Surrera Advent Calendar 2022

Day 11

Picture Perfect

It was 5:04pm, January 1st 2023 and Andrea Herrera had finally recovered from the hellish new year's shift she'd worked the night before. She'd been lured from her room by the smell of Carina's lasagna and had never been more thankful that at least one of her friends could cook.

"Hey," Carina smiled, leaning around the corner to see her.

"Hey," she replied, sleep making her voice crack. "Is there enough for me or is Maya eating before she goes to work?"

"It's just you and me, Maya left a while ago,"

"Oh, okay,"

They ate in comfortable silence, Andy not even realising Carina had tidied away her plate until she set a glass of wine in front of her.

"Thanks, um, I think I'm gonna go back to bed, but I'll see you in the morning," She said, pushing herself up out of her seat.

"Are you ever going to tell Sullivan about what happened after the wedding?" Carina asked quietly, raising an eyebrow as Andy stopped abruptly in the hallway.

"I haven't told anyone about what happened, not even Maya and I don't want to. It's just, it's done Carina and I don't want to go back there. It's too hard." She whispered, gripping the glass in her hand.

"It might help you!" Carina called, only being met by the click of a door shutting.

As she placed her glass on the table she sunk in an unmade bed, pulling the covers up around her and reaching for her laptop.

It always seemed to end this way when she thought about the wedding. A happy day clouded by a fog of loss and grief. Something that should have been so joyous that ended so abruptly, so quietly. Something that left before anyone knew it was even there.

The pictures started the same as she scrolled backwards through her memories; Christmas at 19 again, finally, going out with everyone, the brief interlude of her time at 23, although there weren't many group pictures from then, going back to Maya and Carina's wedding before she fell into the backlog of happiness of her and Robert.

There were folders filled with days of their lives, overflowing with memories of the two of them despite having to keep it secret for so long. Maybe that's why she'd taken so many pictures, because she wasn't allowed to share her joy with anyone else, at least she'd have all their days in her camera roll, just waiting for the day they could be shared.

The one that struck her the most, though, was the one that was taken right before their big fight.

It had been date night, something they promised each other they would do every two weeks no matter how hectic their lives got, something they could do to reacquaint themselves with each other, keep that easy going friendship they had with each other alive. It was important to the both of them, especially because of how stressful their jobs got. Somedays date night meant staying in and ordering the greasiest take away they wanted to, hibernating under blankets on the couch and wasting the night away together.

Occasionally, though, they would go out for their night. They'd become more regular as the world slowly opened back up and it gave Andy a chance to see Robert in a suit, something she would never turn down.

The dress she wore was a simple navy colour, nothing flashy, with Robert in a basic black blazer and trousers, the white shirt without a tie. His arm was wrapped around her waist, pulling her into him as he leaned down to kiss the crown of her head as she laughed into the mirror she'd positioned them in front of.

She couldn't remember what he'd said to make her laugh but then again, maybe she'd just been happy. And she knew she hadn't felt like that in a while.

Today's story is written by morganfemily

Hope you enjoyed! Sorry mine have been so short this year, school and life is hectic right now but I still wanted to be a part of it and I'm so glad I have been!