she laughed and made a point of looking into every single face. They all returned her gaze, smiling – the way she had wanted. Somewhere between her best friend Rachel and her husband Tim she closed her eyes to fight down the tears she had expressively denied herself from having.
No tears today, she had asked. And up until this moment they had all managed to allow only positive thoughts. But the longer the night went on, the clearer it became to Lauren that everything they wanted to say needed to be said right now. Tim must have noticed the change in her mood from her voice, because he got up from his spot by the fire and walked over to her. Sitting down behind her on the bench, he wrapped his arms around her and Alyssa.
‘I love you,’ he whispered – but this was no secret. Lauren leaned against him. What a lovely moment this was!
‘There are moments in life that change everything all at once. Moments that pull the ground from under you and destroy everything you hold important,’ she mused, and her eyes rested on the twitching flames of the bonfire. ‘But there are also moments that seem completely inconspicuous at first glance, and yet they turn out to be the most important moments of your life.’ She gave Tim a smile. ‘We had such moments, Tim and I. Good, bad – a little bit of everything. And even if I always thought we would treasure them for the little treasures that they are, they’re now slipping away.’
She sounded defeated and grasped Tim’s hands, looking for comfort.
‘And yet . . . There is so much left that we cling to, because letting go would mean we have reached the end of the line. Do you remember how Tim and my story started? Fourteen years ago . . . ?’ she looked around, and pressed a gentle kiss on her husband’s chin. ‘Because that was that kind of moment.’
This One Moment
‘I hate this weather!’ Lauren complained to herself. She kept the engine running for a little while even though she was already parked in the right spot, just so the heating system could keep pumping hot air into the inside of her car. The wipers squeaked over the steamed-up windscreen, but they were useless against the sheer amount of water pouring down. It was raining by the bucketful, and Lauren felt no desire to leave her car and run over to the diner in these conditions.
She wondered if Rachel had already arrived and was waiting for her. Lauren pressed her lips together and cursed under her breath. The rain pelting down was drowning out even the radio, and the longer she waited the worse it got. The puddles on the gravelled parking lot got deeper and deeper, and slowly the humidity started creeping into her car.
Finally, she shut off the engine and slipped the keys into her jacket pocket. She turned the rear-view mirror to her face and fished a lipstick from the glove compartment. Quickly she reapplied color to her lips and rubbed them together. The eyeliner above her green, slightly mascaraed eyes was still all right, and today she was actually more or less happy with the way she looked – except of course for her freckles, which refused to be tamed even with foundation and powder – but she had lost six pounds over the past several weeks. Besides, it wasn’t exactly as if she was going to meet the love of her life today! If such a thing even existed. Any steady relationships had, until now, only brushed past her, like vehicles that had lost control. Most guys were just too superficial, Lauren concluded, despite the fact that she was always worried about being a little too on the plump side herself. After several years of yo-yo-dieting she had managed to slim down enough – even if every little transgression would go right back on her hips. But now that she was sitting in her car, teeth chattering, she almost wished she had her six pounds back, for warmth.
In two minds, she rapped her fingers against the steering wheel and eventually shrugged her shoulders.
‘Oh, screw it!’ She tied her strawberry-blonde curls into a loose knot, which she stuffed into the hood of her summer coat. Then she silently counted to three and yanked open the driver door.
She bolted from the car and ran hell for leather across the parking lot in a low crouch and up the four slippery steps to the diner. With all her might she pushed open the door and took shelter inside, letting go of her coat which she had been holding closed with one hand.
She was welcomed by warm air and the smell of fried eggs, bacon and coffee. Several heads turned in her direction after this sweeping stunt, curious, but by the time she had pulled the rain-soaked hood off her head and patted the water from her face, people had already lost interest. A little out of breath from her jog she gasped for air, got rid of her wet coat, and pulled her curls from the hair tie. In frustration she realized that the bottoms of her boot-cut corduroy pants were completely soaked from the water rising up from the ground, and were now tightly clinging to her boots. Great, just great!
As inconspicuously as possible, she tried to at least fix the damage to her hair with her fingers, all the while scanning the booths with their shiny red tables for Rachel. At a table right behind the counter decorated with vintage tin advertising signs and lit by a red halogen fixture, she was able to make out her friend’s chocolate-colored bobbed hair. Rachel gave Lauren her widest smile and called out her usual ‘Hey, hey!’ over a song blaring from the speakers.
Lauren waved but was stopped by a voluminous waitress with a fully loaded tray. On one hand the waitress was balancing the tray full of plates of scrambled eggs and pancakes, while with the other she was pouring coffee into a pretty blonde’s cup. Lauren’s mouth started watering when she saw the breakfast that the waitress put down in front of the blonde beauty. She was obviously not on a diet. And the guy who was sitting opposite her, holding her hand! Piercing blue eyes, designer stubble that looked soft and well-groomed, and dark-blond strands of hair falling into his face. Lauren’s heart skipped a beat when he turned his ice-blue eyes to her and smiled.
The curvaceous waitress took a step aside to put more plates down on the table, and Lauren found a gap wide enough to squeeze past the woman’s broad hips. It was about time, too. She had to force herself to pull her eyes away from Mr Perfect and put one foot down in front of the other; otherwise Miss Blondie might start wondering why she was staring at her boyfriend with her mouth open.
She slipped past the waitress, leaving wet footprints all across the diner, and over to the table where Rachel was waiting.
‘What was that?’ Rachel asked in her velvety blues voice that was almost a little too deep for a woman.
‘What do you mean?’ Lauren threw her coat across the soft seat cushion and squeezed into the bench next to Rachel rather than taking a seat across from her. She strained her neck to keep an eye on the man of her dreams across the heads of all the other diners.
‘Uh . . . Lauren? What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Hm?’ Lauren asked, paying Rachel attention for the first time. ‘What did you say?’
‘I was asking why you’re straining your neck to look over there, with your eyes almost popping out of your head.’
Sheepishly, Lauren reached for the menu, while grinning at her friend from across the top of it.
‘Do you see that guy?’ She tilted her head in the direction of the gorgeous couple.
‘Hm, sure? But I also see his date!’
‘Yeah, yeah, I know – I see her, too, but if it were up to me that guy right there would be my future husband!’
Rachel laughed and pushed Lauren from her side of the bench, finally getting her to sit across from her.
‘Once you’re married you’re
