“I don’t mean nothing by it, Aspyn. Don’t get too prickly. Just saying everyone we know will be different. Remember Tom Beard?”
“What about that dumbass?”
“Well, he’s Tom Beard, PhD, now. Psychology.”
I just stared at Joe, having trouble believing the C-student defensive lineman was now some fancy psychologist. “Huh, that’s interesting.”
Joe sighed and took another sip of his drink. “Just don’t get your hopes up; people end up different than you remember.”
I just shrugged.
“That’s why people have reunions. To see how things have changed.”
Joe’s prodding didn’t make me too angry. I understood where he was coming from. Of all us five, he was the only one who’d managed to get married. The rest of us were puttering away at 28 either playing games like Carl and Perri or being sad and lonely like me.
Sure, I dated the occasional guy, but the reunion made me realize I was still pining for my college swimmer boy, even 10 years later.
“But you’re still talking to Alex, right, Carl?” I said. Joe rolled his eyes.
Yes, I know how pathetic that made me. I didn’t care.
“Yeah,” Carl said. “The last few years, though, it’s basically been him dropping me an email once every three months or so. He’s still doing construction, just like he has been since he got out of the Army.”
Alex had joined the Army after dropping out of college. I remembered being so scared for him when Carl told me, but he’d come home okay. So now I was just proud. Not that he knew or cared.
I nodded slowly. “And is he looking forward to coming back?”
“I don’t know. He never asks about what’s going on back here except to ask what’s up with me.” He shrugged. “Sorry.”
I didn’t even think to hide my wince. Perri shot me a sympathetic look, which only made my cheeks flame.
Look, it was no secret I was into Alex, but it wasn’t like he normally came up in conversation. That’s what happened when people moved away from a small town like Livingston. They ceased to exist until they came back for a holiday or something.
“I wonder how many people will end up coming,” I said, trying to change the subject. “I’m hoping at least half. Our entire graduating class was only 99 people. It’ll be kind of sad if we could fit the reunion in one classroom.”
“Be cheaper that way,” Perri said with a wink.
Everyone laughed, and some of the darkness weighing down my heart vanished with the laughs. Carl put his arm around Perri with a grin.
Yeah, real slick, Carl. I was sure only half the bar noticed.
I thought things over. The truth was, in a small town like Livingston, most young people moved away. It’s what you did if you wanted that big, shiny future you might see on TV or in the movies. A good chunk of people had moved either to Cookeville or Nashville.
Everyone in our little Fabulous Five had stayed. Everyone but Alex. The heaviness returned to my heart.
Perri and I worked at the town hall, basically doing everything the mayor needed for the town. Officially, I was an administrative assistant and Perri the mayor’s assistant, but that didn’t seem to make much difference day to day.
Joe, conveniently enough, was the mayor, the youngest ever elected. Carl was running his parents’ ranch, God rest their souls.
I smiled. I was thinking about this the wrong way. It didn’t matter that Alex had left. It didn’t matter that things had changed. We had a good town, and I had good friends.
Alex had moved on, and I needed to deal with that. Rather than be a sad sack about it, I’d just enjoy seeing him again. We could swap stories about the good times and make new memories that we’d all treasure for years to come.
Holding up my bottle, I said, “I want to do a toast.”
“Why didn’t you do it before we started drinking?” Joe grumbled.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Joe,” Perri said.