“Anyway. I bumped into Sam but I totally forgot to ask him!” It had made me kick myself as soon as I got the bread safely home. Of course, there’d be opportunities to ask my favor in the future. It still bothered me to have forgotten. I didn’t usually let such things slip my mind.
Shaking my head, I shrugged. “I think we talked about… cats?”
“Cats?” Charlotte frowned. “You think that’s what you talked about? You don’t know?” I shrugged rather than bothering to reply fully. Charlotte knew me, she didn’t need me to explain how it might have been a bit distracting. Except, of course, I hadn’t planned for Sam to be distracting.
Charlotte could almost read my mind; she always had been good at that. But thankfully, like a great friend, she didn’t push the topic. When I heard her next question, I almost wished she’d stayed on the previous one.
“Is this weird for you?” she asked. “The... wedding dress fitting? I mean, I know you’re fine but last time we talked about wedding dress fittings, it was yours.” Something that had never manifested. Honestly, I had almost forgotten about that altogether.
The mix of Sam being back in town and this wedding was so full of different emotions!
“It feels different,” I answered honestly. Charlotte and I were best friends, yes, but we had quite different taste in weddings. “Your dress is nothing like what I would pick,” I explained, gesturing to Charlotte’s corset and long train. “It looks great on you - but I don’t think I’d be able to carry it off.”
Charlotte nodded. We shared make-up, sometimes, but that was about as far as it went.
The biggest similarity between my imagined wedding and Charlotte’s was the venue. That was a little weird. But this wasn’t the first wedding I’d attended in my local church. Everyone in town got married there!
“Besides, we never really got far enough to plan my wedding,” I carried on. “I only dreamed about it. Isn’t this different from what you dreamed about?”
Charlotte gave the question some thought. Ever since we’d been teenagers, she chewed on her lower lip as she thought about things. Now it made me smile. Seeing her do it in a wedding dress seemed to highlight just how far we’d come in our friendship. Finally, Charlotte gave a nod.
“Yeah, this is very different than what I had imagined when I was twenty,” she nodded. “Do you think your expectations have changed, too? I know you thought about what a wedding might be like back then, but... it’s been quite a long while since.” And wasn’t that the truth!
My expectations had definitely matured. Even if there’d been no one since Sam who I’d thought I might settle down with, that didn’t mean my thoughts had never strayed to weddings. I’d watch Say Yes to the Dress or Love is Blind when I was in the mood for some ‘brain candy’ late at night.
“I’d think a lot more about two families coming together now,” I answered. At twenty, even though I’d loved Sam’s family, I had somewhat taken the thought of marrying into it for granted. “You didn’t ask if I’m jealous of you getting Mrs. Levesque as a mother-in-law,” I teased. “I definitely am.”
At twenty, my dream wedding had been all about me. That was how weddings were in the movies that I’d watched. Now that I was older, I’d actually want the groom to have a say.
“What did you want when you were twenty?” I asked. “Was it weird for you when I was engaged and you were single?”
Turning as instructed so the two women could check for any adjustments, Charlotte shook her head. “It wasn’t weird,” she answered easily. “You and Sam getting engaged was the least surprising thing ever at the time.” That made sense. Sam and I had been so in love since the first time we met; if I had seen that from the sidelines, I would have assumed an eventual engagement.
“I guess, I was a little jealous of the two of you. But I think everyone was,” Charlotte shrugged. “You were high school sweethearts! Everyone wants that when they’re that age.”
I could understand that. Sam had been so lovely to have, to know I could trust him, just to be with. Even though things hadn’t worked out, those memories were ones I would always cherish.
Giving me a grin, Charlotte added, “But turns out I just needed to meet Sam’s baby brother.” It was, of course, a joke. Charlotte had met Pat before they started dating, but when you’re 16 you’re hardly going to date a 13-year-old.
“And now I’m the one who’s a little jealous of the two of you,” I teased. It was different, of course. I was single right now, but I’d had the kind of love that Pat and Charlotte had. It wasn’t all waiting for me.
Though, hopefully, love was waiting for me. One day, I still planned to get married, to have kids. It would just mean being patient and waiting for the right guy to turn up.
“I remember when I was going through my poetry phase, I wanted to get married somewhere we could rent boats and go rowing,” I confided. “That definitely seems impractical now!”
Charlotte’s laugh pleased me. I knew it wasn’t at me. Or perhaps, it was somewhat at the younger me, but that was fair. I found it interesting to look back and compare how different things had felt back then. Probably a lot more emotional, too. As someone who was quite pragmatic, I’d never been overly emotional. Over and above that, there was a particular steadiness that came with age.
“Maybe in
