Waves

Part 4

The remainder of the first night was filled with reminiscing and laughter, not just amongst all of the old classmates assembled for their friend's wedding but Joe and Eve. They found themselves sitting together after dinner catching up, and though neither would admit it, they both felt giddy at being in each other's company. Later that night in the bungalows they each shared with their friends, both Joe and Eve were grilled.

"Eve Wilson, I swear to God if you don't get that man back this weekend..." Christine threatened as she washed her face. Christine, Eve, and their friend Courtney were sharing a massive suite and the weekend had turned into an impromptu slumber party filled with Champagne and beauty treatments.

"It's not exactly that easy Chris. It's been 9 months-that's practically a year. A lot of things have changed," Eve shrugged, sipping her champagne as Courtney applied a face mask to her. "Yes, it's been a long time with a lot of change. But not all of those changes are bad ones Eve. Maybe you guys have put in the necessary work to fix this," Courtney mused as she plucked a stray eyebrow.

Eve gnawed the inside of her cheek as her head started spinning. She'd done her damndest to suppress the dream of working things out with Joe months ago. It was the only way she could really mourn the death of their relationship and the hopes attached to it. A restart was impossible, and besides-why would either of them want to restart something that had failed? But a fresh start, one with two healed parties navigating a clean slate? That felt feasible to Eve, but the unknown of where Joe stood prevented her from traveling down that path in her heart.

While Eve and her friends stayed up for hours discussing all things Joe, just down the tree-lined path of the country club, Joe was pacing his suite while his friends Sam and Justin rolled their eyes. "Dude, you've got to just tell her how you feel. A woman like Eve is not going to stay single forever. You are on borrowed time," Justin remarked as he pulled out a bottle of bourbon.

"What about that guy that was tagging her in stuff? Sam, did Christine ever give you a straight answer as to if Eve is even single?" Joe took a big swig of bourbon straight from the bottle as Sam nodded. "Chris said it's over, that Eve was the one to end it, and that she specifically mentioned she was looking forward to seeing you," Sam shrugged, already tired of Joe's internal strife.

Joe was torn. He knew he'd made a massive mistake in not fighting harder at the end, but his pride had gotten in the way. His concern was that the window had closed and any attempt he made to fix things would be met with rejection. Joe didn't know if he could bear being turned down by Eve, the mere thought of it bringing the same tightness in his chest he felt on the day he walked out of her apartment. He also knew that the "what-if" would terrorize him for the rest of his life.

The next day was filled with preparation for the rehearsal dinner and as both Joe and Eve were in the wedding party, they couldn't avoid bumping into each other. Walking over to the coffee bar, Eve instantly saw Joe's large frame ahead of her in line. Clearing her throat inadvertently, Joe turned around and couldn't stop his pale blue eyes from lighting up when he spotted Eve. Waving her to come join him at the register, Joe rattled off his order before turning to her. "Do you want your usual?" He asked. "Yes, please." Eve tried to stop herself from grinning at the realization that Joe still remembered her coffee order.

The two of them lazily strolled down the brick path leading to the canopy where dinner was being held later as Justin stood on a chair and rattled off various chore assignments for the day. There were a fair amount of employees from the facility milling around setting up, but Delaney and her fiancé Nate had a laundry list of items they wanted their friends to help with. Joe and Eve listened for their names and split up to work on their tasks.