When my five year college reunion came around my wife and I didn't attend. While I had a number of good friends it really wasn't that important to me. My wife was seven months pregnant at the time, so the trip would have been a huge inconvenience. There was minimal risk for travel, but I didn't want to make the drive knowing I'd be stopping every half an hour for a bathroom break. Additionally it was during the hot summer months, so she would be pretty miserable doing all the events. I didn't relish the idea of introducing my wife to any of my ex-girlfriends or old drinking buddies. I wasn't an athlete, so I didn't have old teammates to catch up with. I kept in touch with enough of my old friends that I wasn't out of the loop in their lives. I didn't feel nostalgic enough about my old college that I needed to give the old alma mater another opportunity to hit me up for donations. So I sent in my regrets and didn't think twice about it.
However, it was a different story two years later when my wife's five year reunion came around. I guess Kayla had more of an emotional attachment to her school. She went to a small liberal arts college, while I had attended a regional state school. She had majored in Liberal Studies, while I had majored in Statistics with a minor in Accounting. She liked to wear her Bowman College scarf, while I owned almost nothing with the Southern Michigan logo on it. Our daughter, Kamille, was 20 months old and while we were toying with the idea of trying to have another child we weren't pregnant.
I had never visited Bowman College where my wife went to college. I met Kayla a year after she graduated. She was working at a hospital in development and fundraising. I was working as a pricing analyst at a company making medical devices. We met at an event celebrating the fifty year anniversary of the founding of the Chicago Medical Institute. She lived in one of the western suburbs, while I lived on the north side. It wasn't a whirlwind romance, but we dated for about a year. She wasn't overly experienced dating and informed me that I was the first man she'd ever had sex with. When we got married I could only remember one friend of hers from Bowman who attended the wedding.
So this reunion seemed a great opportunity for us to go back and visit Kayla's old stomping grounds. We took the whole family down for the weekend. There were family friendly events Saturday morning followed by the homecoming football game. In the evening there was a more formal reception planned. There was a family that Kayla babysat for while she was a student, and the little girl she had babysat for was now old enough to babysit Kamille for us.
At one of the Saturday events we met Kayla's old roommate, Brienne. She was statuesque with straight black hair in a modern hair style. She and Kayla enjoyed catching up and sharing stories while I mostly watched Kamille, who wasn't interested in the face painting but liked shaking the cheerleader pom-poms. When Brienne found out we lived near Chicago she revealed that was moving to the Chicago area soon due to a work change. I tried to find out more about her background, but she was really focused on reconnecting with Kayla.
At the evening event, Kayla and Brienne met up again. I spent some time talking to Trevor who dated Kayla briefly freshman year. I learned a little bit more about Kayla in college. Apparently she was a massive flirt, but didn't date much. Trevor didn't think she dated anyone after they broke up. He wasn't even sure why they broke up, but it was Kayla's decision. That matched what Kayla had told me. When we first started dating she confided in me that she was a virgin. We certainly had sex before we got married, but she had always insisted I was her one and only. I didn't get the vibe from Trevor that he had any unresolved feelings toward Kayla; he was married with four kids and his wife was pretty, though quite curvaceous.
Kayla and I danced briefly, but she mostly spent time chatting with Brienne. Brienne had definitely gone all out getting dressed for the event, and she caught my eye more than I care to admit. I'm a faithful husband, but I don't mind looking at a woman who is dressing to draw attention. She was dressed like a woman who was on the prowl, but for some reason she spent the night staying close to Kayla. She and Kayla had been roommates for a few years, though they hadn't kept in touch when Kayla moved away after graduation. I didn't remember Brienne coming to our wedding or even if she was invited. I tried to kept Kayla company while she caught up with her friend, but I really couldn't participate much in the conversation. Whenever I was around they were talking about old times. I enjoyed hearing the stories about Kayla, but mostly they talked about old classes and classmates.
We stayed out late, but not too late. We picked up Kamille from the baby sitter and went back to our hotel. Kayla was very affectionate, but we didn't want to wake up Kamille sleeping in the other bed, so we didn't have sex. Sunday morning there was a brunch. We met Brienne again, as well as Laura and Rachel, who also took classes with Kayla. I think I remembered Laura from our wedding. Kayla's bridesmaids had been her cousins and one high school friend, but Laura was one of the few friends from her time at Bowman who had attended our wedding. For some reason there was a weird tension between Laura and Brienne. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it seemed there was some animosity between them or some unresolved history. Laura made a real effort to keep me and her husband part of the conversation with Kayla and Brienne so we wouldn't be excluded. It was a pleasant afternoon, though I mostly talked to Laura's husband about football.
We went back home and settled back into our daily grind where we lived on the north side of Chicago. Brienne bought an upscale condo on the west side when she started her new job. Kayla spent lots of time there helping her unpack and decorate her condo. Our house was baby-proofed, so there was a limit to what we could do as far as decorating. By contrast, Brienne had expensive vases on antique tables and modern artwork on the walls, including some erotic photography. It was certainly not the sort of place we would create with small children in the house. Kayla really enjoyed spending time with Brienne picking out stylish accent pieces to place on shelves or colorful cushions for the divan. Since Kayla had lived on the west side she was able to take Brienne to her favorite restaurants and boutique shops. They would go antique shopping and be gone all Saturday while I stayed home with Kamille. Since Brienne was unmarried and childless she had more disposable income and liked to spend it on their excursions.
One day I received a major shock when Kayla came home with a very different haircut. Her hair was cut short and bleached blond. She looked really good, but it was different from how she normally looked. Kayla confessed that this was how she wore her hair in college, and while I had seen it in a few pictures, but had never seen it in person. Spending time with Brienne was reminding her some of the great things about her college days and she was starting to get nostalgic for those times. When she would come back from her day trips with Brienne she was always telling me about happy memories from her college days rather than tell me about anything that the two of them had done that day.
However Brienne never warmed up to Kamille and I. She recoiled from Kamille and stated a strong distaste for children. She made it clear she had no interest in children for herself. According to her she was only interested in children once they were old enough to buy her alcohol. Brienne found Kamille to be loud and demanding of attention she had no interest in giving. I also don't know why Brienne never got on with me. She just treated me as either very boring or very foolish, turning most everything I said into a kind of joke. I'm pleased that Kayla always rose to my defense and never took Brienne's side, but I really did not enjoy spending time with her.
It was about four months after Brienne moved to Chicago and maybe two months after the haircut that Kayla and I started trying for our second child. We didn't get super serious with tracking fertility, but we stopped using condoms and let nature take its course. Brienne was giving Kayla lots of grief about giving up alcohol and always described how children and pregnancy would put an end to all fun. Brienne even insisted on treating Kayla to get a wax job on her privates. Kayla had let her pubes grow out after Kamille was born, not wanting her daughter to freak out when her pubic hair grew in. Somehow Brienne had convinced my wife that this was something to do to resist becoming a stuffy minivan driving housewife. Of course it didn't matter to me because I loved my wife no matter what form she was in.
Now I was never big fan of going out and drunkenly carousing about town, but I had one exception. Southern Michigan, where I went to school, didn't have any intercollegiate athletic programs, but I did grow up cheering for the Michigan Wolverines. So when the big Michigan - Ohio State game weekend came around I would always get together with some local fans to watch the game and get rowdy. It was a chance to see some friends and cut loose a little. After graduation I gravitated toward some people at work who went to Michigan and would gather with them to watch the game.
I was invited by Dave to join him and his cohort at a sports bar in downtown Chicago to watch the game this year. This place could seat a few hundred people and had so many TV's you couldn't not see one from anywhere in the place, including the bathroom. It was the go-to place for Wolverine fans and it was going to be wild for big game weekend. Kayla joined me once or twice before Kamille was born, but it really wasn't her scene. This time, she made plans for a girls' weekend away with Brienne. The two of them were going to drop Kamille off with her parents Friday night and then go to some spa retreat getting facials, massages, pedicures, and the like. Kayla would pick up Kamille Sunday morning and return home. We knew Kamille would enjoy some time with her grandparents while Kayla was getting pampered and I was getting my testosterone fix.
The girls left town early Friday afternoon to beat the city traffic. I didn't have any reason to rush home, so I worked late finishing up a few projects. I didn't want any unfinished business hanging a dark cloud over my weekend revelry. I picked up some pad thai on the drive home and settled in for a simple meal by myself. I was watching the sports talk shows discussing tomorrow's game. Normally I can't stand watching sports entertainment, because I have more important things to do in my life than get immersed in the lives of spoiled millionaire athletes, but I made an exception for this game. I really like to follow the college athletes who were least likely to go pro. I especially rooted for the walk-on players. I was drinking an IPA with my pad thai and getting mellow.