Come Back To What You Know

"Resolutions." We all groaned, and Evelyn held up her free hand and added, "Wait! Let's not call them resolutions. More like goals. I think you should always have something to aim for when January hits, so I want to know what you all want from the upcoming year."

"A boyfriend," Lewis said almost immediately. "No more meaningless flings for me. No, sir. I want to be a one man... man."

Evelyn, Luca, and I exchanged a glance and promptly burst out laughing.

"As if!" Evelyn giggled. "You are incapable! You told me you won't settle down until you're at least thirty!"

"Yeah, well, I've changed my mind. I'm tired of the bar-hopping, man-swapping scene. I want one. Just one."

He couldn't possibly have been drunk on just a few sips of champagne, and I'd had no idea what might have happened to chan

ge his outlook so dramatically, but he seemed serious. I caught Evelyn looking at me and I just shrugged in response.

"I want to run the Chicago Marathon this year," Luca said, and we all turned our heads towards him.

"You run?" I asked, slightly embarrassed by how little I still knew about him.

He nodded. "Yeah. I'd need to up my game, but I've always wanted to do the marathon."

"We'll have to run together sometime." I gestured in Evelyn's direction. "This one has issues getting up in the morning."

Laughing, Luca said, "I'm an early riser, and I'd love to run with you sometime. Maybe I can rope you into the marathon too?"

"Ooh, I don't know about that." I grinned. "I'll think about it. I do need a goal, and that would be a good one."

"And what about you, Miss Evelyn?" Lewis asked. "What do you want this year?"

"Hmm." She carefully swirled her champagne around in her glass. "This year, I would like to take some classes to learn some new things and meet new people."

"You hear that?" Luca asked, with mock indignance. "She wants new friends. We're old news!"

"No!" Evelyn laughed. "You know I love you guys, but it would be cool to meet some different people that I met outside of work. I wouldn't change what we have for anything."

I smiled. "I know what you mean, and I think that's a cool thing to do. Any ideas what you want to learn?"

"I think a language."

"I can teach you Italian," Luca offered.

"You could. But that would defeat the idea of me taking a class and meeting other people."

"A dude could get offended at all this talk of new friends," Lewis teased, and we all laughed again.

As the conversation turned to which languages Evelyn might want to learn, I picked my phone up from beside me and took a cheeky snap of them, all lounging around with their drinks. Smiling to myself, I signed into my favourite social networking site and uploaded the picture with the caption: New Year in New York was epic! Now to celebrate in style! :p

Still giggling to myself, I scrolled down the feed, looking at the photos my friends had posted from home. Some of them were in fancy dress, while others were in their best outfits, all looking sensational... and drunk. I liked a bunch of the photos as I scrolled, and then... my heart seized in my chest.

Brayden. Brayden and his girl. Kissing.

I stared at the photo for a moment, taking in the details even though I didn't want to. His hands were firmly on her waist and she clung to him, and it kind of looked like she was smiling. Happiness radiated from the photo.

I dropped my phone as if it had burnt me, and I kind of felt like it had. The image of them kissing had seared itself onto my brain and it hurt because I knew I wouldn't be able to just shake it off. I was stuck with it, and in seconds, all the joy of my evening, and the potential for the new year fell away and was replaced by that overwhelming sadness that Brayden wasn't mine. Would never be mine.

"Charley, what's wrong?" Luca asked.

I bit my lip and shook my head. If I tried to speak, I'd only cry, and I didn't want to rain on my friends' happiness. It wasn't fair on them. They'd put up with enough of my sadness. They didn't need it dampening the first day of January too.

Evelyn leapt off her bed and sat beside me, wrapping her arm around me. She'd already guessed, but she glanced down at my phone and saw the photo.