Unwilling to Owe in Love, We Meet in Hatred

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The wedding was over, and the guests had just gathered to crowd our bedroom for the games.

Then I got the call. My oldest friend had been dumped, and he'd slit his wrists at home.

I apologized to Denise Henson and drove for his place like a madman.

But when I got there, he wasn't hurt at all. He shoved me into the room and locked me in from the outside.

My phone buzzed. Someone had dropped a video into the bridesmaids' group chat.

Andrew Swanson, Denise's so-called male best friend, had his arms around her, grinning as he sucked a hickey onto her neck.

"Every important moment of your life, I've been part of it, ever since we were kids."

"So obviously the wedding night gets a little of me too~"

Through the door, Lucius James kept talking.

"We did this for you, you know. We were worried you'd get all jealous again, so we got you out of the way."

"The games everyone planned tonight are pretty wild. You're too uptight, you can't loosen up, you'd just kill the mood. That's why Andy stepped in for the wedding night."

"And come on, if there really were something between him and Denise, you wouldn't be the groom, would you? So quit throwing a fit."

On the screen, Denise sat with her hands tied.

She didn't stop him. She lowered her head, all suggestive.

One by one she undid the buttons of Andrew's shirt, lost in the game and having the time of her life.

Just like that, I lost all interest in any wedding-night games.

If Denise thought it was fine to let her best friend take my place on our wedding night,

then I could just as easily let someone else take her place at the marriage license office.

...

My eyes landed on the luxury gift box on the nightstand.

The brand Andrew liked to buy.

I spoke to the friend on the other side of the door.

"Lucius. If you don't let me out, I'm dropping this gold cuff link of yours into the toilet and flushing it."

The next second, sure enough, the door opened.

Lucius came charging in, furious.

"Give it back. That's the gift Andy gave me for getting you out of there!"

Right. Of course it was.

I looked at him, and I was just disappointed.

"So for a watch, you teamed up with someone to trick your own oldest friend?"

"When your boss humiliated you, I was the one who stood up for you, who got you into a better company. Is this how you repay me?"

Lucius rolled his eyes, yanked the watch off his wrist, and threw it at my feet.

"Don't flatter yourself, Harvey Harding. Andy told me the whole thing. He's the one who put in a word with my boss for me!"

"Andy told me this junk birthday present you gave me isn't worth thirty bucks. And you think you deserve to call yourself my friend?"

"The cuff links he gave me run close to a hundred grand. That's what a real friend is!"

"And besides, the two of them have known each other way longer than you and Denise. It's perfectly normal for best friends to share each other's big moments. You're the one making a thing of it. I did all this because I was scared you'd blow up and Denise would call off the license and you'd lose your golden ticket. What gives you the right to blame me?"

I looked at the watch, its face shattered, and I almost laughed.

Junk that wasn't worth ten bucks?

It was an antique I'd bought at auction. Worth over a million.

As for the boss at that company, he probably didn't even know who Andrew Swanson was.

Running into Lucius again in this city years ago, I'd been genuinely thrilled.

I'd thought that between friends there was no need to put a price tag or a title on a gift.

Turns out I'd poured my whole heart out to a dog.

I picked up the cuff link, dropped it into the toilet, and while Lucius shrieked and scrambled to fish it out, I left.

By the time I got back to the wedding suite, the master bedroom was full of cheering.

The video that had gone out to the group by mistake had already been deleted.

But I'd made it back in time for the live show anyway.

Denise and Andrew were sitting on the wedding bed, playing some game where you kiss for five minutes without coming up for air.

One of them bare-chested, the other down to a camisole, both of their necks covered in kiss marks.

A full five minutes before they finally broke apart, a thread of spit still stretched between their lips.

They saw me push the door open, and the air froze.

Andrew shrugged and drawled at Denise, snide.

"Den, your little jealous fit is back. Game's over, huh? Better go soothe her. Don't make it sound like we're the ones who did her wrong."

Denise pulled me out to the living room and asked, low.

"Harv, why did you come back? You didn't wait for me to come get you."

"Getting married is a big deal. Everyone just wanted me to enjoy it. They were afraid you'd be too self-conscious to loosen up, that they might accidentally upset you, so Andy played those games in your place. There was nothing to it."

I looked at her face, not a trace of guilt on it.

"Our wedding night. You get the groom sent away, then you're tongue-kissing another man and letting him give you hickeys, and you call that playing a game?"

"Denise. Do you take me for an idiot?"

Before she could say a word, Andrew came out, dressed again.

He held out a set of red pajamas to me.

"Here, these are yours. Den and I were playing the strip game just now, she'd nearly gotten me down to nothing, and I didn't bring pajamas, so I borrowed these for a bit."

I'd chosen them carefully for tonight.

Instead of the tenderness I'd imagined, there was only this, and it made my skin crawl.

I dropped the pajamas straight into the trash.

Andrew's face darkened.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I said it plainly, with all the contempt it deserved.

"Isn't it obvious? I don't want a homewrecker's filth in my house. Get out. Now."

Anger flickered in Andrew's eyes, then he sneered.

"Den, if your husband doesn't want me here, then let's take the party somewhere else."

"Come with your best friend or stay home with your man, your call. But I'm telling you now, if you pick him, we're done."

He turned and led the rest of them out first.

Denise dragged a hand through her hair, exasperated.

"Harvey, everyone came here to have a little fun on our wedding night, and you had to get jealous and blow it up so nobody could save face?!"

"Andy and I grew up together running around in diapers. To me he's no different from another girl. We really are just close friends, otherwise you wouldn't be the one standing here as the groom tonight."

I was sick of it, the way she always fell back on this so-called 'best friend' as her excuse.

I lost control and shouted.

"Then get out with him!"

Denise's special ringtone kept going off, like it was hurrying her along.

Five years, and Andrew's number was the only one she'd set to a special ringtone.

I'd asked her about it once. Every time she just shrugged it off.

"Ugh, I spoiled that kid rotten when he was little. If I miss his call, there's no telling what kind of fit he'll throw."

And yet I could rarely get through to her at all.

Sure enough, Denise answered a few of his messages first before she even looked at me.

He gave a cold laugh and tossed out one last line.

"Andy's got you pegged. All you do is kill the mood. No wonder even your own childhood buddy can't stand you."

Denise snatched up her coat and walked out without a backward glance.

I didn't want to go back into that disgusting master bedroom, so I curled up on the couch and let the bitter tears fall.

Earlier I'd thought Lucius, my childhood friend, had really slit his wrists, and I'd rushed out in the rain to find him, forgetting to grab an umbrella.

I must have caught a chill, because late that night a high fever set in and I didn't even have the strength to sit up.

I forced myself to take my temperature. A hundred and three.

But there wasn't any fever medicine in the new place yet.

I called Denise.

More than a dozen calls, and no one picked up.

So I texted her instead.

Denise, I've got a high fever and can't get up. The pharmacies are all closed at this hour. Can you come back and take me to the hospital?

Ten minutes later, she finally replied.

Got it.

But I waited a full hour and more before the door opened.

And it wasn't Denise who walked in. It was Lucius, my childhood friend.

He looked down at me from where he stood.

"Andy had too much to drink. Denise was worried his stomach would act up tonight, so she went over to his place to take care of him and told me to come check on you first."

"Tsk, your face is so red. Nice act. You pressed a hot water bottle to your face before I got here, didn't you?"

As he spoke, he lifted the phone that was already on a call.

"Hey, Denise, don't worry. There's nothing wrong with Harvey, he's just faking sick."

"You know how he is. Always the jealous type. Just take good care of Andy."

I stared at him, unable to believe it.

Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the phone. "Denise, he's lying, I didn't"

Denise cut me off, impatient.

"Harvey, are you ever going to stop? Andy called it. You really are faking sick to trick me into coming back. Even your own good buddy says so, what's left to argue about?"

"If you hadn't gotten jealous and embarrassed Andy and ruined his mood, he wouldn't have drunk so much and gotten this sick throwing up."

"If you still want to sign the marriage license with me, you're going to have to accept that being with you doesn't mean I'll abandon my best friend. That's it. I've got to look after Andy. You take a good hard look at yourself, and quit being so possessive from now on."

The call was cut off without a shred of mercy.

Before Lucius left, he didn't forget to mock me.

"Harv, look, I'm not trying to rub it in, but a country hick like you landing a blue-chip catch like Denise, that's your good fortune. She married you in the end anyway, so why keep trying to outdo Andy?"

"Denise cares that much about Andy. Keep him happy and your married life goes smooth. I just now said Andy's more generous than you and has a better build, and Denise handed me a hundred grand as a reward. That's the smart play. Don't go being an idiot."

After Lucius left, the fever had my vision going black in waves.

My phone rang out of nowhere, that familiar string of numbers on the screen.

I pressed answer and asked weakly,

"Are you still abroad?"

"Of course. You went and held a wedding with someone else, am I not even allowed to go clear my head... Harv, your voice sounds wrong. What's going on?"

The woman's voice went tight with worry in an instant, and I pulled my mouth into a faint smile.

"The wedding happened, but we haven't signed the marriage license."

The woman was silent for a second. "Harv, are you saying..."

Right before everything went dark, I said,

"Come home now. The spot to sign the license with me is yours."