“Here you go! You’ve finished the bottle,” Brett says to me after he’s poured my glass. “Impressive tolerance.”
“Oh, I’m not that tolerant,” I say. I grab my steak knife and slice a bite of beef tenderloin and pop it into my mouth. Very tender, melts in your mouth. Why does Roxy always have the best of everything? It’s not fair.
“Attention, you all,” Roxy says, clinking her glass with a shiny silver spoon.
Oh God, another toast. Is it going to be like this all weekend? Perhaps they’ll all run out of things to say? Not likely.
“I want to tell you all how much it means to me that we couldall be together again in such a joyous celebration of young love,” Roxy says. “While I could have simply invited you all to one of the many future parties I’ve planned to celebrate this couple, it seemed important to have an intimate time with just us sorority sisters. I mean, once Zach and Celeste found each other, it was fate—like their job was to bring us back together again. I’m so happy to be the one to facilitate this weekend. And I did pick this place on purpose. To give us a chance to be together for a whole weekend, under one roof. Our Newport Beach house isn’t this intimate. And even though I’d never been to this home, I knew Ryan had created something special here.”
She nods toward Ryan as she holds her glass up high. I think she is going to finally have us toast, but instead she smiles and keeps talking. Darn it. “It seems like only yesterday we were all so young ourselves, with so much potential and life in front of us. And what an overdue reunion, y’all. We haven’t stayed together under one roof since college. We were so close back then—sisters, truly, through and through. I love each and every one of you, and I’m pinching myself that we get to be together this weekend.”
I like her dress, and her diamonds are sparkling like crazy. I’ll up my game tomorrow night, I think, noticing this black silk dress looks a lot like the navy linen dress I had on today. Oh, darn it. I drifted off, and now I’m back and she’s still talking.
“And I know we’ll make new memories to carry us through to the next reunion. Oh, and that next reunion will likely be soon at some of the other events I’m planning for Celeste andZach, if you all haven’t had enough celebrating. Can we ever have too much of Theta Gamma Mu sisters? Of course not.”
I look across the table and notice Ryan is trying to get Roxy’s attention. But she’s rambling about each of the upcoming wedding events like she’s in some kind of event planner daze. This must be the highlight of her life, and we’re all props in her wedding show.
“So, let’s raise a glass to Theta Gamma Mu, the sorority that brought us all together and made us sisters,” Roxy says. “Cheers!”
As Roxy sits, Ryan excuses himself, holding his phone in the air. “I’ll be right back.”
I watch Roxy’s expression tumble into a frown, but when she catches me watching her, she plasters a big, white-toothed grin on her face.
I smile. I love seeing masks slip. And isn’t that really what sorority life was all about? Keeping the mask on, tight. At least that’s what my momma always said.
“You know what was the best part of sorority life? When Jamie became my little sister. Jamie, you and I seemed like opposites, but in fact we grew close. I have such fond memories of our time in the sorority together,” Roxy says, ignoring me as well as her husband’s abrupt departure.
I half-expect Jamie to refute the question—the expression on her face since she got here has hardly been that of someone who’s reliving happy memories. “It is pretty remarkable that we all came from different parts of the country, with totally different pasts, and suddenly, we’re all thrown together and told weare sisters,” Jamie says. “I’m surprised it works, but it has for all these generations of Theta Gamma Mus.”
“That’s because we rush well. We know the type we’re looking for,” Roxy says, slipping into her former role as sorority president like a well-worn leather glove. “We almost always picked right, and when we didn’t, remember, there were ways of getting the misfits to deactivate.”
I rather enjoyed it when the gals all turned on someone. Great theater, I must say.
“The misfits hid so well sometimes that you didn’t really see them until you’d already let them in,” I say.
“Yes, you’re right, Amelia,” Jamie says, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “But that didn’t happen often. Do you remember that song, our chapter’s song? We should sing it now.”
Roxy says, “What was that phrase in the old Theta Gamma song we used to sing? ‘The unbreakable bond is there yesterday, today, and tomorrow.’”
“Yes, that’s it,” Jamie says. “‘Sisters, sisters, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.’ I loved that song. I loved all of you too. I really did.”
13
Jamie
“This is what I needed,” I say as everyone around the table watches me. “Sisters. I never had any of my own, and well, you all filled that hole in my life.”
Greer leans over and kisses my cheek. He’s so sweet. I wonder if he’s picking up on the Amelia versus Roxy show. Maybe he’s enjoying this fabulous meal, dining in this amazing room. Roxy and Ryan are so lucky.
Really, we’re all so lucky. I look around the table and watch as Celeste and Zach lean together and share a secret. Likely making fun of all the old sorority memories. When Celeste sits back up, I’m struck again by her similarity to Sunny. It’s uncanny.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. It’s my duty nurse. I need to take this call.
“Excuse me for a moment. I have a patient who is in theICU. They have a question about meds,” I say and hurry out of the dining room, finding a quiet spot in the hallway.
I call Sandra and she fills me in on the patient’s vitals. I advise her on the best treatment options and tell her to call me if anything changes.
I decide to head back to our room for a moment, grab something, before returning to dinner. With the Roxy and Amelia show on full display, I likely won’t be missed.
