Having studiously avoided reunions in the past, I think a lot of people were shocked to see me walk in the door 27 years after graduating. Why the change of heart? I had made friends with a lot of my old acquaintances from school. Some were friends; some were close friends, some I did not know at all. But thanks to Facebook our lives intertwined again and had become truly close to some of them. It was important to meet in person after this long absence and perhaps more importantly there was one particular face I was yearning to see; someone special who brought a richness and warmth into my life that had been absent for so long and after many years we were going to meet again.
Walking through the door memories came flooding back and I immediately bumped into two close friends. Little known fact was I was the captain of the Field Hockey team my senior year, and Bill Thomas and Simon Brady kindly remembered. We had a good time reminiscing about the team. Bill had come up from Florida and like me, did not bring his wife with him. Both Bill and Simon looked like they were in their mid-fifties and could not believe that I still played and bicycled. Of course Bill was one of the guys who was buying beer senior year because he looked old enough, time caught up with him. Still he had not lost any of his charm and a small group of the single women were hovering near to us as we talked.
The conversation wound down and I broke off to refresh my drink furtively looking around to see if I could spot my special friend. Two of the women who were on the peripheral of my conversation with Bill and Simon followed me.
"Hey Paul!" called out one, whose name escaped me.
"Yes," I replied, "Lovely to see you again after all this time." Crap! What was her name? A quick glance at her name tag told me it was Linda? That's not right....
"How have you been Linda?" I said gathering my wits.
"Great! My first time back in ten years," she answered, "How about you?"
"It is my first time back- ever!" I reply.
"Well you have not changed a bit! I see you are married, do you have kids?"
"Yes, a boy (16 years old, god help me) and a girl (10 years old), how about you?"
"I have three kids, two are in College and one is a junior in High School. We live in Chicago."
"Long way to come..."
"Yes- and my husband is working." She saw me glance at her left hand and smiled. "It is not what you think. My hand was swollen, I took the ring off. I have been happily married for 23 years."
"Congratulations! I think you might want to take some of that tin foil from the buffet and fashion something to put on your finger unless you want to get hit on all night!"
It was just like old times. Linda and I would tease each other mercilessly as we shared 3 common classes back in the day. She was easy to talk to, smart, pretty. We were good friends, but there were no sparks. Friends, that's it. And it would stay that way. We both got drinks, and then she peeled off to talk to her High School sweetheart, Bob. I am getting anxious that you may not have come but I continuing scanning the floor.
Out of the corner of my eye I see you walking towards the bar. You are wearing a floral print dress that provides ample opportunity to show your considerable cleavage. The dress sways in time to your hips as you approach the bar. Your hair is curly and cut shorter than when we were younger but the simmering sexiness of your voluptuous shape has not changed. Twenty-eight years has done nothing to dampen my response to you and my pulse quickens with anticipation, breathing a little shallower. You are wearing high heeled shoes which put a minor dent in the height difference between us and crane your neck as I reach down to kiss you on both cheeks.
"Hello gorgeous!" I say with more confidence than I felt.
"Hello Paul! I see you made it!"
"Can I get you a drink?"
"Sure, surprise me!"
I had just finished an insipid red wine (what do they know about wine in this part of the country, this people are beer drinkers!) and so I ordered two glasses of top shelf champagne. Only the best will do.
"Are we celebrating something?" you have a twinkle in your eye.
"Absolutely! Long, lasting friendships!" I reply. I lean into you daring myself to push further and whisper into your ear heart pounding so loud that you must surely hear it."And hot lovers."