The Great Escape: Toast

{There’s so many wars we fought—there’s so many things we’re not. But with what we have, I promise you that we’re marchin’ on.}

As I dried off my hair with the towel, I passed by my purse and saw that my phone was blinking. Usually I was able to hear my phone, but with everything that was going on lately, I could have tuned it out.

Hey, Jackie—it’s Denise. Call me when you get this.” Short and sweet to the point, definitely had me wondering if everything was okay. At first I thought that she was just checking up on me, but then my mind start to wander—possibilities formed in all shapes and sizes.

I redialed Denise’s number, the other line ringing. Within seconds, I was willing for Denise to pick up the phone—to which she did after the third ring.

“Hey, Jackie.” Denise breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Is everything alright? You sounded worried in your message.”

“I was going to ask you the same question.” The sound of water was running on her end, which suggested that she was probably washing dishes. “I got an interesting call from Kevin this morning, Jackie.”

Suddenly, I felt like a little girl with her hand stuck in the cookie jar. “This goes back to what I said—about all the things Kevin and I haven’t told each other.”

Denise gave an empathetic sigh. “Hang in there. And if there’s anything I can do—”

“I will let you know.” Finishing her sentence, I poked through my closet for something to wear and fingered a little black dress, and wondered if I would be wearing it soon. “How’s the packing going?”

“Practically nonexistent, is more like it. However—I’ve actually been trying to finish some things around the house, so Frank won’t have too much to do it when it comes to recovery time.” I heard Molly more clearly in the background as Denise moved around. ”How are you 

feeling?”

“Better than the last couple of days.” Throwing my eyes up to the ceiling in a thankful 

manner, I grabbed a white sleeveless shirt and a blue sweater from the closet.

“Good. I’m glad that you’re feeling better. If you’re up for it—Claudia Joy and I would like to take you out for lunch.”

“Lunch? If anything I should be taking you both out.” I offered, closing the bathroom door behind me. Then a thought occurred. “Denise . . . did Kevin put you up to this?”

“He might’ve suggested we get you out of the house. And when I talked to Claudia Joy this morning—she thought it would be nice if we to go out to lunch.”

“What about Roxy and Roland?”

“Claudia Joy should be calling them right now to see if they can come or not, but it might just end up being the three of us.”

“Did Roxy tell you that she hasn’t unpacked yet?”

“Yeah, I figured as much.” Denise sighed into the phone. “When Trevor threw that barbeque, I think she ended up putting most of the boxes out of sight, and hasn’t quite had enough time to unpack everything just yet.”

“That’s basically what she told me. We all know that it’s not easy balancing a career, a family and moving often.”

“True.” A subtle pause between us as Molly babbled some words. “So back to lunch—”

“Where should I meet you?”

“I’m actually picking Claudia Joy up, so why don’t I just stop by and pick you up as well.” Denise sounded pleased and rather hopeful. It also made sense that she was picking us both up, since we lived just next door to each other. In fact, I would have offered to drive if she wasn’t already picking her up.

“What time?”

“Eleven.” Looking at the clock on the wall, it was already almost ten o’clock. My thoughts went back to Kevin’s note, and it was already starting to make sense. Part of me was hopeful that he had something planned—it was slightly disappointing. “You still there?”

“Eleven is fine.” I cleared my throat, while hanging my clothes on the towel rack. I didn’t want to allude to the fact that I was having second thoughts about going. It was hard to not go back to bad habits—or to allow myself even one glass. And then I had to shake the thought being drunk while eating lunch with everyone.

“I’ll see you in about an hour then.”

“See you then.” With that I hung up my phone and leaned against the wall. With a deep sigh, I closed my eyes and found the courage to finish getting ready. In a matter of a half an hour, 

I had put on some makeup, straightened and curled my hair, and gotten dressed.

To keep myself occupied, I grabbed some laundry that I had been meaning to do—throwing it into the washing machine and starting it up. I walked back up to the living room and saw the album sitting there. I ran my fingers over the cover and put it back on the shelf, before lightly 

skimming over the FRG notes again.

It was when I looked at my watch for about the fifth time that I finally heard a horn honk in the driveway. I stopped and took in a deep breath before rounding the corner. Both Denise and Claudia gave me a smile as I opened the back door.

“Jackie.” Claudia Joy announced as I slipped into the back; her hand outstretched to me. “I’m so glad that you could come.”  I put my hand on hers. “As if you haven’t seen us enough in the last couple of days.”

“Nonsense.” I used Claudia’s word proudly, almost sarcastically. A smile crept up on my lips, 

and made us all burst into laughter. I was really starting to like this friendship thing. It almost made me forget about everything bad that had happened in almost the last three days. “I hope we didn’t wake you up last night.”

“You didn’t wake either Michael or me last night. Why? What’s going on between you and Kevin?”

Intertwining my fingers, I took in a deep breath.. I could see Denise throwing glances from the rearview mirror, but she was mostly focused on driving.

“Jackie?”

“You know Kevin and I haven’t been getting along very well—especially in the last couple days.” Both nodded in agreement. “Well, we got into another argument while we were at the hospital and when we got home.”

“What exactly are we talking about here?”

Our eyes met in the rearview mirror, and I knew that I would have to tell them sooner or later. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or happy that we only made small talk until we had arrived at the restaurant: a quaint place with white brick and a red roof.

We were led to a corner table and the waitress took our order, while we looked over the menu. I tried to find something that sounded good—although not much did. But after another few minutes, I finally decided on the potato and sausage soup; Claudia Joy got a salad, and Denise got a sandwich.

Claudia Joy and Denise smiled sweetly, as Denise remarked. “This is one of my favorite places—yet we don’t get here very often. I can’t imagine what we would do if we actually moved away from this place.”

Grabbing her glass, Claudia Joy held up her glass in a toast. “Well, here’s to hoping we have many more days here.”

“Then here’s to good friends that we wish were all here.”

“And memories.” Claudia Joy chimed in, putting her own glass in.

“I’ll toast to that.” I agreed as our glasses clinked against the other.