A knock on the door snapped my attention back to the present.
“Come in,” I called out, glancing at the clock on my wall. Mr. and Mrs. Hollis were due in fifteen minutes.
The door swung open and Linda, the other kindergarten teacher, stepped into the room. She left the door cracked and squeezed behind the nearest desk with an exhausted sigh.
“I can’t believe the kids show up tomorrow. You were right, I should have skipped the trip to Atlanta last week and gotten started on putting my room together. I’m going to be here half the night.” She twisted a crimson red curl between her fingers and stretched her long legs across the aisle.
“It’s not every day that your high school sweetheart shows up out of nowhere and sweeps you off your feet again. How is Henry, by the way?” I asked with a grin.
Linda blushed and a broad smile spread across her face. “He’s fantastic. We’ve been on the phone almost nonstop since I flew home. He’s packing his things in a U-Haul as we speak. He should be here by the end of the week.”
“I can’t wait to meet him,” I replied, my grin growing wider.
A year ago, that would have been a polite lie. When I first arrived at The Day School, I’d been put off by Linda’s aggressively bubbly personality. She was the type of person who’d never met a stranger and I’d found her instant openness and constant chatter incredibly overwhelming. But she’d grown on me over the year, and I was genuinely happy to see her so love struck.
“I can’t wait to introduce you,” she gushed. “This all still feels like some sort of dream. It’s all so exciting… Henry’s so exciting. He took me to look at rings while I was in Atlanta. And he’s already talking about me quitting my job so I can travel with him.”
“That’s great,” I told her, my enthusiasm forced this time. She saw right through it and raised an eyebrow.
“Go ahead,” she insisted. “Just say it.”
“If your dream is to travel the world with Henry, by all means follow it. I just think you should keep in mind that living out of boxes and suitcases gets old pretty quick.”
Linda crossed her legs and rolled her green eyes, her freckled face lit with amusement. “It’s not like we’d be traveling nonstop. Henry will be based here and I can stay behind when I feel like it. I understand that traveling gets old. What I don’t understand is how you’re happy to settle for a vanilla life after seeing first-hand how big this world is and how much it has to offer.”
If it had been the first time she’d called my life vanilla, I may have been a little insulted. But that was her go-to term to describe the life I wanted with Ben.
“I’m not settling. I love Ben,” I reminded her for the umpteenth time.
“You love the idea of him,” she corrected me.
I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me off.
“I know you’re tired of me bringing this up. But we’re friends, right?”
“Right,” I agreed with a resigned sigh.
“And as your friend, it’s my job to make sure you’re honest with yourself. I know you’re hoping for a proposal. And I think you might be right. Ben may be close to popping the question. But I’ve seen the way you look at him, Emily. You love him, but you’re not in love with him. There’s no spark, no fire between you. I get that you’re in love with his family. But if you and Ben get married, he’s the one you’ll be living with, day in and day out.” She leaned forward, her eyes earnest. “I don’t want you to wake up ten years from now and realize you’ve made a huge mistake.”
I straightened my shoulders and diverted my eyes toward the window. I couldn’t look at Linda because a small voice in the back of my head was wondering if she was right. I’d made that mistake in college. I started dating my boyfriend Ryan the first semester of my sophomore year. Like Ben, Ryan had a large, stable family that had instantly accepted me into their fold. And I got so comfortable with them so quickly, I ignored the fact that Ryan and I were incompatible for a year and a half.
This situation is entirely different. Ben and I love each other. Maybe we don’t ‘spark’. But we understand each other. We can depend on each other. And I’ll take that over fire any day.
I cleared my throat and turned back to Linda. “Like you said, I’ve seen what the world has to offer. Now, I just want to carve out my own small, happy piece of it. I’m happy for you and Henry, I really am. Do you plan to finish out the school year? Or am I going to have to watch Mr. and Mrs. Hollis quiz your replacement on the proper administration of an Epi-pen?” I asked, attempting to bring our conversation back around to light-hearted.
Linda smiled back at me and climbed out of the tiny chair. “I haven’t made any decisions yet. But speaking of the Hollis family, we should head down to the nurse’s office. One of the commandments of teaching kindergarten is ‘thou shalt not keep nervous parents waiting.’”
“Lead the way,” I said, rolling my chair away from my desk. I followed Linda out of the room and we set off to assure the Hollis parents once again that we were capable of taking care of their children.
***
“Are you ready for this?” Ben asked. He held open the door of Market Seafood and I stepped past him into the entryway. A blonde hostess in a crisp white shirt and black tie held open the interior door. I took Ben by the arm and gave him a determined smile.
“Maybe he’ll be in a good mood,” I suggested, trying to hide my nerves. Uncle Walt had made it no secret that he disapproved of Ben, but for my sake, he usually stayed on his best behavior when we were all together.
“Good evening,” the hostess greeted us. She ushered us through the door and grabbed two menus.
“Hello,” Ben replied. “There will actually be three of us. I believe we have a reservation.”
“Kinkaid?” she asked, a hint of a smile lighting her face.
Uncle Walt’s still sweet talking the ladies, I see.
I nodded and she returned the menus to the hostess station. “Walt is already here. Just follow me.”
She snaked her way across the dimly lit dining room and I spotted my uncle at a corner table. His eyes fell on me and he rose with open arms. He wrapped me in a hug and kissed the side of my head.
“It’s so good to see you, Em. I hope traffic wasn’t too bad?”
I knew the question was a veiled reference to the fact that we were ten minutes late, but I kept my tone light and patient. “We got held up at school this afternoon and we’ve been running late ever since.”
Ben pulled out my chair and Uncle Walt settled down across from me. A tall, bald waiter approached us with a bottle of wine.
“Your Riesling, Mr. Kinkaid,” he announced. He pulled the cork and poured a splash into a long stemmed wine glass. Uncle Walt swirled, sniffed, and sampled it before nodding back at the waiter with a smile.
“This is fantastic, Kevin, thank you.”
“Are you ready to place your order, or would you like a few more minutes to look at the menu?” the waiter asked.
Uncle Walt looked from me to Ben and back again. “Do you know what you want?”
We nodded our heads simultaneously. Market Seafood was my uncle’s favorite restaurant; we could all recite the memory by heart. We placed our orders and Keven gave us a final nod before disappearing.