little fears // Shourtney bits & pieces

2. april, dressed in all his trim, hath put a spirit of youth in everything

They had agreed to be each other's dates to Olivia and Sam's wedding months before, but because the paradigm has recently shifted, Courtney was no longer sure if it was a good idea.

So far, the only person who knew about them was Damien, and even that was not on purpose — one day, about a week after the bacherolette, he happened to walk in on them making out like the world's horniest teenagers in a seemingly secluded spot in Mythical's headquarters. He got paralyzed for a second, then yelled "Thank you, Jesus!" in a very Southern accent, hugged them both so fiercely he almost broke their necks, and that was that. Damien knew. Courtney didn't doubt he'd keep his mouth shut — and they really, really wanted to keep this under wraps for the time being, so that they could take things slowly. But going to a wedding together... She just doubted her own ability to keep her hands off of her secret boyfriend in public. Holy fuck, Shayne Topp was her secret boyfriend. How did that happen again?

But after a lengthy discussion, and it was so long mainly because they kept getting distracted by each other's mouths, they agreed that coming clean before Olivia's wedding would not be fair to her.

"I don't wanna steal her thunder," Courtney said. "It was not fair when Rachel did it to Monica, so it'll definitely not be fair if Courtney does it to Olivia."

"You've seen Friends too many times, that's for sure. But yeah, you're right. Olivia's the easy part, though..."

Shayne didn't need to say more, his nervous glance was enough. Ian. They had to tell Ian. One day... Courtney suggested in about three years. Shayne disagreed. "Let's tell him in, like, a decade. That should be just enough time for me to relax."

"He's not going to fire us, Shayne."

"Fire? Nah, of course not. We're too awesome, and that's not what I'm worried about. I'm pretty sure he'll just murder us in cold blood."

He was joking, trying to make this lighthearted, but Courtney knew he was extremely stressed about it. She, weirdly, was not. She had a strange feeling Ian would be okay with the revelation.

But firstly, everything had to go smoothly on Olivia and Sam's wedding day. They had to go back to "just best friends" mode (not that it ever worked that well for them, anyway), no suspicious touching, no equivocal glances. And above all, absolutely NO bathroom stall smooching. Basically, their every interaction had to be kosher as fuck. That's why the main plan was to avoid each other as much as possible.

*

And so, on a beautiful mid-April Saturday, the show began. Courtney spent most of the day getting ready and helping Olivia anyway, so they weren't supposed to see each other until the drive to the reception. Shayne was perfectly okay till then, only slightly nervous. Just keep your dirty hands to yourself today, Shayne, and everything will be fine. In the morning, he went indoor rock climbing with Damien to blow off some steam. The workout, along with Damien's soothing voice constantly reassuring him while they ate an early lunch at In-and-Out, lowered Shayne's anxiety levels significantly.

When dressing, he went for black jeans, a crisp white T-shirt, and a short-sleeved shirt with vertical black and white stripes. It was both dapper and indistinctive enough, considering that the main goal for today was not to stand out from the crowd.

And then Courtney had to go and ruin the inconspicuousness, obviously, with her perfect black dress, and her perfect pumpkin spice hair, and her perfect sparkly makeup, and...

"What?" she asked when he opened the door to his apartment and stared at her for longer than he should. "It's just a dress, dude."

"Just a dress?" he repeated, stunned. "You look like you bought a sexy witch Halloween costume for like ten grand in Gucci."