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Five Years Ago
I sat outside a café at a wrought iron table haphazardly arranged on the sidewalk. It was hot enough to make the sweat drip down the back of my knees, but in the shade it was tolerable. Sort of.
D.C. summers were like this. A stifling heat settled over the city. It drove people inside to the museums and away from the monuments. I had the sidewalk tables to myself.
I sipped a lemon water, scanning my friends’ posts from last night. I looked up from my phone when a rare breeze slipped in between the buildings. The petals on the umbrella overhead fluttered once.
An alert popped up on my phone. It was a reminder there was a party tonight at Becca’s new brownstone. It was a housewarming. At least she wanted to call it a housewarming. Her boyfriend wanted to call it a kegger. He had the less sophisticated interpretation. It was his way of keeping things light—a joke. A throwback to when they were in college.
I still didn’t know how those two were going to live together. Travis seemed insistent on entering the arrangement as a roommate. Becca swore a ring was on the way.
She was happy, but I didn’t know if it could last. She spent too much of her time with Travis convincing him. Persuading him. Seducing him. It wasn’t the kind of relationship I wanted.
I told her before I left work yesterday that I would be at the party. The planning dominated our lunch and coffee break conversations all week. It didn’t bother me. I only worried that Becca was making a mistake. The kind that would break her heart.
There was one detail I hadn’t gotten to yet. I needed to pick up a gift on the way. There was a gift shop near my apartment. I could pop in and grab something before the party. I had used it countless times for birthdays I’d almost forgotten. Mother’s Day cards. Congratulations gifts. They had everything.
I had narrowed the options for Becca and Travis to two choices. It would either be a bottle of wine or an orchid. Both were appropriate choices my mother would be proud of. After skimming over the wine selection, I decided on the flower. It would probably last longer than the relationship and Becca could keep it when Travis moved out. I wasn’t a cynic. I considered it realism.
It was that practicality that confused people. As if I was some kind of anomaly because I was emotive, yet had a computer programming job. That I couldn’t be both girly and a computer geek. That being practical and logical somehow excluded me from craving a deep romance. A love that knocked the wind out of me. I could be all those things, couldn’t I?
I was running late for the housewarming. I had spent too much time trying a new smoky eye technique when I realized I was beyond the acceptable time to drop in. Shit. I zipped the side of my black dress. It was short. Even shorter when I stepped into the five-inch heels. I tucked the matching clutch under my arm and carefully held the orchid I had picked up at the gift shop.
I waited for my Uber to pick me up on the corner. Becca had moved to the other side of town. Travis was in banking. I still wasn’t clear about what he did. It was something that brought in a small fortune. It was the only way to explain how they were able to afford rent in this neighborhood.
I knocked on the door, noticing the brownstone next to theirs was for sale.
The door whipped open. “Sydney!” Becca tried to throw her arms around me, but I lifted the orchid before she crushed it.
“For you.” I smiled. “Happy housewarming.”
“Thank you. It’s gorgeous. Travis will love it. It’s just so pretty.”
I bit my tongue.
“Come in. Come in. I want to show you everything.”
I think I still expected to see boxes or at least the semblance of a couple trying to get organized in a new house, but the brownstone was the opposite.
“Becca, this is amazing.” I looked around at the fixtures and art.
“Thank you.” She grinned. “Travis likes it too.”
“That’s good.”
“When did you have time to do all this?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “All night. I almost didn’t pull it off.”
“It didn’t have to be perfect for the party. Your guests would have understood.”
“No. I wanted it this way.” She waved me along the hall. “Come on. Everyone’s on the patio. I know it’s hot, but we installed one of those mister systems.”
Mister system? Travis must make even more than I suspected. I followed her through the kitchen, nodding and smiling at strangers gathered around the island. She took me down a set of brick steps and we emerged in a courtyard at the back of the brownstone. The yard was separated by a brick wall, bordered with short shrubs. It had everything, including strings of patio lights overhead. It was like a magical little escape inside D.C. I never would have believed existed.
“Everyone, Sydney is here,” Becca announced to the small crowd huddled near the fountain.
I was surprised Travis was the first to walk over. “Hey, Syd. Thanks for coming.”
