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dark, grave features. Recognizing him
instantly, my heart vaulted from my chest, clawing against the ribcage that so
cruelly separated it from where it wanted to be.
    As if he felt my eyes on him, he looked up and met my stare. It was just us again in that moment; the crowd was merely a conductor of
our crackling energy. It was like seeing him for the first time but with the
knowledge that he had felt me in a way that no one else ever had.
    His expression remained as passive as mine. My senses were stolen by his
presence, and I didn’t have the wherewithal to smile politely or acknowledge
him in any form. I didn’t look away as I had the first night we’d made eye
contact but held his gaze instead. My body responded to the memory of his
touch, craving him like a drug, instructing me to reach out and consume him. To
take him into my bloodstream so he could once again kill the pain and warm me
from the inside.
    He flinched and blinked – once, twice – before
looking away and leaving me cold. My breathing was labored and ice cubes rattled
in my glass, but I could barely hear them over the heartbeat in my ears.
    “Don’t you agree, dear?” Lucy’s mom asked with an expectant look.
    I nodded and swallowed dryly, emitting a small noise.
    Bill waved me off and said something else to her. My disobedient eyes
gravitated back to David. He sported a perfectly-tailored tuxedo and looked the same as I remembered: relaxed, easy and painfully,
bring-me-to-my-knees handsome. Not nearly as distraught or sleepless as I felt,
which wasn’t surprising since in bachelor time, our liaison was ages ago. His jet black hair was styled with precision, and I could see
from where I stood the smoothness of his square jaw. It was seeing his chestnut
brown eyes and the sexy cleft of his chin again that almost did me in. His
hands in his pockets strained against the fabric of his expensive suit. Dani tugged on his sleeve, but he stared distractedly at
something beyond her.
    My legs tensed with the urge to run away, but I was loathe for him to know how he still affected me. When Dani giggled and looked at her feet in response to something he’d said, I seized
Bill’s hand, causing him to freeze mid-sentence. That was when I noticed David
steal a furtive look in my direction. I’d almost missed it, but it had happened.
    ~
    I wrung the paper
in my hands and then immediately smoothed it out.
    “Nervous?” Bill asked.
    “No.” I hadn’t been until my audience had fallen away, leaving only one
person to hear my toast. If I’d been blind, I still would have seen David; he
was a beacon in the sea of faces.
    “You’re up,” Bill said, motioning that I should stand.
    The room became silent, and I scrambled up to look out over the crowd. I
touched my earlobe gently and took a deep breath.
    “I’ll keep it short and sweet, like our bride here,” I started. I glanced
down at the piece of paper and then back at the room. “How do you know when
you’ve met ‘the one’? Do both hearts suddenly change rhythm, syncing to form
their own beautiful symphony? Do you see yourself,” I paused, dropping my eyes
to the champagne flute in my hand, “suddenly exquisite and irresistible through
their eyes? Does love become something tangible, something that others can see
but only the two of you can touch?”
    I glanced down at Bill, who smiled encouragingly at me, and I set my hand
on the back of his chair. “I don’t think anybody can answer that because for
everyone, it’s different. Andrew and Lucy are meant to be. Period. There aren’t
two people more perfect for each other. When Lucy told me one night that she
wanted to spend the rest of her life with Andrew, I said, ‘Duh, tell me
something I don’t know.’” A light laugh rippled through the crowd, and I raised
my glass. “I love you both, and I am so honored to be a part of tonight.
Cheers.”
    I dropped into my chair and crumpled the paper in my hands. It wasn’t the
speech I had