4- A Woman?

Harrison POV

I sat there for a moment with my eyes widened. Did I hear him correctly? Rhett's getting married? I didn’t even know he was seeing someone! It's only been a couple of months since we’ve last seen each other; there’s no way that he started dating someone and got engaged in such a short amount of time!Taylor and Brennan rushed to me and Jeff took over at the bar popping lids off of beer bottles as they helped me up from the ground.

I saw him peeking over the bar at me, his brown hair falling over his forehead and his green eyes filled with concern, his brows forming a frown as he leaned further.

“I’m good, I’m good,” I said to the guys as I got back up.

“Take a break, man.” Taylor clutched my shoulder and motioned for me to head out back for some fresh air. I nodded and did as he said, walking in a daze.

I pushed open the back door and was met with a brisk burst of air that cooled all of the sweat on my face and body that accumulated while working and being surrounded by so much body heat. I took a deep breath of the fresh air and sat down on the curb of the sidewalk.

“Hey,” Rhett joined me shortly after and sat next to me.

“Where’s Milo?”

“Watching our drinks. I wanted to talk to you about this in private, anyway.”

I looked at him curiously. “You wanted me to bruise my ass so that we could talk in private?”

He smiled guiltily. “I didn’t mean to make you fall, but… yeah I was hoping it would get us some alone time.”

I placed my forearms on my knees and asked him. “Is it… Is it Milo?”

Rhett laughed. “No. No, it’s not Milo. It’s actually…” He tapped his fingertips together nervously and looked down before announcing, “Her name is Rebecca Hoshiko.”

My head shrunk back and my eyes about bulged out of their sockets as I shook my head back and forth in denial. “A woman? Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am.” He looked regretful, and I gaped at him. “Look, Harry… that summer ten years ago showed you who you were and you embraced it. Me, on the other hand…” He sighed and let his head droop.

“You said that you weren’t sure.” He nodded his head, still drooped. I exhaled a big breath. “When did this all happen?”

I felt bad. I was asking him these questions as if he had told me some horrible secret like he had killed someone and I was trying to understand his reasons for it when he was just telling me that he was straight and marrying a woman! Or maybe he’s bi and marrying a woman. Either way, I wasn’t sounding very supportive of him.

“About a year ago she started flirting with me in the office… things slowly grew and we became close.”

“Hoshiko,” I whispered her last name in thought. Why did it sound so familiar? “Isn’t that your boss?”

“Boss's daughter,” he corrected.

I adjusted so that I could face him and asked him directly, “Is this an advantageous wedding or one of love? You better not be using this girl.”

He didn’t look at me as he shrugged and said, “Well, I mean… in the end, it’s both…”

“Rhett!” I stood up and faced him. He stood up after me to try to explain himself.

“Look, I’ve been the company’s accountant for over five years. Rebecca comes along and flirts, we get close, and suddenly there’s an opening for the CFO position-”

“So you ask her to marry you?! Rhett, that is all kinds of fucked up!”

“It’s not! I care about her, I do, I swear it!”

“Do you love her?” I challenged.

“Yes!”

“Are you IN love with her,” I clarified, and he went silent. I crossed my arms at looked at him with disapproval.

“I am,” he admitted in a small voice.

My arms uncrossed as I felt my heart shatter. He looked at me with a sad look in his eyes, like he was apologizing for falling in love with a woman. No one should ever have to apologize for their sexuality or their choice in a partner, and I hated that I was the one to who he was afraid to admit it.

“I came here to ask you to be my best man, Harry.”

I stood there looking at him as my mind went a million miles a minute. All these years I had thought he was gay and simply living in denial, and the possibility of him being straight never exactly crossed my mind, so the sudden announcement of marrying his bosses daughter had completely thrown me. Still, he's my best friend, and I want to be there for him.

I sighed and answered, “Of course, I’ll be your best man, Rhett.” I clapped him on the shoulder and gripped onto his muscles for probably a second or two longer than appropriate. “I’ll be there with you on your… big day.” I exhaled with a fake smile to him. “It’ll be my honor.”

He smiled back at me gratefully and hugged me tightly. I inhaled his cologne, the same stuff he has been wearing since college that I bought for him years ago. It meant a lot to me that he still uses that stuff and I was quickly transported back to us in our college days. So young and carefree we were, with our entire futures ahead of us.

I could feel his muscles through his suit and quickly noticed that his fingertips were caressing the lines of my own muscular back rather intimately during the hug as well. We both froze as we each realized this and separated from our hug.

Rhett cleared his throat. “Ahem. Do you think we should get back inside now?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I should get back to work.”

Rhett opened the door for me like a gentleman, and we stepped back into the bar together. Rhett joined Milo at a table to finish their drinks while I went back to work. I’m not sure how long the two of them stayed at the bar, but since it was our busiest night of the week, I didn’t get a chance to speak to either of them again, and I let myself get lost in the bar experience once again until my shift was over, shoving the image of Rhett and his bosses daughter to the back of my mind as best as possible. This was going to be a long night.