Charlotte & Lucy

It was a gloomy, rainy day. “The perfect weather for the worst day of my life” Charlotte said. The cemetery was cold and quiet. I held Charlotte’s hand as we stood over the coffins. We were 14 years old and neither of us had ever lost someone. The drunk driver was 20 years old when he veered into oncoming traffic and smashed headfirst into the car. Kevin Stalward walked away with minor injuries and minimal jail time as a first time offender.

My name is Lucy. Charlotte and I have been best friends since kindergarten. Our moms were best friends and our dads fished together. The loss of her parents was the hardest time of our lives. Charlotte struggled with depression and panic attacks for 10 years afterwards. It was during that time that our bond grew even stronger and we knew we could always count on each other.

We both live in the historic district of a small coastal town and have thriving businesses. I own ‘Open Door Custom Closets & Organizing’ and Charlotte owns the local beauty salon, ‘Beach Hair, Don’t Care’. While our businesses keep us busy, we never miss our Friday wine and dine night. It’s been a tradition since we’ve been old enough to buy wine. In the beginning, those nights were filled with tears. Over time, they have turned to laughs and stories of nightmare dates and hellish customers. There are still tears, but they fall softer and less often now. The wine, on the other hand, has always remained the same.

Charlotte has been with Lawrence for almost 5 years. Many of our conversations in the last few years have been on the topic of marriage and proposals and if he was ever going to ask her. I like Lawrence because he makes her happy. I dislike Lawrence because he doesn’t treat her as well as she deserves. I caught him in a nightclub with another woman a couple of years back and Charlotte brushed it off because it was a co-worker. I never trusted him since then but I can’t stand in the way of Charlotte’s happiness. She sees a future with him, although I know deep down she doesn’t feel as strongly for him as she portrays.

I have had some serious boyfriends but nothing that ever felt like a forever thing. Dating in a small town is not the easiest thing to do. I download a new dating app once a month because after about 3 dates, I am back in the endless loop of the same guys in a 50 mile radius. It’s depressing, to say the least, but it feels more like a task on one of my many to-do lists than dating to find love.

“Have I given up on love?” I asked.

“You better not have!” Charlotte snapped back at me.

“It just doesn’t seem attainable or even desirable at this point in my life.” I admitted.

Charlotte took the glass from my hand and filled it with the last of the wine. “Another one down” she joked as she shook the empty bottle and placed it back into the beach tote. I sipped my wine and laughed at the sudden realization; this wine made me happier than any date I’ve been on in the last 15 years. We finished what was left in our glasses and began to pack up our blankets off the beach.

“Your perfect person is out there, Luce. Don’t give up on love” Charlotte whispered as we hugged goodnight.

I woke up early the next Friday morning to my phone ringing. I knew it was Charlotte before my eyes opened because of her personalized ringtone.

“Hey. What’s up?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes awake.

“I think he’s finally going to ask me..” she said.

“What do you mean ‘you think’?”

“He left a note saying to meet him at Seaside Café tonight so we can talk.”

I agreed with Charlotte that a proposal was coming. They have already been living together for close to a year, he claimed to have severe allergies to dogs which is the only reason Charlotte wasn’t living on 5 acres in the country with 45 dogs. I was excited for Charlotte and the possibility of her life moving forward. A part of me couldn’t help but feel crushed that I wouldn’t get to see her that night for our wine and dine date.

We must have talked 5 different times that day going over what she should wear, how we thought he was going to ask and so on. There was something in her voice in each of those phone calls that I couldn’t shake off. Why did I hear hesitation and panic? I knew my best friend better than anyone. How could I question her excitement with doubts and concerns?

“Call me as soon as you can afterwards” I made Charlotte promise.

“You are the first person I always want to call. He’ll have to wait to consummate anything until after I’ve talked to you.” We laughed and hung up after saying “I love you” like we did before ending every phone call we’ve ever had together.

That night I decided to reorganize my cabinets for the 27th time that month; my happy place in the midst of chaos. I almost didn’t hear my doorbell over my music. My hair was a mess in a bandana and my sweats and tee were hardly suitable for company. I peeked out the window and saw Charlotte. I quickly unlatched the door and hurried her inside.

Without seeing her face I knew she had been crying. I wrapped my arms around her immediately and felt her crumble. We stood in the entryway as I held her. I didn’t want to ask her anything. I just wanted her to know she was safe. After a moment, she began to wipe her tears away and looked up only to instantaneously start laughing at the sight of my “organizing outfit” as she liked to call it.

“I love your life” she said to me while still wiping her tears but now smiling ear to ear.

“What happened?” I asked gently as I held her hands in mine. “Did he not ask?”

“He asked.” She said. “I said no.”

Completely taken by surprise, I asked, “You what?”

“He’s been cheating on me for years. I’ve seen messages on his phone with Jennifer from his office. I just never wanted to admit it to you or to myself.” She confessed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I snapped back, almost immediately catching myself. “I’m sorry. You know you can come to me with anything. “

“I know!” she started, stopping only for a moment to keep from crying again. “You are the best part of my life and I didn’t want to bring that down with my failures.”

We hugged again as I told her she never brings me down. “We are in this together. We always have been and we always will be.” I felt her hug tighten as we both remembered the day of her parent’s death.

We were at my house when my mom came in crying. Charlotte took off running into the woods behind my house and I ran after her. I found her slumped over in an old fort we built years before. I knelt beside her and wrapped my arms around her so tightly I thought I could stop her shaking. We stayed there for hours and before we left we made a promise to each other.

“Promise me that you will always be in my life. Promise me that you will always be the best part of my life.” Charlotte asked me in between tears.

“I promise you I will always be the one for you. We will get through everything and anything together. I will always love you Charlotte.” I remember saying the words while holding her face in my hands and looking all the way into her eyes.

“I’m sorry I missed our date tonight” Charlotte said as she messed with the bandana on my head.

“If you knew you were going to say no, why did you go in the first place?” I asked as gently as possible.

“I didn’t know I was going to say no.” She admitted. “As we were ordering, I said I hated missing our wine dates and Lawrence asked me, ‘what wine dates?’”

“5 years, Luce! 5 years and he still didn’t know how important you are to me. He hadn’t paid attention the entire time. I realized I hated him for dismissing you like that. Then I realized I was there; with him; on our night!” She said increasingly getting louder as she got angrier with herself.

I rubbed her arm and smiled. “It’s OK. I can’t be your whole life. I’ll always be here.”

“It is not OK!” Charlotte yelled. “You are my person. You are the one that is always there. You’re the one that I always want to run to. I owe you more than just one missed date night.” She said in a not-up-for-discussion tone.

“Next Friday, I am sending you on a blind date and you can’t say no.” She said as she stood and wiped the last tear away. She headed toward the kitchen, which was in complete disarray due to my reorganizing plans. She searched the countertops until she found 2 glasses, a corkscrew and the bottle of wine.

Friday had come again and all week Charlotte had been lips sealed about this mystery man she was sending me on a date with. She just kept telling me they would have a white rose and to trust her; and I did. That afternoon Charlotte had to go into the salon to help with an emergency hair fiasco for a bridal party. I was left on my own to pick out what to wear and obsess about every little thing that doesn’t matter.

I arrived to the restaurant early to help calm my nerves. As I ordered a bottle of merlot for the table, I felt a familiar hand on my shoulder.

“Merlot is my favorite.” Charlotte said, smiling with tears in her eyes and wearing her favorite date-night dress. She held a white rose and it trembled slightly as she extended her hand out to me.

My eyes filled with tears as I knew the answer to my question before I even asked it. “What are you doing here?”

“You have always been the one for me Lucy. You are the one I want to run to. The one I want to hold me. The one I will love for the rest of time. You are my person and I love you more than I have ever loved anyone before.”

My eyes were completely blurred by my tears at this point but I didn’t need to see. I knew every part of Charlotte. My hands found her face easily and our lips found each other without hesitation. After a long embrace at the side of our table, we sat and raised our glasses of merlot to toast what we had both waited so long for.

It only took a second to see the panic in Charlotte’s eyes as she raised her glass. I turned toward where her gaze was fixated on. At the exact moment my eyes met his, multiple shots had already fired. I felt frozen. When I was able to move after what felt like minutes but could only have been seconds, I turned back to Charlotte in time to see the blood stain form on the front of her dress. The tear fall from her eye and her lips mouth the words, I love you.

The headline the next morning read:

“37 year old Kevin Stalward, a local man who suffers from alcohol dependency, opened fire killing 1 woman and injuring 7 people at the Seaside Café last night while in an apparent drunken rage.”