The Greener Field

Advice is Always Free

As Sarah typed out a brief response to Jess telling him she would indeed see him for dinner, she had the sinking feeling she was only letting her restless body think for her mind. He was undoubtedly handsome and those few kisses she allowed him—from the top of the cliff, and on the yacht during the dinner party amid jet-set associates--she would never forget. He definitely had an infectious way about him, something she had reluctantly fantasized about on more than one occasion while back now on the other side of the world.

As she closed the lid of her laptop, Sarah hoped Jess he would not answer back too quickly. She needed time to think about what she had just allowed for, and did not want to know for sure—at least not right away. Had she really just put Jess' proposal for a second intimate date instantly into motion? Perhaps that night she might even mention the invitation to her parents. They had invited her for drinks with some old friends and that included their daughter, Carrie, down from San Francisco. Carrie was an old school friend whom Sarah was close with before going off to LA for college. She had been looking forward that night to seeing her again.

Sarah knew her parents would be pleased with the knowledge that Jess was looking her up once more after Greece. They were always pushing her out to socialize. And of course, Jess' appearance of wealth and success, when they met him on Santorini, gelled with theirs immediately, along with their expectations and wishes for their eligible daughter. She only hoped her mother and father would not go into details at dinner of how Jess had practically kidnapped her during the time they all shared on the Greek island.

Carrie Jameson had always been a 'bestie' to Sarah. It was she who had gotten her through more than one tearful night during those last two years of high school following the loss of Robbie. As Sarah got ready that evening to meet her parents, heir friends and and Carrie at the Hotel Del Coronado, she thought about her once young girlfriend and the many good times they had shared. The two tomboyish girls as pre-teens frolicked year after year on the beach at La Jolla Shores during the summers and on the tennis courts of the 'Ranch' the rest of the year. What would it be like seeing her again, after some five years? Would they even recognize each other?

Knowing that it would take her a good forty-five minutes in her Mercedes Smart to get over the bridge to Coronado Island in traffic and then to the hotel restaurant, Sarah took along a USB of music she had recorded earlier for the occasion. Some of it included songs she had listened to in high school while jumping around and screaming out the lyrics with Carrie. After finally getting ready, wearing a burnt orange dinner dress and brushing her hair down close to her face as she used to wear it in high school, the anxious Sarah set out to pick up some flowers for the reunion on her way.

Arriving at the hotel, she had the valet park her car and went in, knowing she was already thirty minutes late.

"That's just like my beautiful friend . . . to keep me waiting." The voice came to her from the side. She had just entered the restaurant and it was indeed Carrie who had come to find her.

"Oh my gosh!" Sarah shouted, and the two embraced for a long moment.

"You are so the same!" Carrie squealed out about her girlfriend from the past.

"And you!" Sarah exclaimed. "Just look at you! Even prettier now!"

The young woman still had jet black hair, now a more shapely body and wore a turquoise dress, similar to Sarah's in style and length.

"How are you Sarah? This is so great . . ."

"It is! When I heard you were coming down from San Francisco with your parents . . . after all these years . . . I just couldn't . . ."