The Only Exception | W2S

FOUR.

I scoff. "You'll be lucky."

I was sat at the front table, with Freya, Talia, Simon, Josh, Harry, and Cal. Faith and Ethan were officially married now, and the ceremony was absolutely beautiful.

Faith looked incredible, everything so far was absolutely perfect. Little Olive had played her part perfectly, and everyone's hearts had been bleeding when she'd run down the aisle to her parents.

Which meant that now was the time for the speeches, with Harry up first. Since or disastrous meeting earlier, I hadn't been able to concentrate on working on the speech, nor had I even had the time to do so.

Harry stood up, and headed to the front, in front of the microphone. Immediately, he told a joke off the bat, which had everyone in the room laughing.

His speech was great, like I'd told him it was earlier. He had a knack for it, really. You wouldn't have been able to tell that he was feeling socially awkward, or nervous. And it now meant that I hadn't to go up and follow it with a half finished speech.

Whilst everybody was still clapping, he headed back to our table, giving me a warm smile in passing. Maybe in different circumstances it would've calmed my nerves, but not today. Not right now.

As I headed up, and stood where he stood, the pieces of paper in my hands still, I felt seconds away from freezing up on the spot. I spotted George and Arthur on a table near the back, and both of them gave me a thumbs up, their grins wide. Still, it didn't reassure me the way it normally would have.

"Alright, hello — wow, it's going to be a little challenging to say what I was going to say after that speech, but I'll do my best," I start, laying out the pieces of paper on the stand in front of me whilst everyone started to settle back down again.

"I spent a long time deciding what to write for this speech — but I think I'm going to take some advice, and do what I do best. Just chat to you all about this wonderful marriage we've witnessed today," I say, taking a deep breath, before pointedly looking in Harry's direction, where I notice him smiling back at me.

"Faith and Ethan. I haven't known you both as long as everyone else here has, but in the time that I have, it was easy to tell how much love you both have for each other. Faith, it has been an honour being your maid of honour — even if I did have just under a week to prepare what I needed to," I say pointedly, but smiling at the newlyweds. "You came into my life when I needed it the most, and now I couldn't imagine life without you. Ethan, thank you for letting me third wheel, even if sometimes it was you third wheeling," I continue, the whole room laughing when he turns around and starts nodding his head, confirming it was true.

I continue, bringing up some memories of Faith and Ethan, and Olive, too at some points.

"I'm going to keep this short, because I know everyone wants to get on the dance floor and drink, but I hope everyone here finds a love that is as great as the love we've seen here today. To Faith and Ethan!" I finish, picking up a champagne class from the table behind me, and raising it.

Everyone else does the same, and I head back to my table as the DJ starts up the music again.

"That was amazing, Holly!" Talia congratulated me, giving me a hug. "I had to get the tissues out for the last bit. You know you're included in that, too," she says gently, referring to my words about finding love.

"Maybe one day. I'm not fussed about that right now," I shrug.

"You never know. It might be closer than you think," she says vaguely, before leaving towards the dance floor with Simon.

"Told you it would be fine," Harry's voice speaks, walking up to me, a gleam in his eyes.

"Yeah, well — I'm only saying this once, but maybe you were right. Talking about the people I love is apparently easier than I thought it was."