix to them and the three of them had their moment together on the dance floor. I was pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house—including mine. I’d turned into an emotional basket case over the past few weeks. So much going on. So many changes.

Once they finished their dance, Kenny Chesney’s ‘When I See This Bar” kicked up. Emma perched Felix on her hip and smiled as she continued to dance with Shane, knowing damn well that this had been planned. I let Rob go over first as he tapped Shane on the shoulder to cut in. Shane graciously let him and made his way next to me.

This song meant more to us then people understood. They probably just figured it was a random song that was being played so Rob and I could get our chance to dance with her. But that wasn’t it at all—this was our O’Malley’s song. I hugged Shane before making my way to Rob, Emma and Felix. Rob put on a bit of show, pretending to ignore my dance requests, but he eventually let me step in.

Suddenly, I was hit with an onslaught of emotions. I gripped Emma’s waist as Felix lay on her shoulder. She sensed I was struggling and put her hand to the back of my head as I leaned down to kiss Felix’s back. Things were changing—moving forward—but I couldn’t help wondering if I would be left in the dust.

As the festivities continued, and I drank more, my sadness turned to anger. I found myself more pissed about my situation than I should have been. Sure, I was mad at Liz, but mostly I was mad at myself. I couldn’t even begin to describe all the bullshit that fired through my head. It was beyond fucked up.

I stood at the bar, alone and hopeless, but with the company of some good booze. I’d been texting Liz all night, trying to get her to talk to me again. I wanted to make things right—and to apologize for my callous behavior at the bonfire—but most of all, I wanted closure. If she’d made her choice, she needed to face the music. Hell, I needed to face it. I was done with the drama. Before I had a chance to talk myself out of it I pulled out my cell phone, and sent one final text to Elizabeth.

Meet me by the oak tree.

I sucked down a final shot before making my way to the tree out the front of the Inn. I was walking out of the bar when I felt a hand grab the lapel of my suit jacket.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Rob questioned through gritted teeth.

“I’ll say this again, Rob …” I pushed his hand away and stood over him. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’d love nothing more than to ‘not worry about it’, dickhead, but unfortunately for you, I’m the only person here who gives a damn about you right now.”

I brushed past him and rolled my eyes, hoping that he wouldn’t chase after me.

Pushing through the front door I heard Rob holler, “You’re going to be sorry, Tyler, you wait. Shit’s about to get real.”

I made my way across the street to the towering oak tree and leaned back against it. I kept checking my phone, waiting to see if she was going to respond or not, when I heard the commotion. I knew I should’ve listened to Rob. The fucker had been right.

“Mason! Wait, I can explain!”

I watched, dumbfounded, as Elizabeth hopelessly grabbed at Mason’s dress shirt.

Her hand connected with the fabric and she tugged, spinning him around. “Let go of me, Elizabeth,” he spat. I wanted to punch the fucker—he had no right to speak to her like that, let alone be upset with her for the very thing he was doing. He’d cheated first. He’d thrown her to the curb, and for that the asshole deserved to rot in hell.

“Mason … please …” She stopped chasing him, fell to the ground and begged.

I looked up and saw Elizabeth cover her mouth as Mason made his way towards me. I should’ve made a break for it, but this shit had come to a head and I needed to deal with it.

“Hey, Juicehead,” he called from across the road. His head swept side-to-side while he looked for oncoming traffic. “Wanna explain to me why you’ve been blowing up my wife’s phone all day?”

I looked behind Mason to see that Emma, Shane and Rob had joined the party. Just great. They’d obviously sensed shit was about to go down and decided to follow the chaos. Liz continued to scream at Mason to stop, but it was useless. This was between us now.

“Not particularly,” I seethed as he finally stood in front of me. I towered over him, and I knew that, if I wanted, I could easily wipe up the asphalt with his face. But before I could continue to be a sarcastic prick, I watched his fist meet my face. I wanted to fight back—partly because Elizabeth was worth it, the other part due to the pain that he had caused her—but luckily for him, I didn’t. I knew that I deserved every punch that connected with me. I’d done the unthinkable and messed around with his wife … for far too long.

My self-deprecating thoughts were broken by Elizabeth’s frantic screams. “Mason! Stop!” She’d made her way over to the chaos under the tree.

Mason stood up from my crumpled body “You want me to stop?”

“Yes … please,” she pleaded, grabbing his arm. “Let me explain.”

“Ugh, whatever. You disgust me.” And he walked away with no further argument. Just like that the two of us were alone … just like I’d wanted. Only now we had an audience. Not exactly how I’d pictured it.

“Well, looks like the secret’s out.” I muttered as I stood up. I glanced across the way as my three friends watched helplessly. Rob was pacing back and forth in front of the Inn. Seemingly ever-so-slightly stressed out.

Elizabeth looked up at me. “This doesn’t change anything for me, Tyler. My answer is still the same,” she sobbed, obviously not caring that we weren’t alone. “I have to stay with Mason.”

I shook my head. “What the hell, Liz? I don’t understand. How can you stay with someone you don’t even love?”

“Because, Tyler, you know just as well as I do that my mother won’t allow me to leave him.

“I know you’ll think I’m a horrible person for saying this but I can’t afford to be on my own. My mom controls the purse strings, and I know she won’t help me if I throw it all away. I’ve got Emily to think of.”