A Birthday to Remember

Once upon a time, can't believe how long ago, I had a very short-lived affair. A few shacks, a couple dates, a ride home from Purdue - really nothing to write home about. 

Except that the affair was with one of my brother's best friends. 

(Brother may have won the battle in high school with the "overprotective big bro" thing he had going on, but once I turned 21...all bets were off.)

So yeah, I ran into Friend at the bars one night - he was at a bachelor party that Brother had (conveniently for me) bailed out on, and I was just out of college and trying not to be "Brother's little sister" anymore. 

But Brother was still very much in overprotective mode. Like, "bodily harm would result" levels of overprotective. Therefore, we kept it very, very secret. 

(Which, naturally, was half the fun.) 

I'll spare you the details. Like I said, short-lived affair. I moved to DC, he called sporadically, we rekindled a few times when I was home visiting. End of fun, but not very exciting story?

Last time I saw him was at Brother's wedding - three years ago. He was there with a date but texting me from the next table, flirting with the idea of a rendezvous behind the wedding tent. (In a moment of rare good judgment, I opted out)

The sporadic phone calls continued all through law school - "Hey B, it's me - I'm in town, we should get together." I carefully avoided them all. (Woot, more good judgment!)

Because, wait for it, by this time Wedding Date was his GF. And they were living together. And she had become BFFs with Brother and his wife...  

Of course she had.

You may ask: where am I going with this?

Guess who's hosting Brother's birthday party tomorrow? That would be me. 

Guess who will be attending? That would be Friend. 

Guess who else? That would be Wedding Date/GF/BFF

This oughta be good.

(And for the cherry on top: Have I mentioned that the guest of honor is in AA? And thus I will be navigating this minefield without a cocktail in hand?)

So really, by "good", I mean "potentially never-before-reached levels of uncomfortable"