"Ah ok, you both got me. Happy now?" he shot back, half-smiling, clearly embarrassed at how he overreacted.

"Paula has never even seen the inside of a lesbian bar, fear not," I said, trying to smooth things over a little bit.

I had to admit that he was a better sport than I would have first thought, and our conversations about the details of the upcoming celebrations felt very comfortable, almost jovial. My friend's future husband left about forty-five minutes or so later, and we left within minutes after that. Everything seemed to have fallen in place for the big event not far off.

On the night of Paula's bachelorette...