“He was actually really nice,” she promised. “I... God, I know we’ve all grown up but Sam looks grown up, you know?” Except I didn’t know. I had somewhat actively avoided looking around too much in case I saw him. It was dumb, but it was still what was happening.
Charlotte must have sensed it. She reached out with her free hand, rubbing circles over my arm. “Is it going to be weird for you?” And wasn’t that the golden question!
“Of course not.” Bringing my chin higher helped me to be more confident. “How many times have I run into Jake? Or have you run into Matt? We’re all adults; we’re perfectly capable of behaving like it.”
Charlotte knew me too well to look entirely like she believed me. But this was her engagement party; we weren’t going to ruin it talking about a relationship that had ended over a decade ago.
We’d barely even been real adults when we broke up. Things would be different now. We were 30!
“It might be awkward for five minutes,” I allowed. “But after that, we’ll be civil to each other and we’ll remember that it all ended a decade ago.”
“Alright,” Charlotte shrugged. “I’m not going to question how you deal with this.” That was probably for the best. I felt like if she did, I would quickly have to admit that I wasn’t exactly sure just how I was going to handle anything. It felt like forever since Sam and I had last seen each other. Probably because it was.
A lot of things had changed in ten years. I’d become a lawyer and moved back to Lunengrove. It had taken a while to readjust, but now I couldn’t imagine not living here, not being a part of this town. Home was home and cities had never been as nice to me as Lunengrove.
“Can we talk about how nice this party is?” Charlotte asked, drawing me back to said party. I laughed, looking around. It was very nice, just the sort of party Charlotte deserved. “I’m getting married!” she informed me with a small squee.
“You are! And we’re going to have the most brilliant summer ever so you have loads of memories to look back on.” As maid of honor, it was up to me to plan a lot of those memories. Lucky for Charlotte, I was exceptionally good at planning things. Not to mention, we’d known each other for so long that her tastes were as familiar to me as my own.
Seeing that Charlotte’s drink was running low, I poured us both some rum, topping up the glasses with mixer before pressing one into Charlotte’s hand. “Once you’ve had a few drinks, you’re going to want to dance,” I predicated. “And I set up a special Spotify account for Pat to play from with only the best dancing tunes.”
“Oh! You’re such a great friend, Helena!” Charlotte exclaimed, making me laugh as she pulled me into a hug. Maybe the few drinks weren’t going to take too long. She was very far from drunk, but a light sort of tipsy was perfectly fine!
She took a sip of the drink I’d given her, giving me another wide smile. “You will dance with me,” she informed me. “I mean, sure, I’ll dance with Pat, but I want to dance with you, too. You’re my best maid of honor after all!”
Laughing, I nodded my head. “Of course. I have to get into practice for dancing at your wedding.” Charlotte was the only wedding on my schedule for this year; the rate had definitely slowed down. In my early 20s, it felt as though invitations to weddings turned up with every mail delivery. Now that we were 30, it was much less frequent.
So, in a way, it was true that the practice would be helpful. There weren’t a lot of dancing venues in Lunengrove. It was something I had expected to love about living in the big city.
But the truth was, dancing with a bunch of strangers in a club was a totally different vibe to dancing with my friends at a celebration of some big event in their life. Whether it was at a wedding, a Christening, or an engagement party, this was much more my speed.
“Okay, you finish that, I’ll go and talk to Pat about the music,” I instructed. “I’ll meet you in the living room in 15 minutes?”
“Plan!” Charlotte nodded. “I’m going to go find my mom, I must thank her for the cakes she’s made.” We hadn’t had the cake yet, but it did look spectacular. Charlotte’s mom was renowned for making excellent cakes. She was also meant to make Charlotte’s wedding cake, which Charlotte was very excited about.
Having agreed to start our dancing soon, I went off to find Pat. It hadn’t occurred to me that finding Pat would also mean finding his best man - Sam. The two men were stood by the table with the engagement presents. I couldn’t tell what they were talking about from here. Whatever it was, it seemed to make Sam laugh, his whole face lighting up.
Despite how hard I had tried, it was impossible not to let my heart skip a small beat at the sight. He’d always looked so good when he laughed. And Charlotte was right, the past two years had been very kind to him.
Putting on my brave face, I determined to meet the lion in its den. My pride would not allow me to run from this. Or even to hide until a later moment. Better to get the awkward part over with while I was still stone-cold sober.
Two seconds later, all my smart thinking went out the window. Sam’s gaze lifted. I could feel the moment that he recognized me. A hot shudder ran down
