Page 3 of Something to Someone

The doors opened a few seconds later, and I stepped out into the lobby, pulling out my phone and sending a quick text to Natalie letting her know I was on my way to the wine bar.

The entire drive I fantasized about the wine and cheese I was about to consume, and how much I needed some serious girl time.

Natalie had been my best friend for…I’d lost track of how long we’d been friends. It had to be eight or nine years at least. We’d been friends immediately, hitting it off at a Fourth of July barbecue on our block. We started gossiping about our neighbors, and the rest was history.

When I stepped into the dimly lit bar, I spotted Natalie already seated at a table toward the back, next to a stone wall and a wine rack that stored well over a hundred bottles. She was already perusing the menu and didn’t notice me until I slipped into the seat across from her.

“Red, white, or rosé?” she asked by way of greeting, and I couldn’t help the smile.

Simultaneously, we both said, “Red,” and she snapped the menu shut.

Her smile dropped slightly as her eyes raked over my face. Natalie was too nice for her own good sometimes, and as blunt as I was, she took a little bit more of a careful approach to her words.

“Are you…doing okay?” she asked, and I narrowed my eyes as I hung my bag onto the back of my chair.

Our waiter interrupted before I could respond, and we ordered a charcuterie board and a bottle of wine.

The second he left, I asked, “I’m fine. Why?”

She sighed and tucked her long, dark hair behind her ear. “You look tired.”

“Ahh,” I said, taking a sip of my water. “I am, but I’m good. Work is just busy, and business is booming. So, I can’t complain.”

“Didn’t you just hire a bunch of people not too long ago who were supposed to take the stress off of you?”

The waiter set our bottle of wine on the table and poured us each a glass. We tapped our glasses together and took our first sips. “I did, but I still like to do the new client meetings, especially for the larger weddings and events.”

Always worried about my health and well-being, Natalie gave me an incredulous look over her wineglass. “You need to slow down. Otherwise, you’re going to give yourself a heart attack by the time you’re forty.”

I shook my head and took another long sip of wine. The blackberry and chocolate notes hit my tongue, and I savored the taste. Although Natalie was giving me shit, the longer I sipped and sat across from her, the more I could feel any stress or lingering anxiety leave my body.

“And you would know, wouldn’t you? You have, what? One more year until you’re forty?”

“Wow, thank you for that beautiful reminder,” she said sarcastically. “Honestly, I’m not scared of turning forty. I know the best years of my life are still ahead of me.”

Her smile was genuine, and I was happy for my friend. Thankfully, her divorce several years earlier was amicable, but that didn’t keep the scars of a years-long loveless marriage from rearing their ugly heads. It wasn’t until Theo came into her life that she realized what she’d been missing all those years.

“Is that because you have a really hot twenty-five-year-old boyfriend with a perfect…?” I asked, pointing to my lap and obviously indicating what appendage I was alluding to. This all happened at the same time the waiter appeared with our charcuterie board. He blushed quicker than I’d ever seen and stammered out something about letting him know if we needed anything else.

I was surprised there wasn’t smoke billowing behind him the way he rushed off.

Natalie leaned over and smacked my arm. “Now, he’s never coming back. And yes, Theo is a contributing factor, but everything else feels right, too. Work is going well, and I just feel more comfortable and confident with myself now than I did when I was in my twenties.”

“That’s really great, babe. You have seemed like you’ve come into your own even more in the past year.”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “But anyway, I want to get back to you. I know work is a lot, but busy is good, right?” I nodded, unable to speak with a mouthful of cheese and crackers. “What about on the relationship front?”

I swallowed before I started coughing and managed to clear my throat before a cracker went down the wrong pipe.

Natalie was supportive of all my life decisions, but she was also a hopeless romantic who was in a relationship so healthy it made me sick. So, of course, she thought that was a possibility for everyone. But I had all but given up on relationships a long time ago. Love was stupid and only led to heartbreak. I was cynical—sue me.

But the past was funny like that. It had this great ability to remind you of all the shit you would much rather forget.

No matter the past, a relationship wasn’t my priority. Or at that moment, anywhere close to being on my radar.

Natalie also, up until a little over two years ago, had been with the same penis all her life, and that couldn’t be me. Especially since the first boy I’d slept with was in ninth grade, andwe’d had to have an anatomy lesson about my genitalia prior to insertion. I hadn’t really wanted to have sex anymore after our impromptu science class, but back then, I was tired of carrying around my “V” card like it made of lead in my pocket. It was a preposterous thought now, but I was barely fifteen and hormones were a bitch. As was peer pressure.

“Sorry, I know they’re not relationships,” Natalie corrected without judgment. “You just haven’t told me about any of your recent hookups. Usually, I get to hear all the details.”

---