Chapter 37

            As the reception ended and the guests started making their way out to their cars, Andrea plopped down in a chair and rubbed her sore feet. She had long since taken her heels off and had been dancing in her bare feet all night, thinking that would keep them from being sore. “Boy, was I wrong,” she mumbled to herself. “It worked at all the school dances, or at least I thought it did.”

            “Here, let me do that for you,” someone said, grabbing her foot from her hands. She smiled at her Aunt and leaned back in the chair and relaxed. “How does that feel?”

            “Aunt Marianne, that feels wonderful. Thank you.”

            “Well, I didn’t come over here to rub your feet, I came over here to talk to you,” Marianne started, continuing to massage Andrea’s worn out tootsies. “I know that you love Nick, you wouldn’t have married him if you didn’t, but I noticed something tonight that I’m not sure I should have.” Andrea gave her an inquisitive look, but was more interested in her feet getting rubbed than what her Aunt had to say. “Andrea, you’re a smart girl, and therefore you do not make unwise or careless decisions. Marrying Nick was without a doubt the right thing for you to do, and I know you know that.”

            “What are you trying to say Aunt Marianne?” Andrea was tired and getting a little irritated at her Aunt’s Confucius-like speech. Why can no one in my family just say what they mean? Why do they always have to talk around the point?
Aunt Marianne sighed and stopped rubbing Andrea’s feet. She leaned in closer to her niece and looked her square in the eyes. “What is going on between you and that AJ guy?”

            Andrea’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped open, her breath was labored and perspiration started to bead on her forehead. “How did you know?” was the only she could muster before breaking down. All the guilt she was feeling, all the confusion she had, and all the anger and frustration that had taken up residence within her was flowing from her in the form of tears.

            “Oh sweetie,” Marianne whispered as she wrapped her arms around her niece and held her close. “What is it?”

            “We, we, ki-issed,” Andrea stammered out in between sobs. “I didn’t even know he liked me and it just happened. And now I am so confused because I think I like him too.” She continued to sob, her face getting red and hot from the mixture of emotion and exhaustion. “I can’t tell Nick because he will never be able to forgive AJ, and that will ruin his friendship and his career. I can’t tell Annie because that will ruin our friendship and career. I don’t know what to do.”

            “You have to stay away from him as much as possible and you have to let this pass,” Marianne instructed, soothing her niece as best she could. “I agree that telling Nick and Annie would be a mistake, but if you go any further with him, that’s a secret you will no longer be able to keep.” Marianne stopped and sat silent for a minute. She was not sure if she should tell her niece that the same thing happened to her, but finally decided it was the best thing to do.

            “You know honey, I had a situation like this happen to me, only it happened the night before my wedding.” Andrea looked up at her Aunt with a vacant expression, not sure what she was going to say. “Your Uncle Larry’s best friend from college, Bill, was his best man. The three of us went way back, and I knew him very well. We had never so much as looked at each other with any sort of attraction, but the night before my wedding, I kissed him. I thought that I was making a mistake, that maybe I shouldn’t be settling down yet, and maybe your uncle was not the right man for me.”

            “Does Uncle Larry know about this?”

            “I never told him, and neither did Bill. I felt guilty about it for months after the wedding, and it was hard figuring out if I should be with Bill or stay with your uncle. One day, I realized that I had made the right decision, and I don’t think I would have been so convinced if I hadn’t had that one moment of indiscretion. Knowing that there was always another option if I decided this wasn’t going to work helped me in some way, it took the pressure off. Marriage is really hard, especially in the first couple years. But I loved Larry long before that kiss, and I loved him long after, and I know I made the right decision. And I know you will too.”

            “Thank you Aunt Mar,” Andrea said as she allowed her aunt to pull her in for another hug. Once her aunt released her, Andrea got up from the chair and grabbed her shoes. “I guess I better get up to my suite, Nick only told me to wait for ten minutes before going up there, and it’s been almost twenty.” She kissed her aunt on the cheek and walked out of the reception hall, almost bumping into Alex as she went through to doors.

            AJ stopped mid step and if expecting Andrea to stop and talk to him, but all she did was utter a quite “excuse me” and continued past him towards the elevators. He was about to go after her when he heard someone calling his name.

            “AJ, AJ, come here for a second would you?”

            “Aunt Marianne right? What can I do for you?”

            “You can stay away from my niece, but you shouldn’t do it for me, you should do it for her, and the woman you are marrying next week,” Marianne stated in a cold, stern voice. “Marriage is hard enough without something like this weighing it down. Andrea doesn’t need it in her marriage, and you don’t need it your marriage, that is if you are still planning on marrying Annie. If you really love my nieces, stop this before it really starts.” She walked past Alex and out the door before he had time to respond.

            He sank into a chair, his arms resting on his knees, his head in his hands. What am I doing? He questioned himself, self-hatred rising and self esteem falling. I am a horrible person. I convinced myself and everyone else around me that I am not the same person I was before, and even that’s a lie. I am no better than the drugged out, drunk, sex-addicted asshole I was five years ago. He slowly got up and went behind the bar. He pushed bottles of alcohol aside until his eyes landed on the crutch he had thrown away so many years ago.

            “My old buddy Jack, damn good to see you,” he whispered as he open the bottle and took a swig. It burned as it went down his throat, a feeling he had tried so hard before to forget. He sat behind the bar for half an hour, drinking and thinking, thinking and drinking. When he realized his buzz was turning into intoxication, he walked out from the behind the bar and made his way to the elevators, the bottle of Jack Daniels still in his hand.

            He grew impatient as he waited for the elevator and started pressing the up arrow on the wall over and over. “Wow, it’s amazing how much funnier things are through ‘Jack glasses’,” he announced, slurring his words. He heard the elevator ding and was about to run onto the elevator as the doors opened, but the person coming off the elevator had that same urgency about them and the two collided.

            “Oh my God!” Nick yelled as he crashed into AJ, both of them toppling to the floor. He jumped up as soon as he landed, trying to figure out what happened and make sure whomever he landed on was okay. “AJ?” Nick asked, realizing whom he had run into. “Are you--” he started, but stopped abruptly when he saw the bottle of Jack Daniels on the floor next to his friend. “What in the hell are you doing? Are you DRUNK?” Nick was shouting at this point, furious that his friend would just throw away all the years of sobriety he had accomplished.

            “Shut up man, what do you care anyway? You have the woman of you dreams, and my dreams for that matter, so just go away and leave me alone.” He tried to stand up but fell over again, the alcohol taking full affect now. “Oh fuck it,” he said laughing, and took another drink of Jack.

            “No, fuck you,” Nick replied, grabbing the bottle away from AJ so fast that the liquid spilled down the front of him, soaking his goatee and his shirt. “You are not going down this road again. I don’t know what happened tonight that you would do this to yourself, but it stops here.” Nick threw the bottle against the wall, causing it to shatter into hundreds of glass shards. He grabbed the front of AJ’s shirt and dragged him up from the ground, practically carrying him into the elevator.

            Once they were in the elevator and on their way up to their rooms, Alex turned to Nick. His eyes were red and puffy, he reeked of alcohol, and the pallor in his face could not have been hidden with even the best makeup. “I kissed your wife,” he breathed onto Nick and then collapsed onto the floor of the elevator, too drunk to realize the ramifications of what he just said.