The Next Chapter

My dear friend Jessie built her own house. She actually built it - not like hiring a contractor - but hauling every brick and nailing every nail.

It was a long haul - but she's finally done. Of course it's never REALLY done but it's liveable and beautiful.

She had her first party last night - which we heard about 3 days ago when she sent out the email. My first question was, "is Emily going to be there?"

Jessie called me - she said yes, Emily was going to be there and told me she would understand if I couldn't do it. At first I ws going to say no. However, Jessie had been prepping me for this party for months - begging me to attend, even though Emily would be there. Finally - I decided... I was sick of punishing Jessie for what had happened between Emily and I.

So - I told her not to worry about it. I'd be there and I'd behave myself.

I was out walking with Mr. M on Friday night and we were coming up with a viable plan for how I would handle the situation. As we were walking my phone rang. The voice on the other end of the call was as familiar as my favorite jeans. Time stopped, my breath escaped me, and I had no words.

It was Emily.

She talked about how she was sorry - and tried to explain herself and wanted to be sure it wouldn't be awkward at the party - for Jessie's sake. I didn't know what to say - I stammered for a few minutes. She asked if I wanted to call her back - I said yes.

So - I took a few minutes - finished our walk - composed myself and called back.

We talked for 2 1/2 hours. We cried, laughed, and said the hard stuff.

I was so nervous to go to the party, but I powered through. The moment I walked in the door I saw Jessie handed over the cheesecake I made and the pasta salad. Then I heard a voice, "excuse me, I don't mean to push but I have to over to that woman over there."

It was Emily pushing past Mr.M (who she doesn't know) to get to me. I looked up and there she was my beautiful friend from a million years ago and in her arms a beautiful blonde child with a big grin.

She grabbed me and we hed eachother and sobbed... SOBBED. There was no one else in the room as we just cried and held eachother. I took her child into my arms and smelled that baby boys head and sqeeeezed his beautiful baby thighs.

I introduced Mr.M and she hugged him too. We just cried for nearly a 1/2 hour. THen we talked and laughed and hugged for hours. It's like we'd look at each other and hug every 10 minutes not believing that the other person was real.

Are we going to rekindle our friendship? I don't know. Will we ever be what we were - probably not. It doesn't matter though - because we had that night. God know we needed it.