Will saw the movement out of the corner of his eye even though his attention was focused solely on the drink in front of him. A guy sliding down the bar towards him. He turned, ready to deflect any attempt at conversation or a pick-up line. When he saw it was Carl he turned back to his drink.
Will was in no mood to chat with his nearly brides's first husband.
"I heard about the wedding."
Will grunted. He noticed Carl didn't say he was sorry to hear about it. Most people did. He wasn't sure if the absence of pity made this conversation any better. If he'd any room to care about anything other than what had happened at the church three days ago, he might have found this conversation awkward enough to move away but, Will thought, after that it really didn't matter.
"You look like I did."
He turned to look at Carl, ready to end the conversation.
"I'm still a mess really but I'm getting there."
Carl did look a little worse for wear. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a week and his eyes were bloodshot. Will noticed that that didn't stop the ladies though. There were two women eyeing him up from the corner table. He couldn't feel too sorry for the guy when he looked that good. Will knew he looked like crap himself. He hadn't slept since the wedding. And he'd been drinking since the moment he'd left the church.
Could he even call it a wedding?, he wondered. When the bride hadn't actually turned up at the altar. He shook his head.
"I guess she did a number on us both."
Will didn't know whether to disagree or not. Fact was they were both here in a bar getting drunk over a woman who didn't love them back.
"At least she married you."
"And look how well that turned out," Carl raised his glass to his lips and downed it in one. "She didn't ever really want me."
He motioned for another and a top up for Will's half-empty glass.
"Yeah, but how did you manage it? She didn't even make it one step up the aisle to me."
Will hadn't meant to speak to him but that thought had been eating at him since the church.
"I blindsided her. Charted a private jet to Vegas. Booked the wedding chapel. Pretended we'd swing by and see if they had a vacancy, just for fun. And the rest as they say is history."
Will scowled. He wasn't sure who he hated more. Carl or himself for screwing things up with Emma.
"Look at it this way, at least she saved you all the paperwork of an annulment. Lawyers charge like..."
Carl trailed off. His bleary gaze now on Will.
"Wait, she did, didn't she?"
Will didn't reply.
Carl shook his head. "She married me but she slept with you."
He took another drink.
"I should have waited. She didn't want to. And I thought when we were married it would be different. But she didn't. And if there was something wrong then it had to be you. Because it seemed like it was always you with Emma."
Will wished the guy would stop rambling. The last thing he needed to hear was a rehash of his former fiancees former relationship.
"Does it matter? You were her husband and I was her..." Will didn't finish. Lover didn't seem enough but soulmate sounded wrong given that she'd ditched him at the altar. "Neither of us has her now."
"I wouldn't have given up on her, if I'd known what I know now."
The guy was slurring his words heavily. Will didn't know which one of them he felt more sorry for.
Was that how he'd be a year from now?, he wondered. It seemed possible that he'd never get over it.
"I'd have been patient. And I'd never have asked her to choose. Because I never should have made her choose."
Will sighed. He really didn't have the patience to stay and listen to this drivel. There were always other bars.
He looked down at his half-finished drink, ready to swallow it in one. Carl clutched his arm as he raised the glass.
"Because she was always going to choose you when I made her choose."
Will looked him in the eye. There was a clarity about his words despite the alcohol.
"But she was my wife."
He felt like hitting Carl then, the anger surfacing. Emma had married Carl but not him. And now she was gone. He shook his hand off his sleeve instead and stood to go. He didn't need this.
"And I would have done anything to keep her. I should have done anything."
Carl shook his head, confused by his own thoughts. "Because things don't always happen in life just the way we want them to."
He was jabbing at the air now, as though he could pin his thoughts down that way.
Poor bastard, Will thought. He was miserable but he didn't want to be sitting in a bar in a year's time wondering what he should have done differently. If there was a better illustration of the futility of his current approach then he couldn't think of it. Drinking wasn't going to get him anywhere.
"Some things are worth fighting for," Carl said staring into the bottom of his empty glass. "And she's always loved you." He flicked his hand gesturing for another drink.
Will felt sorry for the guy but he had to go and as he moved away from the bar he noticed the blonde in the corner get off her stool. Will knew what he had to do now. He had to find Emma and he didn't know how but he had to make this right.