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“My brother is getting married.”
I tapped the bar and the waitress poured me another shot. I normally stuck to drinking wine, but tonight it was the stronger stuff that was needed. The last time I drank anything like this was after Luke’s death. But now, I was stressed and drinking tequila as if it was the last drink in the world.
“And that’s a bad thing?” Crystal replied, taking a swig of her beer.
“No, it's not, it's just…”
Why was I feeling upset? I had been fine, well as fine as I could be while we discussed his wedding plans. Maybe it was the fact I was being reminded of Luke at every turn today. Maybe it was the left-over emotions I had from earlier at the rink?
“I’m Joe’s best man and I’ve been ordered to find a date.”
“That’s awesome! And so easy to fix, let’s have a look around for some good-looking men and see what we can do.”
Linking her arm in mine, she twirled me around and we headed to the table where the girls were all sitting. Jasmine, the tallest and loudest of the group, was already jumping from her seat and waving at me. Lacy, the beautiful, curvy, bright blue haired, tattooed one waved at me gently.
Whilst Megan was shuffling a pack of tarot cards as Crystal shoved me down into the seat next to her and tookher own seat next to Lacy. Crystal brushed a strand of hair from Lacy’s face, both of them shone with their love for one another.
Crystal had come out to me back in our early teens about being bisexual and she had been seeing Lacy for the last two years. It had been kept quiet at the start, especially with the town filled with people who were against anything other than heterosexual love. However, when their relationship did become public, it was received with kindness.
Lacy looked at Crystal the way anyone would wish to be looked at. The love and adoration in her eyes made me smile. I was so happy my bestie had found her person, but also slightly jealous they had this together.
“Our little Kim needs a date for her brother’s wedding.”
“Baby bro is getting married!? That’s awesome!!” Jasmine exclaimed as she shouted and waved the waitress over. “More beers please, Jen, we have some things we need to celebrate!”
Jasmine, although loud and out there, was an amazing person and friend. When Crystal wasn’t able to visit us at the hospital during Luke’s treatments, Jasmine would come in her place with bags of fresh, clean clothes, snacks, and anything we needed. Those four had become my family during that time and beyond.
“We have two months to plan everything. Crys, can you bake them a cake please? A Christmas themed one and eh – would you also be able to help with the catering?”
“We will all help! You don’t even have to ask.” Lacy interrupted before Crystal could give an answer.
“What kind of date do you want then, Kimmy?” Jasmine asked as she helped the waitress take off the bottles of beer on the tray.
“Oh, God, I don’t know. It’s been so long since I had to flirt with another human being, so if I can’t find anyone either one of you or Crystal will be my date.”
The four of them chuckled in response. The evening continued on, and we carried on drinking more beers, played a few games of pool and danced to some cheesy '90s tunes that the DJ had thought would be entertaining to play.
Lacy and Crystal had scurried off outside to have a cigarette. Megan was throwing darts clearly picturing her ex-husband's face on the board. While Jasmine and I sat and talked about life.
“How’s work going?”
“It’s going ok, the new team of girls I’ve got are lovely and great to teach. Rachel, my manager is just letting me get on with things and not breathing down my neck, which makes a change.”
“Well, of course she is leaving you alone, no offence babes, but everyone is still afraid of upsetting you.”
A dart flew towards the board Megan was using and it almost felt as if it landed in my chest. Ouch. Jasmine’s words threw me a little as I had been trying so hard to appear fine, to not let things people said get to me and to just continue on with my life, as normal as possible.
“I don’t mean that in a nasty way, it’s just everyone knows what happened and well, some of them don’t want you to break.”
“Right, well I’m fine and not going to break. I am trying to move forward with my life, it’s what Luke would have wanted.”
Grief was such an ugly emotion to have, it didn’t define who I was as a person either. I was still Kimberly, a world champion figure skater. I just had to retire early to take care of Luke and I was fine with that. It just meant now that he was gone, I had to find out who I was and not just who I used to be.
“What about him?”
Jasmine brought me back to our surroundings and I looked to where she was pointing at the guy leaning against the bar who just happened to be looking at me.
And of course, it was Samuel.
