Taking Chances

Losing My Best Friend

 

•Lisa

"Where the hell were you all night?" was the first question my fiancée, Jennie, asked when I walked into our apartment at 08:23 in the morning. She had her hands on her hips with a frantic agitation in her voice. Not to mention, her almond-shaped eyes were burning holes through me.

         "Out". I noticed the red brew light of the coffe maker was on. "Any coffee left?" She shook her head. I grabbed a coffee mug from the cupboard and poured what little was left into it. With my back up against the cold edge of the granite counter, I took a sip. It was still hot but burnt, stale, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. How fitting. I waited for the next round of interrogation to begin. I didn't have to wait long.

        I met Jennie at a friend's party more than six years ago. Wendy, Jongin's latest squeeze, threw a New Year's Eve party and since I was flying solo on NYE, Jongin brought me along with him. Jongin was my best friend since middle school. Our moms were also best friends and college roomies. 

        Jennie got her MBA from Wharton School of Business from UPenn and had just started working at the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch over a year ago when we met. To be honest, Jennie was not the most beautiful woman I've ever seen but she definitely was the most sensual. She's a little on the short side but our height difference felt so right to me. From her sensual mouth to her mesmerizing eyes that seemed to read my deepest soul and her soft voice, I was smitten. She was also very smart and funny which made her very attractive. I was in cloud nine when I learned that she's also into women. I thought I was the luckiest person in the room when she kissed me right at 12 midnight. We were inseparable since then. 

        After only ten months of dating, I asked Jennie to move in with me but it ended up with me giving up my shitty apartment and moving in to her more upscale one in Lower Manhattan. Just six months ago, I proposed to her while we were on a two-day trip to the Niagara Falls.

        Jennie's father, being a conservative Korean, was against to our 'damning same sex relationship' at first. I worked hard to show him that I deserved Jennie and had proven to him that Jennie and I belonged together. 

         Jennie and I were each other's best friend. We always did things together, what little time we had between my med school and her job as finance analyst. I was a struggling junior medical student at NYU when I first met her. 

         Med school was anything but pleasurable. There had been a lot of closed-calls where Jongin and I thought about dropping out but our passion in medicine had won us over. Of course, having Wendy and Jennie had made it easier and tolerable, if I may say so.

          Jennie being an only child, her parents were mostly concerned about us not being able to give them grandchildren, at least half-blooded Kims. So Jennie and I sat down with them one fine afternoon, and patiently explained to them that we were planning to undergo IVF so we can have our own children after I was done with my residency. Of course, Jennie will bear them, she had it all planned. Eventually, her dad relented and before I proposed, I first asked her hand from him out of respect and tradition.