The Best Man's Toast
A free B2-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
Seated together at a friend's wedding for the first time in four years, Silas and Meret finally admit what really ended their friendship.
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Silas hadn't seen Meret in four years, not since the argument that ended their friendship. It ended whatever else had been quietly growing between them, too. Standing across the aisle from her at Rosalind's wedding rehearsal felt strange. Both of them were in the wedding party by accident of loyalty rather than choice, like being handed a problem neither had finished solving.
"You cut your hair," he said, because it was the only thing safe enough to say out loud.
"Four years ago, yes," Meret said, though she was almost smiling. "You're observant."
They managed the rehearsal dinner by talking to everyone except each other. It worked, mostly, until the wedding planner sat them beside each other at the head table the following evening. The best man and the maid of honor were traditionally seated together, and nobody had thought to ask if that was a problem.
"I should have called you after everything happened," Silas said quietly, halfway through the meal. "I've been meaning to say that for years."
"Why didn't you?" Meret asked, not unkindly.
"Pride, mostly. I told myself you didn't want to hear from me, which was probably just an excuse not to find out if it was true."
Meret turned her glass slowly on the tablecloth. "I waited for that call longer than I'd like to admit," she said. "Eventually I decided you must have meant what you said that night, and I stopped waiting."
"I didn't mean it. I was angry, and I said the worst thing I could think of because it was easier than saying what I actually felt."
The band started playing before she could answer, and Silas was called up to give his toast. He hadn't planned to mention any of it. But standing there, watching Rosalind and her new husband, he found himself talking about how easily pride can outlast a friendship worth keeping.
Afterward, Meret found him near the bar. "That was either very brave or completely reckless," she said.
"Probably both," Silas admitted. "Can we start over? Properly, this time."
Meret considered it for a moment that felt much longer than it was. Then she held out her hand, as if they were meeting for the first time, and said she thought they could try.
