5- Seeing Him

Rhett POV

My heart thumped the entire car ride to the bar with excitement to see Harrison again after a couple of months. Last time we saw each other was two months ago when he stopped by my apartment for video games and beers.

I knew it would be busy since it was a Friday, but I had to see him; I had to get this off my chest and officially ask him to be my best man. Rebecca had been bothering me with the question for a while, and I had been too coward to ask him until now. I didn’t know how he would react to the news, and I feared the worst. I know Harrison and I know he wouldn’t bail on me, but I began to doubt myself and question everything as time went on.

When I saw him at the bar doing his tricks with the bottles and drinks for his customers I couldn’t help but smile. Harrison was always the one to make others smile; I just went along with it because I wanted to be more like him; outgoing and confident. He was an admirable soul.

I saw him wink at a couple of girls and could only chuckle. This bastard has been using his looks with the girls since we were teens. Poor souls probably don’t even know he’s gay.

I got a whiff of his coconut shampoo when he hugged me and his curly blonde hair fell around us and was hit with a feeling of nostalgia. I had to clap him on the back to signal the end of the hug before I could reminisce on that summer too much and possibly get a boner thinking about it.

He kept getting pulled away, and knowing how into his work he gets, my anxiety was getting to me about keeping this from him much longer. My anxiety and cowardice is the reason I told Milo to meet me here; he’s not supposed to let me leave until I get the courage to speak to Harrison.

I had to get his attention somehow. I promised Rebecca I would speak to Harrison before stopping by her place tonight. I pounded on the bar with my hand to catch his attention and blurted out the news, “I’m getting married!”

I surely didn’t expect him to slip and fall, and I felt bad for it, grimacing before checking if he was alright, but I was glad his bar mates let him step out for some air.

The look in his eye when I mentioned who I was marrying… I almost didn’t want to look at him as he let it process that I was marrying a woman. I knew for these past ten years that Harrison wanted me to be gay, or bisexual, because I know he had feelings for me at one point, but I was fairly certain those feelings had disappeared. He didn’t make any move on me for the last few years, so I figured he had moved on.

I loved his little advances through the years, though. They were simple but suggestive; he'd grab my ass whenever he would walk behind me or give me a shoulder massage that would extend to my chest in a seductive manner. All of these moves were done while we were alone, clearly, but I enjoyed them. I also dreaded them, because they only made me question myself more.

It was mainly the influence of my parents that steered me in the direction of desiring to be straight. I don’t find anything wrong with being gay, but my parents sure do. Our relationship became rocky when they found Harrison and me in bed together at our family's lake house the summer between junior and senior year of high school. I told them it was just a simple experiment - which at the time it was - and that it wouldn't happen again, but I lied. Harrison and I saw each other that entire summer, getting closer in all possible ways.

It was just before senior year started that I told Harrison how confused I was, so we had a really long discussion about what was to happen next, and we agreed to stay friends and not let anything change between us. Harrison then embraced his newfound sexuality, and I went along acting the way I had for the last seventeen years.

Harrison didn’t get too much shit when he came out since he was one of the Hype Boys and everyone adored us, but I was more of the background Hype Boy and wasn’t sure I would receive the same treatment if I shared that I was unsure, so I chose to fake it the rest of the school year and move on once we went on to college.

After one summer with Harrison, I decided to dedicate the next summer to a woman and do my experimenting there. I finished almost as easily as I had with Harrison and enjoyed it a lot, and concluded by the time college came around that I was bisexual, but I claimed to be straight for the sake of my image (and for my parents).

“Are you IN love with her?” Harrison asked suddenly, and I froze.

I love Rebecca, I do. I absolutely adore her and her family, and marriage between us would be amazing and would please my parents finally and get them to forgive me after the whole thing with Harrison. Ten years later and they still aren’t over it yet.

“I am,” I responded timidly.

The look in his eyes had me regretting my words instantly. He looked broken; like I had just taken his favorite belonging and smashed it, set it on fire, and made him watch it burn. Maybe I was wrong and he still had feelings for me?

Regardless, he agreed to be my best man, and I couldn’t be happier. We hugged, and I took advantage of the privacy we currently had and felt the lines of his muscular back. He was always more buff than me; “He has the abs and I have the chest” is what I used to say to people, and I caught myself drooling anytime I saw him without a shirt. I felt him stiffen as I did this and instantly parted from him. I don’t want to make him uncomfortable at all.

We went back inside and went separate ways. I joined Milo at a table against the back wall and sat on the elevated seat before taking three big gulps of my drink.

“How did it go?” Milo asked.

“He agreed,” I informed him with a smile of relief.

Milo nodded, but his face remained passive. He repeated his question with a gentler look, “How did it go?”

Milo knows my relationship with Harrison; he knows we’re best friends, he knows that Harrison discovered he was gay in his teens and that he had a thing for me, but I never told Milo that I reciprocated those feelings, or that he and I had slept together. If rumor got around that the boss's daughter’s fiancee was once in love with another man, it would ruin so much of what I have spent the last half-decade building.

Milo was my best friend at work and I trusted him, but he has a tendency to gossip, and even though Milo is an accepted, openly-gay man in our workplace, our boss is still an uptight, middle-aged, old-fashioned Asian man who scares the shit out of me.

“It was rough,” I admitted to him.

Milo nudged his head toward the bar and asked, “Do you think he needs a distraction?” and lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

I downed my drink and placed some money on the table as I stood up and told him, “Fuck whoever you want. I’m going to have dinner with my fiancee.”