Page 10 of Twenty Years Later

Chapter Four

Jayda

Thank goodness for the open bar. Even though it was tempting to go full throttle, I decided I'd just stick to wine. The last thing I needed to do was embarrass myself at my twenty-year reunion.

"Sorry about her," Alex said as he handed me my glass.

"You have nothing to apologize for."

"Yeah, but I dragged you here."

Someone behind us screamed. "Oh, my God! It's Jayda!"

I squeezed the stem of my wine glass so hard I thought it might break as a small group of women came rushing over, Melanie in the lead. They stopped a few feet from us, taking in the sight of Alex standing right beside me.

After a brief awkward pause, Melanie dashed forward, arms outstretched, and nearly crushed the life out of me. "Jayda! I can't believe you're really here."

I had to smile at their reaction, like I was some kind of rock star that had just arrived at the big class reunion.We took turns hugging as I struggled to remember the names of the other four girls who had been part of our larger group of friends.

Melanie grabbed my hand. "Come on. Come on. Grab your drink and let's go talk. We havesomuch to catch up on."

After my reluctant glance at Alex, she pulled me to a table in the far corner, the rest of the crew following, and we all settled in as a DJ blasted music from our high school years.

Leaning forward in her chair, she said, "So first off, are you seriously here with Alex Hernandez?"

I laughed that this was the first thing she wanted to discuss. "Well, first off, Melanie, it's great to see you, and you look amazing." Glancing at them all, I took in their eager faces that were so carefully made up for the night. "You all look amazing actually."

"You do too," someone said, a woman named Anne if I remembered correctly.

"Thank you."

"So?" an impatient Melanie asked. "What's the deal with Alex?"

Shaking my head because some things never changed, I said, "We just bumped into each other at a coffee shop earlier today, and he invited me to come tonight."

Melanie looked slightly disappointed but then perked up. "Well, I hear he's single now, so you never know."

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"You guys." Rolling my eyes, I decided to change the subject. "So what's up with everyone? Do you all live here? Married? Kiddos?"

The group of us caught up for hours, going through several bottles of wine and tons of appetizers. Even though I saw glimpses of the old Melanie, she had really grown up a lot, as we all had hopefully.

Taking a moment to eat some dinner, I looked around the room as my friends continued their discussion. Everyone looked pretty much the same, although perhaps with a few added pounds and more lines on their faces plus thinning hair on some of the guys.

I caught Alex's eyes on me from across the room, and when he smiled at me, my heart did a little dance. Something about being in this environment, with flickering candles casting shadows on the walls, just made him even sexier.

But I was soon distracted by another old friend who wanted to chat... and another and another. While it was wonderful to talk with everyone, and a few people even knew about my book series from their teenage daughters, the emotional toll became overwhelming.

At some point in the conversation, the topic of marriage would come up, and I had to retell my story about Blake over and over—and then deal with the awkward condolences and have to almost comfort the other person.

Taking my wine glass with me, I snuck out to a large patio area I had noticed earlier for a little break. The muggy night air hit me even though it was October, and the scent of the nearby ocean took me right back to those high school days.

I had only lived in Miami for four years, moving here from Southern California right before freshman year. Not knowing a soul, no wonder I had clung onto my dysfunctional friendship with Melanie when she had befriended me in PE class. The other option had been to have no friends—which wasn'treallyan option for me personally.

A sudden noise startled me, and I turned to see Alex walking my way, something about the look on his face making me sigh. He was so incredibly dreamy.

"Hey," he said. "Sneaking away?"

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