My Best Man by Andy Schell (top 10 novels TXT) 📕

And she casts her eyes toward the fiery red of a brand-new dawn, then looks back at me and kisses me lightly, once, on the lips, before closing her eyes and falling asleep. I close my eyes to the red sky while remembering the old sailor’ sad age “Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.”

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

ne week later, on another humid Texas morning, Amity and I are on the sofa in the sitting room, avoiding the morning sun of the living room .. it’s already nearly eighty-five degrees outside according to Willard Scott, who’s broadly broadcasting the weather of major cities from the little black-and-white TV sitting on the kitchen counter. I sip a glass of water while waiting for the coffeemaker to spit out a pot of java gasoline. Amity is drinking a glass of iced tea with lemon and somehow painting her toenails at the same time. The phone rings.

“That’s for me,” Amity states, setting down the bottle of polish. “How do you know?”

She looks at her watch. “Because Susan and I agreed to talk at nine o’clock on Thursday morning, and it’s nine o’clock on Thurs day morning.”

The phone continues to ring. “Susan? As in my mother?” Amity nods affirmatively while picking up the receiver. “Hello, Susan. This is Amity,” she sings. After a pause she chimes, “Oh, we’re fine as frog hair. Just happier every day we spend together every night too.”

The night before, I’d stayed home while Amity was out on a date with Kim, the rich guy who’s going through his mid life crisis.

It was laughingly absurd to come home from flying and find a note from my fiancee that read:

My Harry,

I’m out on a date Love your guts

Your Amity

We’ve agreed it is the way things should be for both of us that we remain free to be with the correct sex, which for both of us is men. We talked about the experimental encounters we’ve had together, and she knows that, while I was able to do it, there was an aspect of detachment and curiosity that made it a novelty. I want something authentic, not a novelty. Amity agrees for me and for herself. Men, it is.

“Absolutely, Susan. We planned it for today, I promise,” Amity gushes as if my mother were sitting next to her.

Last night, while Amity and Kim were out, Troy called, crying as usual . only this time I listened carefully to his message because Amity wasn’t home to turn the machine down or talk over it. He begged for her to tell him why. He just kept saying that all he needed was an explanation. “Why did you leave without a word?

Not even a note or letter?” he kept crying.

Was there a note? I wondered.

“I look forward to seeing you too. Give the general my love. “Bye!” Bah/

“What was that about?” I ask apprehensively.

“Susan wants us to get ourselves registered at Maxwell’s immediately,” Amity tells me, returning to her little bottle of polish and her toes.

“Fuck, we’re not Muffle and Biff. I don’t want to do any of that stupid shit.”

“Harry Ford!” she scolds, sounding like Scarlett O’Hara. “Of

course we will. This is the only time your mother will ever be able to do this, and we simply can’t deny her. Stop being selfish.”

Imagine, chastised by Scarlett O’Hara. I look disgusted. Feel a little angry. I keep telling myself that Amity and I are in this together, that we have our heads on straight. But her head seems to be tilting more and more these days. And her smile of satisfaction is beginning to look a little too sincere. “The fact is, my father’s will said nothing about registering ourselves, throwing engagement parties, or even that we had to have a ceremony,” I snort. “It’s not like we have to convince anyone or land ourselves a mention in Barbie Botter’s column. We just have to get married, plain and simple. My mother can do all this foofy stuff when Winston gets married.”

“The only person Winton is interested in marrying is himself,” she pops.

“Well, stop trying to make me into a straight boy,” I snap. “It’s not worth the money.”

She changes tack. Her voice softens. “Look, babe, this is the one time in our lives that either one of us is going to walk down a wedding aisle.” She says it as if her other wedding didn’t happen. “Just because your momma is trying to make it a traditional scene, don’t let that spoil it for us. It’s a game. Let’s make it fun. You’ll step into your Armani tux, and I’ll pour myself into a Calvin Klein wedding gown, and if your momma wants to knock us on the head with Nambe serving utensils and Baccarat goblets as we walk down the aisle, we’ll just have to suffer through.”

“Something tells me you won’t suffer, Miss Name Brand.” “You be nice.” Yew bee nauce….. “Tell me about your date,” I say, heading into the kitchen for coffee. “I need to talk about something real for a change.”

“Well, Kim is real wealthy. He just separated from his wife, and he’s moving into a very expensive condominium. I think he’s going to help us.”

I take a coffee cup down from the cupboard. “Great,” I answer sarcastically. “And what do you mean by that, Amity?”

“With the rent, babe. I told him that I just don’t make hardly any money as a flight attendant and that my roommate can’t pay any rent until his bills are paid off. So when you meet him, you need to act like you just started flying and you don’t pay rent.”

“Amity, my mother paid off my bills . and yours.” I pour the java, add half-and-half. “We don’t need any help.”

“I know, babe,” she answers. I hear the clinking ice as she drains her iced tea. “But why get ourselves back in debt? You don’t have your inheritance yet. We should take all the help we can get.”

“It was me that was in debt, not