At the sound of the Skype ringtone calling through her kitchen, Belle rushed over from where she had been reading the paper in the early morning sun to her small dining table. "Good morning, Papa!" she answered as her father, Maurice, adjusted his laptop so she could see his face better through her own screen.
No matter how many times they had these little internet dates since they both had moved further away from each other, her father always seemed to have the laptop screen tilted too far back and the volume turned down to an impossible level, but she never minded it as seeing his white eyebrows wiggling wildly as he concentrated on getting everything set up just right was one of her favorite things. Second, of course, to when he would finally fix his set up and look back at her with pride.
"Ah, there it is! Darn thing just needed a bit of tinkering." He looked over the rim of his glasses at her, smiling broadly. "And there she is, my Belle! How are you today, ma belle petite fleur?"
"Très bien!" Belle praised him and blew a little kiss to the screen. "Your French is shaping up nicely. I'm well, busy since now a new class as started with the online program I'm in and still working full time at the shop to keep it running."
Her father listened as she explained about the new hires and her eventual plan to extend store hours to draw in the late afternoon shoppers in the area. She knew her father worried about how much she was working, so she downplayed exactly how many late nights she had spent studying before getting to work before sunrise. All of it was well worth the work if it meant that someday her business could be run without her having to hover over it.
As the conversation slowed down, her father asked her, "Say, did you get those cookies Beatrice sent you to sample?"
"Just this morning," she replied, reaching over to grab the silver wrapped box with the white label reading 'Ms. Potts' Tea and Cookies' on the front of it.
Beatrice was a sweet, older woman her father had been casually dating, if such a term applied to a relationship like theirs, for a few months now. She was not only an excellent baker but blended her own tea combinations to sell at the farmer's market. She suspected that's where the two had met since Maurice's Landscape Paintings and Souvenirs was a regular stand there but her father had been selectively quiet as to how the good-natured woman had come into his life. Either way, it made Belle ridiculously happy to see her father moving on with his life at last after too many years spent grieving.
Jiggling it slightly in front of her screen to show him that she had it nearby, Belle added, "I haven't opened it yet since tonight is sure to be decadent but thank her for me, please? I'll dig into them soon and let her know which ones I'll want to order for the shop. It's the right touch I want for the counter sales."
She took another sip of her morning coffee, grinning when she saw her father do the same. The mug in his hand looked homemade, painted with bright colors and she wondered if Beatrice's grandson, Chip, had made it for him.
"Good, good! Now, how are things shaping up for the wedding? Did he arrive yet?" He asked with a darker look on his face, making it clear he was asking about Gaston.
Maurice Duerre was known for being protective of his daughter and had made quite the public display when he saw her run into the house crying one night because of him, making her promise to never see Gaston again. It had taken her the rest of the night to convince her father rushing off to the bar to fight the much larger and stronger man was completely out of the question and that while emotionally hurt, she would be okay in time.
Carefully, she said, "I wasn't sure he would come...and I think LeFou was having his doubts too. But, yes Papa, he's here and well, actually behaving. He's been doing really well for himself and seems more focused on helping his best friend than acting like a buffoon. Which is a nice change, actually."
He grunted, effectively ending that part of the conversation but not before adding, "He's certainly no Adam."
"You're right, he's not," she agreed quietly.
Perhaps for the better.
Several hours later, Belle stood anxiously in front of her apartment's front steps, fluffing down the dark cocktail dress she was wearing for tonight's rehearsal dinner and pulled her jacket tighter around her. At her meddling friends' insistence, Gaston was on his way to pick her up rather than her taking a cab over to the venue.
Belle was wise enough to know what LeFou and Stanley were trying to arrange but thankfully after her conversation with Gaston she knew that he was aware of their intention to hook the estranged pair back up. She felt better knowing there was an understanding between them now. Besides, she had sold her car over a year ago, preferring to travel by foot or bike which made more sense in the crowded city and a free ride to tonight's gathering was welcome.
Despite her insistence, mostly to herself, that there was nothing between them, being picked up by the dark-haired man made her feel entirely too much like it was a date. Something she hadn't experienced in quite a while. Belle wasn't sure if her nerves came from the fact it was Gaston coming to get her or that she was waiting on the side of the street in a dress to be picked up in the first place and yet it wasn't as uncomfortable as she would have imagined it.
Nerve-wracking, yes, but she wasn't known to back down from a challenge. A trait Belle was sure LeFou and Stanley were using against her.
As she spied his red pickup truck headed down her street she couldn't help but giggle at the sight of it. Nothing quite said Gaston like the blood red truck with the rust gathering around the fenders. She even wondered sometimes if he would end up buried in the damn thing. When he pulled up, she hurried over to the passenger door, not wanting him to come around and open it for her.
"It's been a decade since you got this truck, right? Isn't it time for an upgrade?" Belle asked.
"Good evening to you too, Belle," Gaston replied with a flash of a smile. She glanced over at him dressed in a white collared shirt with a dark tie, the brightness of the fabric highlighting his tanned skin, no doubt from his more active lifestyle. "And yes," he added as she climbed into her seat. "It's been about that long I guess, although that's not a pleasant reminder of how much older we're all getting."
"You're getting", she reminded him, happy to re-direct her thoughts with a bit of joking. "I'm two youthful years behind the rest of you, remember?"
He chuckled before pulling back onto the main road, glancing back down at the mapping app on his phone. "Oh, I remember. I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I saw you walking down by the bleachers. Took a nasty hit in practice that day because of it."
Belle felt her face heating up again, thankful that it was covered up by the darkening sky. "Yeah, I remember that too."
For a few minutes, they were both quiet and she suspected they were both lost in memories like they had found themselves in a few times the night before. She helped him navigate to the venue, surprised he didn't argue with her when she offered directions different from his phone. There really was a lot about him that had changed and yet he still had this Gaston-ness she had always found herself drawn too, even though she could never really admit to it.
As he pulled into the parking lot in front of the entertainment hall, she heard him clear his throat and waited quietly for him to speak but despite a few sharp inhales of breath he didn't make another sound.
He's nervous, she realized. Gaston is actually nervous around me.
The dinner was fantastic and Belle spent it a table surrounded by Stanley's family while Gaston sat with LeFou's uncle and a more random assortment of wedding party members. It made for a visual contrast to how the two grooms had grown up.
Stanley grew up with a larger family that embraced his sexuality while LeFou had been raised by a more conservative uncle who had taken a lot longer to accept his nephew's true self once he 'came out' a few months after high school. At the time, Belle had been hanging more with both LeFou and had seen the care he had for his friend when he would fret over never being fully accepted by his family. On one occasion, she remembered the pair holding hands and walking down the street together as if Gaston was using his popularity and intimidating size to dare anyone to say anything to or against LeFou.
She had kissed him that night for the first time, on the cheek, but still it meant something to her. It was those memories of Gaston's softer side that was making seeing him now all the more confusing.
A confusion that doubled when everyone around started tapping the sides of their glasses in encouragement as Gaston stood to give the first speech of the night.
"Good evening, everyone." He started in a deep, confident voice. "I'm Gaston Miller, for the few of you who don't already know me. Since the grooms want to ensure tomorrow is all about them...and understandably so because who would want this," Gaston gestured to himself dramatically, winking at the small crowd which earned him a few catcalls, "to distract the wedding guests. Hm? Well, they have graciously let me say a few words as LeFou's best man tonight so bear with me.
"I've known this man for a long time, long enough to not only know his actual first name" Belle smiled as LeFou faked a large gasp. Gaston chucked and continued,"Yes, yes. I was there!"
The crowd tittered and he waited until it was quiet again before speaking. "You might see me here today as a fairly confident man and, okay, okay... cocky at times but LeFou knew me back as a scrawny, little boy who came to our first years of school with tears still drying on my cheeks and went home with fresh, new ones. He could have ignored me or joined in when other kids teased me but LeFou made it his mission to make me laugh.
He made funny faces behind the teacher's back and big plans for childish pranks and he even found ways to compliment me on the things I was doing well at. No matter how much trouble it got him into with Mrs. Erickson, our fierce- I mean, favorite grade school teacher, he did anything to make my day better. A couple of months later and we were no longer just Ilan and Gaston, the outsiders...we were LeFou and Gaston- the dynamic duo. We stayed hooked at the hip all through school and I graduated mostly because he helped me." At this LeFou stood and made a little bow to the applause. Belle caught Stanley's eye and winked. The dynamic duo indeed.
Gaston continued, "LeFou even bedazzled a graduation cap for me to keep above my desk at home to remind me that we were going to make it. And today, we still are here...older and wiser, well on his part mostly, and the dynamic duo!" Belle applauded with the rest as Gaston paused with his arms spread out dramatically at the end, hints of his love of performance peeking out. He looked over the room before spotting her and his smile broadened.
LeFou raised his glass high, "No gets a crowd going quite like Gaston! Thank you, old friend."
"Oh, I have more," Gaston replied warmly and made a calming motion to the room. When he continued, his voice was more solemn and Belle found herself leaning forward to listen closely.
"This man is kind, encouraging, loyal and has a heart so big even I can't lift it. When these two finally admitted they liked each other at our high school graduation party, I knew my friend had found someone equally as kind. And getting to know you, Stanley, over these years has proven it. I've seen you work as a team to earn your next degrees, to create the life you have here together and I know you both have a lot ahead together. And, uh, well.. I've seen how each of you look at each other...and that says it all." Gaston paused, his eyes looking down at the white tablecloth for a few seconds before he lifted his head back to look at the soon to be married pair.
"LeFou's been my best friend for nearly my whole life. Even when I wasn't good to him, he's always been good to me. He'll always be there for you too, Stanley, as I know you will be for him." Belle watched closely as he turned to look at the now embracing couple, his eyes glittering with unshed tears. "I wish you both a lifetime of happiness."
Gaston drove Belle home at the end of the night, his eyes focused on the road to keep himself from staring at the way she settled into his passenger seat sleepily, her honey brown eyes gazing at the moon through his window and the way her hair was starting to frizz from a night of being kept brushed to one side.
She would never believe him but he liked her hair more disheveled like it had been when they were comfortable together and she spent days with her brown locks tied up in a messy bun or windswept and wild. He always thought of it as meaning she was relaxed when she didn't feel the need to conform which Belle rarely did but he saw it in her sometimes that she felt the urge to look and act a certain way.
It's now or never, he thought and took a deep breath.
"Belle, saying what I did tonight in my speech made me realize I need to say something to you too. I'm sorry...truly sorry for hurting you. Multiple times. I'm sorry I thought keeping up with an act was more important than being honest." He sighed again, taking in her silence before continuing, "I was a jerk, well I'm still a jerk but I am working on that. You deserve better than what I did...what I am. I miss our friendship."
Hesitantly, he moved his eyes briefly from the road to look over at her, half-scared that she would be glaring at him for taking years to apologize without begging her to give him a second chance in return for it but saw something much sweeter beside him.
Belle was curled against the door, fast asleep. Gaston nodded, feeling lighter despite her not hearing him and concentrated on getting the beautiful brunette safely home.