the twenty-first century ellinghams

chapter three: reunions

"oh my god, hey!" stevie says, immediately getting wrapped into a hug. janelle squeals and squeezes stevie hard, and she tries to not spill her champagne. janelle steps back, releasing stevie from the hug. she's wearing a sparkling purple cocktail dress with a gorgeous gold necklace and studs. her shoes are an identical gold color. "you look beautiful!" stevie says.
"says you!" janelle replies. "that dress is perfect for you. you look hot." david has to take a sip of his champagne to cover his grin.
"what is it about this dress that makes everyone suddenly feel the need to objectify me?" stevie asks, laughing. janelle and david laugh as well. "god, how long has it been since we've seen each other in person?"
"must have been last year's holiday party," janelle replies. "too long, in any case."
"too long," stevie agrees, nodding. if stevie and david's lives were hectic, janelle and vi's were pure chaos. they were both in the engineering business, but they were also investors. they mainly invested in women owned, specifically women of color owned, businesses and products. they were also working on starting their own after school program for young women in stem in underfunded districts in their home city of chicago. whenever stevie called, janelle picked up, but she was always doing something else as well. "so where is vi? i don't see them," stevie asks, scanning the crowd.
"oh they're off talking with nate... and mudge." janelle and stevie share a look. for the past decade, nate and mudge had had an on-again-off-again relationship. nate wasn't exactly the commitment type, and mudge certainly was. one month, mudge's instagram was full of pictures of them at disneyland or at nate's writing cabin. the next, they were all taken down.
"oh. nice," stevie says, acting like their relationship hadn't been the topic of many phone calls between janelle and her.
"agreed," janelle replies, acting the same. "let's go find them!" she grabs stevie's hand.
"i'm gonna go talk with some of the donors, but i'll catch up with you guys during dinner," david says before walking off. being the head of the school had many perks, getting to decide on the seating arrangement at events being one of them. the six of them would all be sitting together later. stevie lets janelle lead her through the crowd to nate, vi, and mudge. vi is the first to see them.
"stevie!" they say as everyone turns.
"hey, everyone," she greets, smiling at everyone. "you all look amazing." it was true, they did. vi was dressed in a tux, with a grape colored bowtie to match janelle's dress. nate and mudge were also in tuxes. mudge had ditched the colored contacts a few years ago, and they were now their natural blueish-green color. he still had his jet black hair though, which he had slicked back for the event. nate stood beside him, smiling slightly when he saw janelle and stevie approach. his blondish-red hair had turned more blonde over the years, yet it was still allowed to be as unruly as ever. he looked like a writer with his dark circles under his eyes that never seemed to go away, and his always slightly grumpy demeanor. hugs go all around, except for nate who gives stevie a handshake instead. "so how is everyone? i want to hear about everything," she says. mudge is about to open his mouth when he's interrupted.
"excuse me, everyone," says a voice in the microphone. the group turns to see ellingham's head chef on the stage, in her chef hat and everything. "if you'd please return to your respective tables. dinner is about to be served." the group turns back to each other.
"shall we?" janelle asks. the group makes its way to their table.

     the food is amazing of course, it always is at the holiday party. but, it's nothing compared to the company. they all catch up on the past year of their lives. janelle and vi have adopted another cat, which meant they now had three total. they promise this is the last one, but they said that last year as well. nate is working on another book, but as usual, he doesn't want to talk about it. he's gotten better at coping with writer's block, but not by much. mudge still loves his job at disney. stevie's phone is passed around as everyone marvels at how big dana (the preferred nickname for diana) and henry have gotten.
     "she looks like an engineer," janelle comments, pointing at dana in the picture.
     "she's four years old," stevie replies, laughing.
     "she does love making those block towers. maybe that will be her engineer origin story," david adds.
     "see? david gets it!" janelle says. the phone gets passed over to mudge and nate.
     "he looks like a writer," nate says, pointing to henry.
     "not you too!" stevie says. "my children will be whatever they want to be. whether that be an engineer, or a writer, or a beekeeper..."
     "a beekeeper?" vi asks.
     "you get my point," stevie says. the group laughs. once the dessert course is finished, couples begin to get up and dance. vi and janelle get up to join, but nate and mudge stay at the table, deep in conversation. 'it's the most wonderful time of the year' ends, and 'have yourself a merry little christmas' begins.

"may i have this dance?" david asks, placing his hand face up on the table for her to take.
"you may," stevie answers, taking it. they make their way from the table to the dance floor. one of many things stevie had to learn how to do being the wife of the head of the school was how to ballroom dance. it seemed stuffy and futile at first, but she grew to like it quite a bit. especially considering who her partner usually was. david had already known how to dance, after years he had been forced to attend cotillion. he was almost always able to lead, and she just had to follow. david and she slowly waltzed to the song. it was a beautiful scene, all the dancing couples, the twinkling lights of the ballroom, the music playing. the holiday magic was alive in this ballroom.
"so," david says, leaning in to whisper, so close to her ear she could feel his breath on her neck, "is now a good time to mention the kitten?"