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One
Calista
Spring
* * *
A knock on the café window startles me as I’m about to sip my coffee and a drop spills on my pants. I look out the window and Aubrey’s waving with a huge smile.
My best friend called first thing this morning, insisting I meet her here, that she had huge news. And since most of my clients in our small Alaskan town are family members, it was easy for me to reschedule my appointments.
She rushes through the front door, waving and saying hello to everyone who also decided to come to Brewed Awakenings this morning. You’d think she’s running for mayor.
But she’s not. I already know why I’m sitting here, and I’ve been dreading this day for almost a decade, although with each passing year, I knew it was guaranteed to come.
She shrugs out of her coat, slides into the seat across from me, and picks up the latte I ordered her with her right hand. Aubrey is left-handed. “Thank you so much. I needed this.”
“So… what’s going on?” I play the part of dumbass so I don’t spoil her surprise.
Aubrey beams and bites her lower lip, her blue eyes flooded with happiness. She sets down her coffee, pauses dramatically, and raises her left hand where an engagement ring now rests. “I’m getting married!” she squeals.
And I match her squeal because that’s what a best friend does when her number one announces her engagement.
I spring out of my seat, and she stands from hers. We wrap our arms around one another, not caring who we might be bothering.
“Let me see.” I hold her hand to get a better look at the ring. Her fiancé does well for himself, so the lucky girl scored herself a three-carat diamond. “It’s gorgeous.”
She’s giddy, barely able to leave her hand in mine before lifting it to appraise the ring in the light of the dim coffee shop. I hug her again. I’m happy for my best friend, I am. I’m just upset about what it means for me.
We slide back in our wooden seats, and she sips her latte. “OMG, Calista, can you believe he finally proposed?”
It only took Declan five years too long, but he was busy working his way through law school so he could take over his dad’s practice in nearby Anchorage. He had goals he wanted to reach for himself before giving Aubrey everything she wants.
“And you wanted to give him an ultimatum.” That was two years ago. Most of our other friends were getting married and Aubrey couldn’t stand that he hadn’t proposed.
“I know. I just needed to trust him.”
Sure, everything’s great now. Where was this casual attitude after the trips she came home from, depressed because she was sure he was going to ask her, or the anniversaries where she demolished desserts and inspected the bottoms of champagne flutes?
“So, give me all the details.” I smile at her.
She tells me how they were at his parents’ cabin, arriving late on Friday. He made an excuse about having to check something inside and left her standing on the porch. So far I’m not impressed and would like to go wring Declan’s neck for leaving her outside to be a bear’s dinner.
“He texted me to come in. So I walked through the front door and there was a line of lights with rose petals that led me to where he was on the back porch. I opened the French doors and white string lights were strung all across. ‘Adore You’ by Harry Styles was playing and he was in the middle of a heart made out of petals and lights, bending down on his knee and holding the ring. Oh, Calista, I thought I was gonna pass out. After all these years…”
I smile, knowing how happy she is.
You are too, I remind myself. Stop being a selfish bitch.
“I strolled over to him.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t tackle him and yank the ring from his fingers, screaming yes over and over again.”
She laughs. “It’s what I wanted to do, but…” She wiggles in the chair and sits up straighter. “I had years to practice what I would say and how I would act.”
Once our laughter slows, I say, “Go on.”
“He had this whole speech that…” She cringes. “I don’t really remember, but it was about how he loves me and living together until we’re old.” She waves. “You know the typical stuff about being side by side with him forever. And then he said, ‘Marry me?’ And I said, ‘Yes!’ He slipped the ring on and I jumped him, and we toppled to the ground.”
