A few weeks back a friend of mine got married in Ireland. Lucky for me, I was a bridesmaid in the wedding so in a way had to go. I met this particular friend in college and how she met this guy is in fact a story all it's own. A definite sweet one, about how long distance can work, but we can save that for another time. The Groom's side is Irish/English, her side is American. She made sure to prep us all ahead of time for the fact that "the Irish keep the party going all night." The wedding was fantastic but the main character in this story is the Preacher and how during the reception festivities I had what will more than likely be the best conversation with a Preacher I ever have in my lifetime.
My religious background is rather conservative and drinking at a wedding just doesn't happen. Having an Englishman (we'll call him "shot boy") buy me shots around 3am here was a fantastic change from what I typically have to go through. (Actually the wedding festivities would have calmed down hours ago had this been in America and dealing with my family.) Shot Boy had slowly started making moves on me around 2:30am and at 3am he was buying shots and we were dancing. Just before 4am the party began to migrate from the reception hall to the pub across the lobby of the hotel, this was apparently when the Preacher finally decided to call it a night and had the man in the lobby call him a cab. This was also the moment I was entirely shocked to see the Preacher even still there at this time in the morning. As he's sitting in the lobby waiting a group of young men gather around him and Shot Boy puts his arm around me and takes me over to them. This is where he proceeds to drunkenly tell the Preacher that he is "in love." The Preacher looks to me, and I look dumbfounded. I have no clue if this kid is talking about loving me or some other girl he knows, needless to say, I do not in fact love him. As Shot Boy continues to drunkenly ramble the Preacher suddenly says, "just remember, the lower you go the bigger the sin." I couldn't help but laugh at this as well as I can see a sort of double meaning there if you catch my drift. About 5 minutes and more ramblings later the Preacher's cab arrives and as he heads to the door his groupies follow, still chattering away and me still held there by Shot Boy's arm. Before leaving the Preacher turns to me, takes my hand in both of his and says, "Would you like to come home with me and be my housekeeper?" Again, dumbfounded. Is there some sort of Irish custom I don't know about? I think I politely declined, but to be honest that part is a little blurry. What is not blurry however were the Preacher's last moments with us that night. After he released my hand he looked intently to me and intently to Shot Boy and pronounced, "No one will be having sex tonight except for me and my wife," then with a wave he turned and left. Wow. That caught me off guard a bit!
In the end, as far as Shot Boy and I were concerned the Preacher was right. We did not in fact have sex that night. We did however have some nice little make out sessions while dodging in and out of various corridors of the hotel and startling some of the caterers.
