“Mine too.”I sighed.
“Mindi, you look tired today.Is everything alright?”
I looked at Brooke, not sure I wanted to tell her what I’d found in the mailbox.We were four years apart, and while we’d been friends when Noah and I had been dating, I’d never really shared many personal things with her from that time in my life.But as we got older, we shared more personal things and we’d grown closer than we’d ever been.She watched me, and when I met her eyes, I could feel my walls breaking down.
“Yeah, things are fine.I think the whole situation with Sarah is getting to me.Plus, I just received something in the mail the other day that has got me a bit rattled.”
“Oh, not bad news, I hope.”
“No, it’s not,” I said, clearing my throat and taking a mouthful of coffee.“Do you remember Noah?”
Brooke lifted her eyes to mine and gave me a funny look.“Sure do.You guys were so close, I remember wondering if we’d hear wedding bells once he returned.”She smiled.“Did you ever find out what really happened to him?”
I swallowed hard.No one really knew what had happened to him.Everyone just followed my lead and assumed he’d died, especially after his parents had left.It was the only real reason we had for him not returning and his parents leaving.
“No, but he isn’t dead,” I said, releasing the only information I had found.
“What?What do you mean?”
“When you are close to someone, you somehow have an unspoken connection.While I chose the only option that made sense to me, and one that made it easier to cope with, I never really believed he was gone.It was like my soul could still feel him.”
“Sounds like you’ve been taking a stroll down memory lane lately,” Brooke said with a gentle smile.
“You could say that.I mean, it is that time of year.It started when I got home the other day.I found one of those bags in the mailbox.You know, the ones that they put mail in when either the contents of the envelope go missing or get damaged or lost.”
Brooke nodded, waiting for me to continue.
“Well, inside that bag was a Christmas card from 2015.It was from Noah.”
“What!That is crazy.After all these years, it finally got to you.”
“Yes, and do you know what he’d written inside?”
Brooke shook her head, waiting for me to continue.
“He proposed to me.”
“What????”
“I guess he must have sent it after the last letter I received from him.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I don’t know.I just know the letter I received was the last letter I’d gotten from him, despite writing him for an entire year, which to be honest, I don’t know why I continued because he never got any of them, they were all returned to me.”
“I remember that Christmas.You were so excited that he was coming home, and then you were so heartbroken when he couldn’t make it, and then in January when he didn’t appear, you were even worse.Then, his parents left.Do you remember the following year I tried to set you up with Billy Parsons?You remember that?”
“Sure do.We hit it off for a bit, but I was still having a hard time getting over Noah.Or maybe I wasn’t ready to.”I smiled and then grew serious again.
It was then that tears formed in my eyes.My eyes burned as I looked at Brooke and swallowed.I picked up my mug and took a sip, and then ripped off a piece of the buttery croissant and shoved it into my mouth.
“Did you hear from him after that, at any point over the years?”
I shook my head.“No, even after his parents returned, they wouldn’t speak to me, and here I was questioning why.I guess I know the answer to that now.”I shrugged.
“Well, did you ask Ethan?Perhaps he knew him or knows someone who does.”
“I was going to but decided against it.Brooke, I am not sure I want the whole town talking about it again.I lived through that once, through the looks every time I walked into a building or went to an event, the whispers behind my back.I’ve given it a lot of thought today.What if this was how it was supposed to be?”
