"Seriously, Emma. You have tried on six dresses. You have to like at least one of them.”

"James, you don’t understand. None of these are right,” she complained from the opposite side of the changing room curtain.

“What about that red one? I thought it looked good on you,” he said, not mentioning how his heart pounded when he saw her, how he forgot everything he knew except her.

“That one? It made me look too big around the midsection,” she mumbled.

“No, it didn’t,” he said defensively. “It made you look amazing. I like it more than the white one.”

“You’d say anything, you just wanna get out of here,” Emma accused as she whipped open the curtain, dressed once again in her street clothes.

“I wouldn’t lie about dresses, Emma. That thing is important. You’re going to a wedding, you have to look good.” Nevermind the fact that he wanted to see her in a white dress, not her cousin's fiance. That he wanted to be the one making vows, not just listening to them.

She held up the different hangers in her hand. “So you’re sure that the red one was best?”

“I swear on everything that makes me your best friend, yes.”

God, did he want to be more than that. He wanted to be the one to hold her heart in his arms, not the one who had to pick up the broken pieces after another boy had left her shattered and alone. He wanted to be her permanent home, not the one she’d crash at when she was drunk at three in the morning. He wanted all of her, not just the small glimpses he got when she didn’t know he was looking.

He wanted to be the one who loved her, and got her love in return.

“Okay. If you’re positive, I will get it. But, you have to be my plus one.”

“I thought that was already implied.”

She smiled devilishly over her shoulder and she placed the other five dresses on the rack. “What are you trying to say, Douglas?”

“I’m saying I’m the only guy you’re comfortable enough to show off to your cousin, Campbell.” His voice was teasing, but his heart was breaking on the inside.

She shrugged. “You are, as always, not wrong.” Emma huffed a dramatic sigh. “Guess you’re stuck with me for the night of the eighteenth.”

“Guess I am.”

~~~~

“I’m gonna be with her all night,” he announced as he took another swig of his beer. “She’s gonna look beautiful all damn night and I won’t be able to tell her.”

The boys shared a look of pity. “Why can’t you tell her?” Mason piped up.

“Because she doesn’t feel the same, I know it. And I can’t ruin our friendship. I’ve been her best friend for a month and in love with her for two and a half months, and she’s repeatedly coming to me with these guys she likes, then back again later when they’ve messed her up. She trusts me, and if I tell her now then it’ll ruin everything we’ve built and she’ll hate me. I said to her that I loved her but she refused.”

“You don’t know that,” Andrew called. “For all we know, she likes you too and just hasn’t said anything for the same reason.”

“Yeah right,” James scoffed. He took another long drink.

~~~~

December 18th, 1993

Lauren looked like an angel as she walked down the aisle, there was no denying it. The white dress graced her figure, her gaze set solely on Emma’s cousin brother.

“She’s so pretty,” Emma whispered in James' ear as the bride passed by them.

“Not bad,” he mumbled in response, clearly thinking there was only one other person in this room who looked better, and he was sitting right next to her.

“Are you kidding? She’s gorgeous. Seth’s super lucky, I’d give anything to look like her.”

“I know someone prettier,” James whispered in her ear.

“Who?” Emma asked doubtfully, and James didn’t answer. She smirked in victory, but how was he supposed to answer that without giving everything away?

The vows were said and rings exchanged, a kiss was shared and then Jeremy was a married man.

The couple’s first dance was set to Valentine, and James couldn’t help but laugh to himself at the irony.

and even if the sun refused to shine even if romance ran out of rhyme you would still have my heart until the end of time. James had indeed found the one for him, and he’d fallen head over heels.

And Emma did indeed look perfect. The night-time air and candle light were giving her a glow, more heavenly and radiant than any star in the sky above.

You're all I need, my love, my valentine. The red dress he had chosen looked amazing, and she was like a goddess as she milled around the crowd, periodically catching his eye and smiling.

He smiled back half-heartedly, and he felt himself crumble a little as he later watched her find a man in the crowd who looked at her in all the wrong ways. She laughed at something he had said, hand brushing his arm as she brought her drink up to her mouth. Her hand in his as he escorted her to the dance floor.

“They’re a cute couple, aren’t they?” A feminine voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked to his side, and standing there was a girl. She turned and faced him.

“Pam,” she introduced, holding out a hand.

“James,” he replied politely, shaking hers.

“I’ve known Lauren basically our whole lives. How come I don’t know you?” Her eyes met his flirtatiously.

“I’m on the groom’s side. His cousin is my… she invited me.”

“Ah. Is she the one in the red dress?” She gestured to the dance floor, where she still danced with the man who now had his hands a bit lower than her waist. James swallowed his distaste and nodded. “How come she isn’t dancing with you?”

He took a deep breath. “She and I aren’t together. We’ve been friends for a month or two.”

“Just friends?” Pam raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” he replied shortly, still watching Emma sway back and forth.

“So she wouldn’t mind if I were to… steal you for the night?”

James whipped his gaze to Pam. “She wouldn’t, but I would. Please excuse me.” Without another word, he left her standing there as he walked towards Emma.

James tapped the man’s shoulder. “May I cut in?” Emma looked at him incredulously.

“Actually–”

“Thanks,” James said without allowing further discussion, taking his place in front of his best friend. The man grumbled before walking off.

“James, what the hell are you doing?” Emma whispered angrily as she placed her hand on his shoulder and resumed the dance.

“Saving you,” he muttered.

“From what? Will? He was nice!”

“He was groping your ass, Emma!” He hissed.

“You can’t dictate who I dance with, James,” she snapped back quietly.

James sighed, looking at his shoes, knowing she was right. “Can we talk outside for a minute?”

She scowled, but nodded. He squeezed her hand gratefully and led them away from the open gazebo.

“Tell me what’s going on,” she insisted as soon as they were out of earshot of any guest.

“He wasn’t looking at you right. He was looking at you like you were a piece of meat,” he tried to explain, reaching his hand out to her.

“That’s not your call to make, James, it’s mine.” She slapped his hand away.

“But you weren’t making it,” he pleaded desperately.

“Why do you even care?” She wrapped her arms around herself in the cold.

“Because I love you!”

“Well I love you too, but you don’t see me snatching my best friend away from any girl that comes his way!”

“I don’t mean it like that,” he all but shouted.

The silence that ensued was deafening.

“What do you mean, then?” Emma’s quiet, trembling voice broke the quiet.

“I’m… I’m in love with you, Emma,” he laughed humorlessly. “I care because you don’t deserve someone who will treat you right, someone who sees you for more than your looks. You deserve someone who loves you for your heart, for your mind, and your words. You deserve someone who loves you for all the reasons I do."

“I care because if you won’t let me love you, then you should at least let me make sure you’re being loved, not taken advantage of. I care because I spend most nights at home falling in love with the idea of you. I care because I love you, Emma.”

Emma was silent.

So was James. He just stared at his feet.

“If you would have just asked me,” her quiet, trembling voice cut through the air, “I would have said yes.”

James looked up at her, an unspoken question in his eyes.

“If you had told me you loved me, I would have told you that I wanted to try being with you. If you had asked me out, I would have said yes.”

“If… if I asked now, would you still say yes?”

“Maybe? I don’t know, James.”

“Will you go on a date with me?” He held both of her hands in his.

She looked up to his eyes, searching for any hint of this being a trick. She found none.

“Yes.”