“Dude, what’s going on? Why wasn’t Julia invited?”
Silence.
Then, he exhaled, like he’d been dreading this. “It’s complicated, man.”
“Try me.”
Another pause. Then, in a lower voice, he said, “Claire’s parents. They’re… old school.”
My stomach dropped. “Old school?”
“They wouldn’t be comfortable with you and Julia there together.”
For a second, I thought I misheard him. I actually blinked at my phone, waiting for the punchline. “What?”
“They’re traditional, okay? Their whole family is. They have a certain… expectation about marriage and relationships, and they wouldn’t want—”
I cut him off. “Are you serious right now?”
“I know it sounds bad.”
“It is bad.”
“They’re paying for everything,” he continued quickly, like that justified it. “They have a huge say in the guest list, and Claire and I had to make some compromises. It’s not personal, man.”
“Not personal?” I scoffed. “So my relationship isn’t ‘appropriate’ enough for them? Julia isn’t ‘appropriate’ enough?”
Bobby sighed. “Please don’t make this a big deal.”
“Oh, so I’m making it a big deal? I just want to be clear: every groomsman gets a plus-one except for me? Even Chris, who’s literally still swiping through Tinder as we speak?”
Bobby groaned. “I didn’t think you’d react like this.”
“How did you expect me to react?”
He didn’t answer.
And that silence was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.
I hung up.
I sat on my couch, gripping my phone, trying to process what just happened.
Julia walked in, kicking off her shoes. “Hey, babe. What’s up?”
I looked at her, the woman I loved, the woman I had built a life with. How the hell was I supposed to tell her that my best friend—the guy who used to crash on our couch, who toasted to our anniversary, who called her “family”—didn’t think she belonged at his wedding?
She saw my expression and sat beside me. “What happened?”
I told her.
