Hello Readers! This is Part One of a Three-Part story. All three parts are written and will be posted in order.
Chapter 1: Memories
So there I was standing beneath the ivy-covered trellis, wearing my white dress, and carrying a bouquet of the most beautiful red roses I had ever seen. In fact, I didn't even like red roses! But these ones were beautiful. We were outside, in a garden. Some...mansion or something that was rented cheap, but didn't look cheap. The garden itself sat near the river and it was a cool autumn day. There was a slight breeze in the air which tossled my veil and distracted me, for one moment, from the butterflies in my stomach. I smoothed the veil and took a deep breath of the crisp air. And, in that brief reprieve, one thought stood out in my mind.
"Can you believe this? Two years ago, I never would have expected to be back here again." And I smiled to myself at the thought. Hell, two years ago I wouldn't have imagined that anything like this was even possible! It was almost surreal, that...
From beneath the trellis, I heard the music strike up. The music was very loud for a moment, and then receded back. The burst had interrupted my musing and pulled me instantly back into the moment. We didn't want to spend money on a band or even a lone cellist or something. The ceremony was going to be small. A second marriage for me and all. It was an iPhone piped through the stereo system that my fiance's cousin had brought. But now that it was under control it sounded lovely, really. And the butterflies were back.
The music was a cue and I turned slightly to look at the entrance to the garden. And there, standing just outside of a small brick arch, was Lisa. She saw me look to her and I saw her eyes brighten, he mouth spread into a pleased grin that was as familiar to me as my own face in the mirror. In a certain manner of speaking, Lisa had been my best friend for, God, what was it? Over twenty years. She was, I believe, the only other person here who was present at my first wedding, a particular irony. And she looked absolutely, stunningly beautiful. Just as beautiful as the day I'd met her. I was overwhelmed by the feelings I felt for Lisa in that moment and, once again, my mind drifted back two years earlier.
* * * * *
"Holly, we are really just so glad that you are here!" Lisa said, as she dropped a mass of pillows and linens at my feet. We were in the lower floor of a split-level home that Lisa shared with her husband and two children. I was in a large room that contained a sofa bed and a pool table. Lisa smiled as she spoke. Smiling too hard, in fact. Coupled with the fact that it was the fourth time she'd said that since I'd arrived half an hour earlier, I sensed that maybe Lisa wasn't all that glad to see me.
No, that would be putting it too harshly. I think she just...didn't know what the hell she was supposed to do with me.
"It has been a long time," I said, trying to downplay the awkwardness that we both felt. For a moment, I asked myself what I was even doing here. It was crazy. Two days earlier, out of the blue, I had called my former college roommate and basically invited myself over. She had, hesitatingly, agreed that I could sleep in a spare bedroom (which doubled, evidently, as a game room). I'd driven for the better part of two days and showed up here almost at midnight. And now I was here and...Christ, was I insane?
"I think the last time I saw you was..." Lisa trailed off, looking up at the popcorn ceiling of my temporary bedroom. I remembered that little quirk! Staring off into the distance when she thought! Though, I had to say, while her mannerisms had remained the same, Lisa had changed a bit in the years since we'd graduated from college. I mean, hell who hadn't, right? It was twenty years or so earlier!
But I felt like Lisa had changed a bit more than I had. She looked like a suburban mom. Maybe because that is what she was. Her blonde hair was tending towards gray at the roots and was cut much shorter than it had been in college. Her face was the same. The same big, brown doe eyes, the broad (but short) nose, the freckles on her cheeks, the thick lips and pointed chin. But there were crows feet at her eyes now, lines on her forehead. Her body had gone from waifish to something approaching curvy, with much larger breasts and wider hips.
I don't want to give the impression that Lisa's aging had, in any way, diminished the beauty she'd possessed when we were in college. On the contrary! She was still achingly pretty, enough to make me jealous. It was just...different. I had, of course, seen in many times over the years since college and kept up with her on social media and on monthly phone calls. But this was the first time I had thought about the cumulative effect of the changes the years had caused.
I felt like I had changed less. My hair was still raven-black with no dye needed. I had some wrinkles, I was sure, but I felt like I'd had crows feet in college! My breasts were still small and high on my chest, my body still slender. Lisa looked like she had grown into a life. I looked like I had been in a holding pattern.
"It was six years ago, I think," I finished for her, "When Ray had that conference in Seattle and I drove over from Tacoma." Ray was Lisa's husband. He was upstairs, already asleep.
"I had almost forgotten about that! That was a really lovely afternoon," Lisa said and that time, at least, it sounded like she was saying something that she meant. I smiled. We stood then, for several seconds, in complete silence. I could hear the sound of a mini-fridge kick on next to the pool table.
"We are just..." Lisa started.
"So glad I am here?" I interrupted and Lisa laughed sheepishly.
"Sorry," she said and I shook my head, 'It is just...I mean we barely see each other anymore! It is a little overwhelming to have you here! Overwhelming in a good way! But, Jesus, when was the last time you were even on the east coast? Let alone here in town?"
"I think like...15 years ago, when my sister graduated," I said. Ray had gotten a job at the university we'd all attended right out of school. They'd never left our old college town.
"Oh, that is right!" Lisa said, shaking her head, "I almost thought you hadn't been here since..."
"Since I married Justin?" I asked and Lisa's cheeks got red, "You don't have to be embarrassed and you can say his name! We are divorced, he isn't the Candyman or something." Lisa laughed a little. The divorce, a long and surprisingly bitter thing for a couple with no kids or even pets, had come through the day I'd called Lisa. In fact, it was getting the actual decree in my hand that had pushed me, almost unconsciously, into calling her.
"No, I know," she said, "It was just, on the phone, you said you wanted to come out to get a little distance from...all of that, and I am bringing him," she said that word with a kind of disdain you can rely on a good friend to provide, "up first thing."
"It really isn't a big deal, but I appreciate that you hate him now," I said and Lisa laughed. But her mouth pursed a moment later and she tilted her head at me, seriously,
"You know, I never thought it was my place to say anything, but...well, you know you deserved better than Justin, from the beginning," she said. I smiled wearily and shrugged.
