An Unexpected Reunion, Part Ten

“He’s a nice guy.”

“But what does that mean?” My friend wailed across the phone line.  I had called her to let her know when I was
flying back home and to see if she’d pick me up at the airport. Somehow, though, we had gotten on to the subject of
Simon.

“I don’t know…he’s just a good guy.” I shrugged and rolled my eyes.

“Has he given you flowers?” She asked.

“No, not recently.” I replied. Not since our high school prom, I thought.

“Has he thrown his coat over a puddle so you don’t have to walk in the water?” She shouted.

I laughed and said, “No, I don’t think he’s ever done that.”

“What makes him a good guy, a nice guy, then?!” She questioned.

“I don’t know, Gina.  He adores his daughters, he respects his elders, he respects my boundaries, he wears decent
clothes, his house feels like a home, I can bring him home to my family and they all love him.  Does any of that
help?”

“Back up.  What boundaries did you set?  He’s this fantastic guy, you’ve known him for years, what boundaries could
you possibly set?”

“Gina, why are you so strung up about this?”  I could not remember a time when she’d sounded so excited about
something other than one of her boyfriends.

“Dana! You haven’t had a boyfriend in years and now you’re telling me about some guy back in your hometown. Of course
I’m excited for you!  Are you going to move back there?  Is he going to move out here? Tell me more!”  She had me married off to Simon already, I realized.

“We haven’t talked about any of that.  I’m not even sure if it’s that serious yet, or if it ever will be.”

“But you want it to get that serious, don’t you?” She asked in a surprisingly quiet voice.

“Honestly, I think I do.  He’s the only guy who has ever made me dream of happily ever after, you know?”

“Honey, why are you coming back here then?  You should stay there and see where it goes.”

“I have a job, and an apartment, and a cat there, remember?” It was so tempting to start thinking of moving back to
my home town.  I wish I had given it serious consideration years ago so that I could have spent more time with my parents before they moved to Florida. I sighed.

“Get a job there, get an apartment there, and move the monster cat along with all of your other stuff.” It sounded so simple when Gina suggested it.  Yet so overwhelming when I thought of actually doing it.

“I take it you and Cally haven’t been getting along?” I asked.

“Don’t get me started.  Let’s just say both the cat and I will be happy to have you back,” Gina said. “But that’s besides the point!  How does this ‘nice guy’ feel about you? Does he want you to move back?”

“I don’t know.  We avoided talking about the future the last time we talked.  I think it’s as hard for him to believe as it is for me.  He’s been married, and he has children!  It seems crazy to think about getting back together with an old girlfriend.  It’s certainly crazy to indulge in a casual affair, what with the babies to think about.  I’m so confused about it all.”  Just a few days ago, I’d been sure about what I was doing.  Marry Simon, move into my parents’ house, carry on with life. It was a good plan.  I wasn’t so sure anymore about the path I was supposed to take, and I didn’t like that.  I’d always been the sort to make plans, have goals and to accomplish them.  Simon always seemed to throw all of my self-discipline to the winds.

“Well, it will all come out alright in the end.  You’ll see.  I’ll be at the airport to pick you up tomorrow night. We’ll talk about it all then, right?”

“Yeah, tomorrow.  Thanks, Gina.”

“Hey, no problem.  What are friends for?  Take care of yourself, ok?”  I said the same to her and we hung up. 

I leaned my head against the wall behind me and closed my eyes.  I had to figure out what I was doing about that Simon thing.  Was I crazy to think of marrying him?  Maybe all we had left were memories.  There were only so many times we could relive the good ol’ days, no matter how good they felt.
 
I was curled up in the windowseat in mom’s sun room for quite awhile, thinking.  I kept trying to wrap my head around the idea of moving back and dating Simon seriously.  Somehow, it all seemed like a silly girl’s dream compared to what reality had been the other day at his house.

Effie and I had played while Simon took care of Bridget.  I tried to chat with his parents but his mom seemed tentative about talking with me too much.  Eventually, I’d given up and given my goodbyes.  Simon and I hadn’t had another minute alone once Bridget had woken up and we’d only spoken in snatched phone conversations since then.  It was time for me to pack up and head back to real life now.  And my real life didn’t include a boyfriend, especially one who had children.  I sighed. 

“Any thing you want to talk about?” I jumped when my mom’s voice interrupted my thoughts.  I looked over at her, sitting in her rocking chair.  She’d pulled it around to face the window seat.  She raised an eyebrow at me.

“Um…no, I don’t think so.” She’d always had an uncanny way of knowing when one of us kids was worried about something. 

“It’s been good to see Simon again after all these years,” she said.

“Yes, it has. It was crazy coincidence to run into him at the store like I did.”

“Crazy coincidence or meddling fate?” She asked.

“Aw, mom.  You don’t believe in fate, do you?” I studied her face carefully and she shrugged.

“I think we can determine our own fate, but I also think the world likes to give us gifts if we are open to them.  Perhaps meeting Simon again after so long was one of those gifts of the world.”  She lifted an eyebrow at me.

“It gave us a chance to close up some loose ends, that’s all. We talked about some things that had been left unsaid years ago.”

“That is a gift, true.  Have you ever been in love, Dana?”

I frowned at my mom, wondering where she was going with this conversation. “Sure, Mom.  You know I have.”

She nodded, “With Simon, right?  Have there been other loves?”

“No, Mom. You probably would have heard about them if there had been.  You know that.”

“Well, I’ve always believed that true love will wait.  If it was right ten years ago, it could still be right today. You both have different lives now, but if you can learn to weave those lives together, you may find you have something built to last.”

I snorted, “Mom, you sound like a tired commercial, full of cliches.”

She shrugged and smiled, “Possibly.  Cliches are often so true they become overused.  Does that make them any less true?”  She rose from her chair and walked away.  “Just think about it, Dana.  Just because you and Simon have been in different worlds for years does not mean you can’t build a world together now.”

I shook my head and sighed.  My mom could be very wise, and we certainly all turned to her for advice, but it wasn’t like her to give so much unsolicited advice.  I closed my eyes again and drifted back into my thoughts.

Read the whole story here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, and El Fin