Once and for All(97)

As for me, I’d leave for school, too, while Ambrose stayed in Lakeview, enrolling in part-time classes at the U as well and, surprisingly, continuing to work for Natalie Barrett Weddings. He’d promised me he was going to get his driver’s license back, when the State of California allowed it, so he and Ira could make the short trip to see me when I couldn’t come back home. I knew long-distance relationships often didn’t work, especially new ones, but I wasn’t giving a lot of thought to endings. I’d had enough of those.

And now here we were, with another wedding ceremony, so full of potential. Followed by the middle, with dancing and the toast, two hands holding a cake cutter, maybe even making a wish. And then the big finish. Well, you couldn’t beat that: cans tied to a shiny bumper, a bouquet lofted high in the air, that final wave as the car pulled away. Everything in weddings and life had its phases, and if you were smart, you learned to appreciate them all.

What really mattered, though, were the people in those moments with you. Memories are what we have and what we keep, and I held mine close. The ones I knew well, like a night on the beach with a boy who would always live in my heart, and the ones yet to come with another. For now, though, I was choosing to believe we had time, plenty of it. But really, all I knew for sure was that somewhere soon in that long, messy middle stretching ahead, Ambrose would again reach out a hand, asking me to dance. And this time, I’d say yes.