“I wouldn’t have minded driving you.”
“I know. But I’m not really big on goodbyes,” she admitted, already feeling a little lump in her throat at the thought. “We’ll just smile and shake hands when we leave the reception, the way we will with everyone else.”
“I can handle the handshake, but I’m not so sure about the smile.”
She moistened her lips and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It has been…”
“Don’t say it’s been fun,” he cut in quickly, holding up a hand. “That’s too clichéd for our time together.”
“Okay, I won’t say it.” But it had been fun, she thought wistfully. And so much more.
He looped a hand behind her head and tugged her toward him for a long kiss. “I’d like to hear from you sometime,” he said when he released her and stepped away. “Maybe you could drop me an email to let me know where you’ll be doing your fellowship next year? I’m curious about where you’ll end up.”
He told her his email address, a simple, easy-to-remember one she didn’t need to write down. She wouldn’t forget it. Because it was easier, she gave him one of her cards—the one with both her personal and her professional contact information. He’d have her phone number, but she doubted that he would use it. Even as they swapped the numbers and addresses, she suspected they wouldn’t stay in contact for long, if at all. Once both got back into their hectic routines, it was likely that they would be too busy to keep up a long-distance correspondence, even with the ease of email. She envisioned a few quick notes spread further and further apart, until they stopped altogether, leaving them to remember this weekend with faint smiles and, on her part at least, wistful tugs of what-might-have-beens had they met under different circumstances and at a different time in their lives.
“Good night, Jason.”
He kissed her one last time, then made himself turn and open the door. After checking the hallway, he slipped out, pausing only long enough to say, “Sweet dreams, Madison.”
Only then did it occur to her that they hadn’t used their playful nicknames all evening. It was as if at some point during their hours together, they’d stopped thinking of each other as intriguing strangers.
It was ridiculous for her eyes to burn with what felt suspiciously like unshed tears as she walked back to the tousled bed. After all, she would be seeing Jason again in just a few hours. Sure, they’d be saying goodbye for the final time not long after that, but she’d been prepared for that from the beginning. She’d never expected more. Never even wanted more, she reminded herself as she crawled beneath the covers.
But she thought she would miss him, anyway.
With the exception of the bride and maid of honor, who were closeted in the dressing room with their mother, the entire wedding party gathered in the downstairs church fellowship hall prior to the wedding. Phyllis, the wedding planner, looked them all over with eagle eyes, nodding in approval when she determined that everyone was there on time and fully dressed.
“You all look very nice,” she pronounced, then glanced at her watch. “You have five minutes before the men need to move into the anteroom and the ladies to the foyer in preparation for entering the church. The ushers are seating the last of the guests now. Anyone who straggles in late will have to wait until the bride has entered before they can be seated.”
“I’d hate to be a late arrival,” Jason murmured into Madison’s ear. “Even guests are likely to get a death glare from Phyllis if they don’t follow protocol.”
She smothered a giggle, knowing she would be the recipient of one of those death glares if she interrupted the planner’s last-minute instructions.
Phyllis dismissed them and turned to bustle away. Checking her reflection in a gilded mirror on the wall, Madison touched up her lip gloss with the tube she’d carried with her to this last-minute gathering, then realized she’d left her bag locked in the upstairs dressing room. Her floaty, sleeveless purple dress—almost too pretty to be a bridesmaid dress, in her painful experience with former disasters—had no
pockets. She could always tuck the small tube into her nosegay and hope it wouldn’t fall out at an inconvenient time.
“Would you like me to hold that for you until after the wedding?” Jason offered, opening his jacket to reveal the hidden inside pocket.
“That would be great, thank you. I’ll retrieve it at the reception.”
“I’ll trade it back to you in exchange for a dance,” he said lightly.
She laughed softly. “It’s a deal.”
“Gentleman, ladies. Time to go upstairs.”
Snapping to attention in response to the planner’s command, the two groups separated. Madison glanced over her shoulder as she left the hall, smiling when she saw that Jason was also looking back at her.
BiBi needn’t have worried about the ceremony. Thanks to the cooperation of everyone involved—not to mention Phyllis’s iron-fisted organizing—it proceeded almost flawlessly. The bridesmaids gathered around BiBi in the church foyer for careful hugs and air kisses before lining up to file into the church, leaving the beautiful bride to enter on the arm of her proud, if slightly harried, father.
Everyone had agreed that BiBi’s mood was better today. She was still high-strung and apt to overreact to the slightest problem, but that wasn’t much different than usual for BiBi, especially with the addition of wedding nerves.
The church was gratifyingly packed with family and friends that the ushers had seated efficiently. Carl and his groomsmen were already arranged at the front of the church when Madison was given the cue to begin her walk. Holding her nosegay of purple and white roses and baby’s breath at her waist, she concentrated on her posture and pacing, as Phyllis had ordered, but she couldn’t help noticing how nice Jason looked in his wedding finery. It was all she could do to keep her eyes on the bride and groom during the ceremony.
Both BiBi and Carl were glowing when they turned to face their guests as husband and wife. This formality had been a long time coming and they both looked deliriously happy, utterly satisfied with the choices they had made. Madison felt a bit misty as she watched them exit the church. It felt almost like the end of an era. Her long-distance friendship with BiBi wouldn’t change greatly because BiBi was married now, but it was still different than when they had been single college girls having fun and blissfully unconcerned about the future.
Speaking of endings…