Best Man

I've been having dreams and visions
In them you are always standing
Right beside me

I reach out for your hand
To see your arms extending
Outstretched toward me



Tre wove around the tables in the reception; the yellow tie he'd been wearing was now undone and hanging around his neck while the top several buttons of his dress shirt were open to reveal a triangular view of his skin. With each step he took, the closer he was to nearing a random table where Giselle sat alone with a cell phone to her ear.

She had her back to him as he approached, and casually taking his tuxedo jacket off, the 36-year-old drummer circled around to stand in front of her and throw her a bit of a smirk as he placed his hand on the back of a chair next to her.

Giselle was, at the moment, just hanging up her phone when she looked up at him to catch his gaze and return the smirk.

"Hey," she muttered; pocketing her phone into her small, handheld purse.

"Hey yourself," he replied, pulling the chair out to sit down after draping his jacket on the back. "Who was on the phone?"

There was an awkward hesitation before she replied, but simply because Giselle and Tre hadn't spoken more than a few complete sentences since their fight a month prior. And how they managed that while living together in the same house was a conundrum.

"Caroline," Giselle finally answered. "She just called to let me know her first few hours of matrimony have been happy ones. Mike hired a horse-drawn carriage to take them around town since the limo they snagged from the church only took them to the airport."

"Yeah, they, uh...chartered a jet. Those cooky kids."

"You're okay with all of this?" Giselle questioned; raising an eyebrow, skeptically.

Tre nodded. "Yes. I made my peace with Caroline. We finally became what we were always meant to be."

"And what's that?"

"Friends."

Giselle stared at Tre and considered what he said with naught but a simple nod of her head. "That's good to hear."

"Says everyone and their brother."

Cocking her head to the side and resting it in the palm of her hand as she propped her elbow up on the table, Giselle licked her upper lip ever so briefly as she looked down at his necktie.

"You looked nice today all dressed up in your tux, but you've always been the type to rather run around naked than deal with the constrictions of clothing, haven't you?"

Tre let out a small laugh as he focused on the table cloth and drew circles on it with his right pointer finger. "I s'pose so." Lifting his blue eyes up, the drummer smiled and stopped all movement. "Giselle..." he trailed.

"Yeah?"

"I love you so much...and...and I'm sorry for being such an ass," he blurted. "I didn't mean to hurt you or anything, but I just didn't wanna accept what I already knew, I guess. And...and I didn't mean it when I said I hate it when you pick me apart. I don't hate it. I love it, 'cause it means you get me and can understand me where no one else can sometimes."

"Well, I appreciate the acknowledgment," she smirked. Gently she moved her own hand across the table and covered it over Tre's. "I love you too. And I forgive you for being an ass, but I also want to thank you for being an ass, because sometimes I don't realize how annoying I can get with the analyzing."

Tre smiled and boldly scooted his chair closer so that his face a few inches from Giselle's. Pursing her lips in concentration, she leaned forward and grabbed him by the yellow cummerbund he wore; then brushing her nose against his.

"Gonna kiss me yet?"

With a quick nod, Tre Cool claimed his girlfriend's lips in a hungry motion. "I can't believe I went a month without kissing you," he whispered into her mouth.



The pair of bodies between the bed sheets rose and fell with every heartbeat while the warm Nevada air wafted into the hotel suite. Two sets of breaths panted heavily as lips crashed upon lips, skin smacked against skin, and fingers danced upon every contour.

Rolling around in bed on their wedding night, Mike and Caroline had long since stripped themselves of their tuxedo and gown and now wore nothing but each other.

Sitting up in her husband's lap — their bodies still very much connected, Caroline hunched forward and ran her hands up the center of his chest; her delicately feminine fingers brushing over his dusting of chest hair. Mike placed his hands on her hips and suddenly ceased her movements in order to hold her attention as he took her right hand and placed it over his heart.

"It beats for you," he whispered.

Caroline smiled.

Biting his lip in a way she was known for, Mike threw his head back when she continued her movements; the bed sheet slipping from around her waist as he gripped the mattress.

"I love my husband, I love my husband, I love my husband," she chanted over and over as they made love.

"I love my wife..." he replied with a satiated sigh; his blue eyes closed and his thin lips forming a content smile.



Tre walked side by side with Giselle up to the porch of Mike and Caroline's home as she pulled a set of keys from her hand held purse.

He'd left his tuxedo jacket in the cab that had driven them to the house and was parked in the driveway with its engine still on as the cab driver waited patiently for the drummer to return.

"I don't understand why you aren't coming home to my house tonight; why you're staying here when you haven't lived here in months," he muttered.

Giselle paused and turned her face to look at him. "Because Mike and Caroline are away and she asked me to stay here to keep an eye on the place until they come back," she answered as if it were common knowledge. "Plus, we can use this time to start over."

"You lost me."

"We never really courted each other," she began. "We went right into 'friends with benefits' territory."

"Yeah...and?"

"And I think it'd be nice if we start over, where you come to pick me up for dates," she informed, turning away from him to put the key in the lock and opening the door up. "And if you're lucky, you'll get a kiss on the first date."

"What about sex?"

"Maybe after the third date," she said with a smile; starting to disappear inside, though still visible in the darkness. Then, she added, "If you're lucky."

Tre gave her a knowing smirk, cocked his head to the side a little and then reached out for her hand and bent forward to place a kiss on her knuckles.

"Well, until we meet again, milady...I bid you adieu."

Giselle giggled a little as she flashed him some teeth with her smile. Her blue eyes sparkling in the darkness, he watched her take her hand back and withdraw into the house; closing the door.

Hesitating for a moment, Tre slowly walked backwards from the front door and then turned around with a skip in his step as he sauntered back to the taxi; snapping the fingers of his right hand against the palm of his left.



A couple days later, Mike was standing amidst the white sands of an undisclosed Caribbean island's beach; watching Caroline splashing around in the blue, salt water of the Atlantic Ocean.

She wore a white bikini that resembled the bikini both Heather Graham and Mike Myers wore in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and her hair was wet and stringy around her face from dipping underneath the water's surface every so often. And watching her smile at him from only a few yards away made him smile in return.

With his hands on the narrow hips of his lean body, his fingers brushed the material of his black swim trunks with the white stripe on the sides. His sunglasses shielded his eyes and his bare chest, arms and legs were already garnering a healthy, bronze tan from having been in the sun every day that they'd been in the Caribbean.

"Aren't you gonna come swimming with me?" Caroline called out, squinting as she looked at him and how incredibly delicious he appeared to her.

Mike smirked. "I just like watching you," he called back.

"And I, you. But that doesn't stop me from getting my swim on now get your hot man ass in this ocean or I will drag you in here and drown you!"

Lifting his sunglasses and pushing them on top of his head in a way that made it look as if he had a headband on -- because of his chin-length platinum hair, Mike smirked and sauntered down the beach; the soft sand squishing between his toes like peanut butter the closer he got to the water's edge.

As soon as he was ankle deep in the Atlantic Ocean, Caroline met her husband halfway and grabbed his hands and pulled him in further until their bodies were pressed together and the salt water encircled them at their waists.

Wrapping her arms around Mike, she brushed her nose against his skin and then kissed his chest.

"Mmm." Caroline smiled and almost purred when she felt Mike bend at the knees to wrap his arms under her ass and lift her up; only to sink further into the water. "Mike..."

"Yeah?" he murmured into her ear.

Instead of replying, Caroline let her hands sink below the surface of the water as they moved a little further out, but still a safe distance near the shore. Her hands discreetly found their way inside his swim trunks and began to slide them off his hips; causing his eyes to widen a little.

"Care, babe. There's a family on the beach over there," he gestured over his shoulder with a nod of his head.

"We're far enough away that they won't notice. Plus, there's no lifeguard to slap our wrists for being a bad boy and bad girl," she replied with an impish grin.

Mike simply shook his head and leaned forward to claim her lips in a feverish kiss. "Okay," he caved. "Have your way with me."

"I love it when you act like a whore," she laughed, pushing his trunks down and adjusting her bikini bottoms as their bodies became closer.

And as the newlyweds found a new place to make love, Mike practically clawed at Caroline's back when the sensations began to wrack through his body.

"I love you, Caroline...unh, God, I love you..."

"I love you more," she cooed.



With you I am revealed
All my shame, all my faults and virtues
Behold body, mind and spirit
Heart and soul devoted all to you

Can I get a witness
Bless this day sacred and holy
Sacred and holy...