Cliff settled onto the end of a polished wooden pew and let his eyes drift around the cathedral. An orchestral number floated through the impressive space. Towering stained-glass windows poured colored light in patches across the floor, and the seating area was packed. Cliff couldn’t even see where Milo might be.

He couldn’t help but imagine Eve, somewhere in the back, maybe up in one of the rooms overhead, rushing around in that big peach dress, identical to the one on which he had spilled strawberry smoothie so long ago. The smoothie that had started it all, back in September. Everything was so innocent and simple then. Eve had just been his friend, and Milo, his friendly ex. Sex was nonexistent, but then again, so was stress.

Cliff’s eyes turned to the flurry of excited bridesmaids rushing across the front of the chapel, giggling as they drove through one back door and into another, disappearing again, in a sudden storm of pink satin and fluff. He was pretty sure he’d seen Eve’s head bopping up and down for a second, shorter than the other girls but still easy to spot in a crowd. No one else had wild, untamed hair like hers.

As much as he longed for the simplicity of the single life, he would never take it back. It’d been a complicated mess from the moment Milo McNamara pulled up to Galen’s birthday party in his big stupid truck. It never stopped. The sexual tension of October, Milo and Eve sleeping together, and how confused he felt after that. Eve and Milo being together.

Cliff swallowed as an unwanted throb ran through his cock. He shifted again and covered his imminent erection with one hand.

Damnit, he wanted them.

The orchestra suddenly sawed through a rendition of the wedding march which Cliff had never heard before. It was upbeat, complex, and jazzy. The wedding court trooped down the central aisle together, each clutching their matching bouquets. Three couples floated by, each more glowing than the last. Then Eve Mooney stepped through the swinging back doors.

Cliff’s heart turned to jello. He had been right, all those months ago, when he said that she would be beautiful. It was obvious that her dress had been taken in since then. Her taffeta skirt swirled around her legs with every step, and she held her head at a regal angle. The makeup was a palette of cream, gold, and peach, so she hardly looked like she was wearing any.

Cliff swallowed. How had he been able to say no to her the night before? Why had he snapped at her? As she drifted along, arm in arm with a groomsman, her eyes connected with Cliff’s. No smile passed between them, just shared pain. Cliff watched her go, sure that he had lost her forever.

Josh’s lovely bride came down the aisle last, wearing the most radiant expression Cliff had ever seen. He imagined Eve in the bride’s place; She would probably want an outdoor wedding, probably a beach one. Milo, on the other hand, would probably insist on a rough-hewn chapel in the woods, somewhere that referenced his childhood. Maybe they could all jump out of a plane together or go to a Native American sweat lodge together.

Why was he even thinking like this?

He wasn’t. He couldn’t. There were no marriage ceremonies for people like them, no avenues of expression at all. No place to fit. No acceptable label to wear.

At the front of the cathedral, a priest spoke over beaming Joshua and Brie. Cliff needed to stop his brain from rambling and pay attention. He was leaving right after the vows, he reminded himself.

Josh went first.

“When I met Brie,” he began, “I hated her, man.”

The crowd bubbled with laughter at the unexpected introduction.

“I really did,” Josh continued, laughing himself. “She had so much, and I just knew she would never even talk to someone like me. I was just a college kid who had failed to go to New York and become a great Broadway actor, unlike my big sister, who is now a blogging superstar.”

Cliff felt a surge of pride in his chest, as if Eve’s accomplishments were his own. He remembered when she first told him about Crossroads, and how uncertain and shy she seemed. Now it was her job.

“And then Brie surprised me. This poised and sophisticated little bit of Netflix royalty surprised me by not caring at all. She didn’t care at all that I was wearing adult braces when we first met. She cared that I made her laugh. She cared that I helped her carry a box into her dorm room. She cared that I didn’t try to be anything I wasn’t. She didn’t care that I have no filter, and that I jump into conversations that strangers are having. Nothing mattered.”

Chills raced down Cliff’s arm. He knew that feeling—that feeling like only one thing mattered in the world.

Two things, in his case.

“The only thing that mattered to her was how much I loved her. And, for some crazy reason, she loved me back.”

Cliff swallowed down the lump in his throat, and his eyes grew misty. He knew how that felt, and it had only happened to him twice. He was thirty-four, and it had only happened twice. How many more chances would he get? Was he being too cavalier when it came to his own happiness?

Brie flew into Josh’s arms, kissing him even though the priest hadn’t told them that it was okay yet. Cliff blinked and a tear darted down his cheek. He swiped it away. Damnit. This should not be happening to him.

“My turn,” Brie said, her voice clotted with tears. “I have a confession to make.” The chapel fell as silent as a field of fresh snow, and every ear strained forward. “I was scared. I didn’t know.” She sounded like she might sob, but she maintained her composure and barreled through her speech. “I had never been with anyone like you before. I didn’t believe that a love like ours was possible, because—I had never seen it done before in my life. I lived in a world filled with marriages that were only one step away from arranged. I’ve seen them get signed and stamped like business mergers.”

As Brie looked at Josh—who was smiling at her—her voice suddenly strengthened and became even again.

“You were nothing like that,” she finished. “You were a free spirit, and you didn’t care about what the world around us thought. You just believed in us.” Her voice trembled again and she bowed her head. “You believed in me.”

Josh drew her forward and hugged her tightly.

“I learned how to do this—how to do ‘love’—by watching you,” she confessed. “I didn’t know how to be. And I learned it from watching you love me first.”

Josh snatched her up into his arms again.

The priest went on, but Cliff was hardly listening.

He was hunting for a napkin in the inside pocket of his suit, cursing Eve and Milo.