Page 149 of Old Acquaintances

To our parents, his argument won.

At one o’clock on New Year’s Eve, holding hands as twenty-nine year olds, Tucker and I close our eyes and make our wishes. He locks his eyes to mine when we lean forward and blow out thirty striped candles stuck in a grocery store chocolate cake.

I wonder if my mom will take a second look today or tomorrow at the picture of she and Lori, holding their New Year babies.

Tucker kisses my cheek and whispers, “Happy Birthday, Beautiful.”

I twist my face to his. “Happy New Year, Elijah.”

Epilogue

Wedding

I finish darning the platform of my pointe shoes and crack the shanks. I step on the box to break it down. While the rest of the company falls in for class, I set my shoes against the wall and hold tight to the barre, stretching my back.

My family arrives in three hours. I left my phone in the car so I wasn’t bombarded with constant group text messages.

After class and snowflake rehearsal, I shower at the studio and wrap my wet hair into a clip. It’s warm in California in October, so I’ve dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, knowing I will change when I get home anyway. Hattie will do my hair. Serena has hopefully pressed my dress while I was at work.

When I get back to my apartment, I’m hit with a “Surprise!”

My parents, Lori, Hattie and her kids, Gracie and the baby, stand in the living room with Jen, Callie and Serena. I’m not surprised that they’re here, but I am surprised by the arrival of decorations. They’ve been blowing up balloons and arranging flowers, and I give them all hugs, insisting, “This isn’t necessary!”

“It isn’t for you,” Serena argues for the millionth time. “It’s forus. Let us have this.”

“We don’t have a lot of time!” Hattie insists. “I’m taking her. You guys get ready.”

She directs me to my bathroom and pulls out her hair andmakeup tools. She looks at the right side of the sink. “Wow.” She holds up a measuring tape. “Why is this in your bathroom? Who is he?”

He’s Tucker. And he spent last night in the fifty-year-old house he just finished renovating, with his brothers and best friends, while I stayed in our home. Callie had to take my phone away because I kept texting him, and he FaceTimed me and she said that was against the rules. Serena’s rules. Tucker and I planned a simple wedding ceremony at the San Francisco City Hall and Serena planned whatever comes after that. I didn’t care about the big wedding. I didn’t want it. My relationship with Tucker had always been a sacred, personal thing that he and I experienced alone, and I wanted our wedding to be the same.

I also want him. So badly. Since we moved into this apartment in May, we hadn’t spent a single night apart from each other. I hadn’t gone a single day without him sayingI love you- not a joke - or feeling his body against mine. I missed him, even though it had only been about eighteen hours since I saw him. He demanded to kiss me goodnight at nine o’clock last night and when he didn’t return to the car in five minutes, Johnny had pry him off of me.

Hattie asks, “Why did you work today?”

“Because the whole point was for this to be low-key and simple. A quickie wedding.”

“Not with Serena at the wheel.”

I spin around. “What is she planning?”

“Get ready for it,” she laughs. “You’re going to love it.”

“Tell me. Please. I can’t handle anymore not knowing.”

“Okay, fine, but don’t tell her I told you.” Hattie gives me a stern look while I promise to hold the secret and then she smiles. “Serena booked a yacht.”

My jaw drops.

“She knows somebody, or Johnny’s paying for it, I can’tremember but -”

“That’s so cool.”

She flashes her eyes excitedly. “I know. See, aren’t you glad you let us come?”

I close my eyes while she drags eyeliner along my lash line and responds, “Ask me that when the day is over.” Happiness bubbles inside of me. “I can’t wait to see him.”

While my family gets dressed, Hattie finishes my simple makeup. She sticks a long veil into the ponytail of my half-up hair-do. I step into my short, satin, thick-strapped white dress. Lori and my mother cling to each other, teary-eyed.

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