Man Enough

by Beth Burnett

  I spin around, glancing down at my dark gray, one-shouldered dress.

  “I do, don’t I?”

  Danny laughs and pulls me into his arms. “You look like a goddess.”

  “You’re completely biased.”

  He takes my hand and we walk toward the entrance to the park.

  I smile as I look at the decorations. Leah and Steve and Erik have outdone themselves. There are wooden chairs set up on both sides of the aisle. Flowers line all of the rows, and cover the altar. There are several larger arrangements to either side of where the groomsmen and bridesmaids will stand. A large canopy covers all of the seats, just in case of rain. I glance up at the clear blue sky and smile. Not much chance of rain today. I turn to Danny and smile as a light breeze blows his hair into his eyes. Brushing it back with my fingers, I lean in and kiss him on the mouth. He pulls back and looks deep into my eyes.

  “Are you ready?” he asks me.

  I nod, nervous. “I think so.”

  “We’re here, we’re here,” Leah is calling and waving as she strides into the park.

  “Leah, you said you were going to be here before all of the guests!”

  “I am!” She looks around. “We still have twenty minutes. And besides, everything is finished. It looks wonderful.”

  I nod. “You and the boys did a great job.”

  “We sure did,” Steve says, walking up behind me.

  He and Erik are wearing designer suits and matching ties. Danny reaches over and brushes imaginary lint off of Steve’s impeccable suit. Steve and Erik have become great friends of ours. We often double date, or just get together at their house or ours to drink wine and eat a fine meal. I moved in with Danny about a week after we got back together and — though we definitely had a period of adjustment, we are doing just fine. Better than fine, in fact. We did have a tense few days after Danny’s tenants moved out and we had a rather heated argument about what to do with the other half of the house. Danny won that argument and Leah moved in a couple of months after I did. It helps having a wall between us, but I keep wondering how long it will take for her to move on. Granted, she spent a few months in the Caribbean last year, working on a dive boat, but she came back. She always comes back. We decided to just not renew the lease on my apartment. I gave most of my furniture to charity, but we kept my incredible bed. And I am walking distance to work now. Danny walks me to work most days and meets me out front when I am finished. Every time I walk out at the end of the day and see his face, I thank the goddesses for bringing him to me.

  “Hi guys!” Sarah breaks into my thoughts as she and Lynne walk toward us, arm in arm.

  I run at them and pick up Lynne, twirling her around. Leah and Danny hug Sarah, then Danny takes Lynne from me.

  “You both look fantastic!” I exclaim.

  They do, too. Obviously southern living is agreeing with them. Oh yeah, Lynne and Sarah got back together for real a couple of weeks after the big benefit a couple of years ago. Lynne applied to several colleges and got into one of her first choices, which prompted Sarah to make a big decision. She ended up renting out her house in Ohio City and she and Lynne moved to North Carolina to be close to Lynne’s school. Lynne keeps insisting that after school is over, she is going to come back and work at the Care Center, but she and Sarah seem so happy in North Carolina. Danny and I have driven down a couple of times to spend long weekends with them and they have an incredibly full life down there. We discussed moving south as well, but I think Danny is attached to Cleveland. And I’m not sure I want to leave my job and my friends and family.

  We decided not to tell Gram and Gramps about Danny’s biological sex. There are limits to the acceptance levels of old people and Danny didn’t want to test it. Besides, they both love him as he is. And Gramps even got Danny to do P90X with him, which means he is looking almost as buff as Andy these days. I love him buff, and I loved him before he was buff. It doesn’t matter to me, though I do love squeezing his biceps.

  I put my arm around Danny on one side and Leah on the other side, smiling around at the group.

  Steve catches my thoughts. “We’ve come a long way, baby.”

  Leah smiles. “It’s been a long time since we were all together like this.”

  Danny nods. “We’re just missing one piece.”

  I look around, wondering where Andy could be. Guests are starting to arrive. I can hear car doors closing in the parking lot.

  Steve grins. “Well, Erik and I will start seating the guests. Leah, shall I start with you?”

  He puts out his arm and escorts Leah to her chair in the front row. Erik guides Sarah and Lynne to their places. I look at Danny, concerned.

  “Where do you think she is?”

  “She’ll be here,” he insists.

  “We can’t start without her.”

  “Let’s move out of the way.”

  We move off to the side and watch silently as Steve and Erik seat the guests. The photographer walks up and puts out his hand.

  “Hi, I’m Alan, the photographer. Are you the bride?”

  I shake my head.

  “Bridesmaid?”

  “They are in the cottage with the bride. They’ll come down the aisle once the music starts.”

  The photographer looks confused. “So who are you?”

  “I’m the best … woman.”

  “The best woman?”

  Danny grins. “And I’m the best man.”

  I look up and smile. “And here comes the bride.” I pause, then chuckle. “The other bride.”

  Andy strides across the park, looking sleek and beautiful in her tuxedo. Her hair, which has grown kind of long in the past couple of years is slicked back in kind of a David Bowie cut. She looks gorgeous.

  Danny wraps her up in a huge hug, grinning as she towers over him. He looks down at her feet.

  “Doc Martins?”

  “Nothing else.” Andy turns and takes my hand.

  “Davey-baby,” she says, smiling. “You look beautiful.”

  “Well, I am your best woman after all.”

  She leans in and kisses me on the cheek. “You still are.”

  We all link arms and walk up to the altar, where Danny nods at the pianist to start the music. I glance once at Andy as the music starts. She’s glowing. She looks happy. I suddenly get a knot in my stomach at the thought of Andy loving another woman for life. Danny reads my mind and reaches over for to give my hand a brief squeeze. I glance back at him, my love, my life. I catch Andy’s eye one more time before she turns to look down the aisle at her bride, Alice. I glance at the guests. Alice’s parents and siblings are sitting in the front row on one side. Leah is sitting in the front row on the other side, with Gram and Gramps. Andy’s family. Andy’s family is my family. No matter what else happens, no matter who else we love in life, Andy is my family. I blink back a tear and smile at the beaming couple.

  About the Author

  Beth Burnett is a queer, feminist, late-in-life student who loves 70s K-tel, eradicating the forces of evil, classic literature, Neil Gaiman, and the Oxford comma. She recently moved to Ohio from the Virgin Islands because beautiful beaches, clear Caribbean water, and perfect weather can be such a drag. Though she is in love with her hometown, she has decided that the first time the weather gets cold, she is going to pack her dog into her solid gold mini-van and drive to California, where she will sleep on her sister’s couch, learn to surf, and go to lesbian poetry readings. “Man Enough” is Beth’s first novel, though she is currently working on a second.

 

 

 
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