Chapter 119 Huxley

• Huxley
• It’s the first time I’ve been a best man. I’ve spent the past twenty-four hours making sure people are comfortable and happy, and it’s just felt like an extension of my day job, which comes so easily to me I’m convinced anyone could do it.
• But as I stand with Mack, and I watch him tremble as his bride-to-be approaches down the aisle, I suddenly feel the real reason I’m here. I’m the equivalent to Sidnie’s father for the groom. I’m a symbol of Mack’s past, and I’m giving him away to her, helping him pass from bachelorhood to the respectable role of husband and, God willing, father, in time.For so long we’ve all—me, Mack, Victoria, Titus, Elizabeth—lived without a thought for the future. Selfishly devoting our lives to work and fun, convinced we’d be young forever, and certain that we didn’t want the tie of a relationship, not wanting the complication, as Titus said. I wonder if he’s feeling what I am right now—that sudden shock like a bee sting inside me, as I watch Mack waiting for his bride, and realize I’m experiencing not smugness at being the single one, but envy, bone-deep, at the thought that he’s making that transition onto the train into manhood that I’ve somehow not managed to board.