The wedding day had finally arrived, and I was super excited. The only wedding I'd ever been to was Evelyn's, but as the maid of honor it had been a busy day, full of problems to solve. This time I wanted to enjoy the experience to the fullest, and spend a good day in company of William and his family. I was actually nervous about meeting his sisters, I had a feeling that he had already told them about me, and I wanted to make a good impression. The morning passed in a flash, William and I had breakfast in a few minutes and immediately got in the car to get to the venue. We arrived just in time for the start of the ceremony, so we went straight into the church. The main nave was decorated in lilac and white; flowers were at the end of each bench and adorned the entire altar. William and I sat at the third bench, the one reserved for the bride's relatives. As soon as we arrived, a girl who looked a lot like him immediately came to meet us, followed by another girl who held her hand.

'Little brother, how long!' said the first.

"You know I don't like it when you call me that," he replied. She shrugged her shoulders, smiling at him. Then, she turned to me, and she introduced herself.

"You must be Noelle. I'm Christie, sister of the bride and of your friend here." she said happily. She had a lot of energy, probably due to the importance of the day.

"Yes, it's me. Nice to meet you," I replied with a smile.

"Why didn't you tell us she was such a beautiful girl?" she whispered to William, but not in a low enough voice that I wouldn't hear her.

I turned so he wouldn't notice the redness that was spreading across my cheeks. He, too, got nervous for a moment, running his hand through his hair.

"Are you nervous, little brother? You should learn to hide better how tense you are. You always run your hand through your hair when you are," Christie said, laughing. It was true then. I noticed that William often tended to make that move when he was nervous.

"Christie, why don't you introduce us to your date instead of talking about me?” said William to take the attention away from him.

"Oh, right. She's Hannah, we met at a party. And anyway, date is a reductive term. You should say "why don't you introduce us to your girlfriend?", understood?” she replied confidently.

"Hello.” Hannah replied shyly.

I replied with a wave of my hand and while William was talking to them, I looked around again. There weren't many people, but the newlyweds didn't spare themselves. From the doors of the church you could see the dinner table, and there too it was full of flowers. In addition, there were small outdoor fireplaces to keep us warm, and the staff was pulling the tent curtains to prevent the cold from passing inside.

"Noelle, what do you do for work?” I heard a voice ask me. At that moment I turned around and saw Christie looking at me.

"Online business.” replied William, making strange gestures with his hands.

"It's so much more than that.” I replied with an annoyed look at him “It's a... "

But I couldn't finish the explanation that we noticed the groom enter the church and we knew it was time to take our seats.

***

As soon as we were all seated, the ceremony began. The organ began to play, and the bride appeared at the back of the church. Everyone in attendance stood up to watch her walk down the aisle accompanied by a man of about sixty, a little taller than her, and I spontaneously asked William if he was their father.

"No, my parents aren’t here today. That's the father of the groom, Aaron.”

I wanted to ask him why their parents weren’t there, but I could tell from his tone that he wasn't in the mood to talk about it, and it certainly wasn't the right time either. I turned my attention back to Julie, who was so beautiful. The white tulle skirt made her look like a real princess. No one could take their eyes off her, including Aaron.

I turned back to William and noticed the happiness in his eyes when he saw the newlyweds close together. "He must care so much about her," I thought. Sometimes I wondered what it was like to be the big brother. Being the youngest in my family, I grew up surrounded by the teasing of my older siblings, but I’ve always thought it must have been completely different to have a younger brother or sister, I had never felt that feeling of protection towards someone.

***

After the ceremony, we moved to the ballroom while we waited for lunch to begin. I couldn't wait to eat, but I couldn't help but dance when I heard one of my favorite childhood songs play.

"Come on, come and dance," I invited William.

"I don’t even know what song it is," he commented as "The Rhythm of the Night" was making everyone move from side to side.

"Come on!" I insisted, but he didn't move.

So, I approached him, took him by the hand and dragged him into the middle of the track with all the others, inviting him to at least move his legs a little. But William stood still, which may have been to my advantage. The only times I'd seen him dressed so elegant were when he went to work, but I was always half asleep. Seeing him there in front of me in a suit and tie was enough to take my breath away even without him dancing and smiling at me. But I couldn't help but notice how weird he was acting. He didn't talk, he stayed on the sidelines, and I couldn't get him involved in any of the activities. He was different from how he usually was.

"You're strangely quiet today, you know?”

"I'm not in a very good mood, Noelle.”

"Why not? It's your sister's wedding, you should be overjoyed.”

"You noticed my parents aren't here, didn't you?"

"Yes, and....?"

"Let's just say they weren't the best parents in the world during our childhood, and knowing that they should be here today but they're not here... It reminds me of why we haven't spoken in years. And they're not good memories.”

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive. Do you want to talk about it?”

"Don't worry, maybe later. I'm going to get a drink, do you want anything?”

"No, thank you.” I replied, watching him walk away to the bar. I had never seen him so down, something really serious must have happened in his family. Evidently he didn't want to talk about it, so I decided to pretend nothing happened, even though it was really difficult for me. I wanted to wait for him to go and sit at the table together, but when I saw that he got stuck in the crowd, I went alone to the table to wait the last minutes before the meal. That's when Julie approached me.

"Noelle, right? I've heard a lot about you.”

"Yes, it's me. Best wishes to the two of you.” I replied smiling.

"Thank you! I came to say hello to you because I wanted to meet the girl my brother can't stop talking about." how much had that boy told his sisters about me?

"Oh, I don't think he talks about me that much," I said, trying to sound indifferent.

"You'd be surprised. Anyways, I wanted to thank you for coming at such short notice."

"No problem, really. In fact, I was pleased to receive the invitation."

"You don't know how happy I was to hear that William was going to bring a girl friend. Not that his bros aren't nice, but I didn't want to hear them talk about the gym and rugby even on my wedding day, you know what I mean?"

"I totally understand, every time I come home I find him stuck to the television."

"I hope you make him pay all the electricity bill.” she replied with amusement.

"I'll see if I can get it in his mail.” I replied laughing.

She paused for a moment, looking around. "I was very pleased to talk to you, but I'm afraid I'll have to go back to the other guests.”

"Don't worry, enjoy the rest of the party.”

"Thank you Noelle.” she replied, smiling as she walked away.

The party continued into the evening, with food, music, and moving speeches. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have to go to the bathroom to fix my dripped mascara at least two or three times. But the most beautiful speech had been William's. I had just returned to the table after retrieving two slices of cake, one for me and one for him, but when I arrived he was gone. I looked around, and noticed that he was approaching the bride and groom's table. That's when he took the microphone and started talking.

"Julie, Aaron, thank you for trusting me with this microphone in my hands, as I know how important this day is to you. I really thought the opening speech would be Christie's, but here I am. Probably because I'm better looking and I am the best sibling." The whole room laughed, including me, as Christie gave him a fiery look. But he was really beautiful on that stage, with the blue suit and the lights reflected in his eyes.

"Alright, it's time to talk about these two. When I first met Aaron I thought he was perfect for Julie. First of all, they share the same hobbies. An example? Traveling to remote places and arriving at Christmas dinner saying that the gift is their very presence, given the risks of the places they go to. It seems that on-site trips just aren't part of their routine. Also, I've never met anyone who sleeps as much as they do. They were really meant to meet, because they couldn't sleep that much with anyone else. Considering how much they sleep, I'm surprised they're still awake at this time of night, in fact." At that moment, Julie rested her head on Aaron's shoulder, pretending to be asleep, and then began to laugh. It was amazing how William was able to engage them with his words. "There have been many moments in my life when I've thought about giving up on love, struggling to open up and trust people, but the two of them have shown me that it's possible to find a person to share those feelings with. I often wonder who that person will be for me." As he said this, he turned to me. Slightly. But he turned to me. With the excuse of the mascara dripping from crying I ran to the bathroom, but the truth is that my heart was pounding, and I needed to calm down for a moment. His movement had been subtle, but my gaze had met his. I was sure of it. I didn't know what it meant, I didn't think William had those type of feelings for me. I mean, there were times when he gave me the impression that he wanted to give me signals, but I never had any concrete evidence. I stopped the flow of my thoughts; I was getting too lost. I looked in the mirror and came back to the present. While I was there, I took the opportunity to adjust my dress, but the zipper got stuck as I did so. I tried to fix it myself, but there was nothing I could do. So, I wrote to the only person in the room I knew.

When William arrived in the bathroom I was still in front of the mirror, trying in vain to fix my dress by myself.

"Can you help me?" I asked, pointing to the stuck zipper.

"Of course," he said.

He approached one step at a time, and began to untangle the fabric trying to touch me as little as possible, but every brush of his fingers stopped my breath. My heart was beating so fast that I began to take deep breaths to calm down. It was the first time we were so close and so in touch, and I couldn't find the words to describe the feelings I was experiencing. I could even feel his breath on my neck because of how close we were. I felt my cheeks flush, and as soon as he finished I parted from him as quickly as I could.

"Thanks for the help," I said embarrassedly.

"No problem," he said, arranging his hair. He was nervous... Because of me? No, he was probably just a little tense about the speech. Or at least, that was the answer I gave myself to keep my thoughts at bay.

"Beautiful speech, anyway," I told him as we walked back into the main hall.

"Oh, thank you. It was actually a bit improvised, but I'm glad they liked it."

I only replied with a smile, because if I had opened my mouth I would have asked him why he had turned to me in saying the last sentence, and I could not afford to do so.

It had really been a beautiful day. Despite William's initial bad mood, there had been some decidedly unexpected twists. The only problem with it is that now our relationship seemed more... tense. After our meeting in the bathroom, we hadn't said a word to each other, and he had been silent even the whole way back, but when we got home we exchanged a few words.

"Thank you for coming. As you noticed, I wasn't exactly in a good mood, but it helped to have you there with me."

"Don't worry, I'm always happy to help a friend out," I replied with a comforting smile. Although the word friend took on a completely different meaning when used to describe William.

"Goodnight Noelle."

"Goodnight William."