“I met Sonya my freshman year of college. We were instant friends, that kind where you meet and in five minutes you’ve forgotten they weren’t always in your life. Our sophomore year, we started dating, and that was just it. We were comfortable together and getting married after we graduated seemed like a foregone conclusion. I asked her to marry me at Thanksgiving our senior year. She said yes, and we started planning the wedding for the following summer. Or, I guess, technically, she did most of the planning, while I was up to my eyeballs in med school applications.”
Chad ran a finger along the rim of the cup, remembering. “I should have noticed something was wrong. My head wasn’t so far up my ass that I didn’t recognize something was off. She was stressed, pulling away some. I just thought it was part of that whole graduation syndrome, where adulthood is barreling toward you like a freight train. So I booked us a trip for spring break. A romantic, mountain cabin getaway, just the two of us. We hadn’t slept together at that point. With our respective living arrangements, there hadn’t been privacy, and she seemed inclined to wait, which was fine. I didn’t take her up there specifically with seduction in mind, but I was twenty-two, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping.”
“I’m sensing things did not go as you anticipated.”
“She was twitchy and nervous the whole drive, and I thought maybe she thought I was going to pressure her. So, when we got there—where the cabin owners had set the whole thing up with the honeymoon package of champagne, roses and chocolate—I told her it was fine. We could wait, I just wanted to give her a chance to get away from school and relax. She was chalk white by that point and said she had something she needed to tell me. Pulled me over to the sofa and held both my hands. I was starting to really freak out by that point. I started thinking maybe she was sick, and in the back of my head, I was already trying to diagnose her even before she started to speak.”
Mary Alice’s hand covered his, and Chad turned his palm up to link his fingers with hers.
“She said she hadn’t been honest with me. So then I’m wondering if she’s about to say she’s cheated on me. If maybe she was pregnant. Then she told me it was hard to be honest with me, when she hadn’t been honest with herself. And I had no idea where that was going, so I just sat there and said ‘Okay,’ knowing that whatever she said was going to change everything.”
He could still see her stricken face.
“Had she fallen for someone else?” Mary Alice asked quietly.
“In a manner of speaking.” He shifted to look at her. “She’d realized she was gay.”
“Oh!”
“I wasn’t expecting that either. I asked if she was sure or if maybe she swung both ways. But no. She loved me, but she couldn’t marry me knowing we’d never be what we ought to be together.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. The whole thing didn’t do much for my ego at the time.”
“Were you angry?”
“No. Shocked, sure. Upset, of course. But it’s not like that kind of thing is a choice. She couldn’t change who she was any more than I can change the fact that I’m left-handed. There wasn’t any sense in being angry. Not that that stopped her parents, when she came out to them.”
“They didn’t take it well?”
“Not even a little bit. They were hateful. Hurtful. They didn’t stand by her.”
“So, you did,” Mary Alice concluded.
“I did. No matter that we weren’t getting married, she was my best friend, and I love her. I say that in present tense because I do. I always will. But she’s not a threat to you and me.”
Mary Alice looked down at their clasped hands and nodded. “It wasn’t fair of me to judge you by the yardstick of my past experiences. You’re thoughtful, considerate, and I feel amazing when I’m with you. You made me a priority, and you personally have never given me reason to doubt you. I should have listened when you came to me.” She lifted her gaze. “If you’re willing to give me another shot, I’m all in for trying this with you and just you, not you and a ghost from my past.”
Chad felt the tension he’d been carrying for days leech out, but he held back the smile. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“What are you doing in June?”
“June? I have no idea. Why?”
“I’m gonna need a plus one to Sonya’s wedding. That’s what she came here to tell me. She’s getting married.”
Mary Alice’s eyes went wide. “Seriously?”
“Yep. I’m gonna be her best man.”
She rubbed at her temples and winced. “Wow. I feel really stupid now.”
Chad wrapped an arm around her. “Let’s just call it lessons learned. And hey, we’ve both finally gotten out the stories of our exes, so there shouldn’t be any more surprises. Unless you’ve got some other kind of skeletons in your closet?”
The relieved smile she aimed up at him untangled the rest of the knots. “No other skeletons.”