There was a break in the songs, and I walked up to the bar to get us girls a round of beer. While I waited for the bartender to take my order, I noticed some guys walking in the front door. My eyes instantly went to this tall, good-looking and awesomely built guy with dark blackish-brown hair and tanned skin. His head was turned to the side talking to another guy, but as soon as he faced the bar, his dark brown eyes met mine. A big smile came to his face, and he instantly made his way through the crowd to me.
“Well, well, well . . . the famous Kate Stewart, or should I say Kate Turner?” he said, leaning down to give me a hug.
“Oh my gosh—Matt Richard! What a nice surprise. How have you been?” I asked, giving him a hug back.
“Great, and how about you?” he replied, leaning forward and giving me a kiss on the cheek.
“I . . . can’t complain,” I said slowly, raising my eyebrow and looking up at him surprised.
With a grin, he winked and pointed to my shirt. I looked down and started laughing out loud. I had completely forgotten what it said.
“Nice to see some things haven’t changed . . . You are still the same ornery guy who used to torment me every day in art class.”
He threw his head back and laughed at that one. “Well, can you blame me? It wasn’t every day a class of freshman boys got to be in the presence of one of the hottest senior girls.”
“You’re still full of it,” I started to kid him but was interrupted by my friend, Tina.
“Come on. We’re all thirsty and ready to dance,” she said, grabbing the beers.
“I guess I have to go. It was great seeing you again,” I said.
“You too,” he said with a smile.
We girls danced for the next hour before another one of my friend’s started yelling “table dive, table dive.” This was something we did when we were in college. We would get about six to eight people and make two rows. Each person would stand across from someone and hold each other’s hands. Then you would stand up on the table and dive onto all of their arms, hoping they didn’t drop you.
I was standing next to the table, but it was full of beer bottles, so instead I pulled up a bar stool and climbed up on top of that.
“Everyone ready?” I asked, and they all nodded. “Okay –One, two, three and jump,” I shouted as I dove into their arms.
They caught me, thank goodness, and then safely put me back down on the ground. Sitting there shaking his head at me was Tony.
Oh no, I thought as I walked toward him.
“The last time I saw a crazy girl do that was about eleven years ago at her bachelorette party,” he said.
“And if I recall right, I did a bar slide after that,” I said.
“Oh no, no. We don’t need any of that going on tonight,” he laughed.
Wanting to take a break, I sat back down at the table and was talking to Shelly when Matt came walking towards us with two beers in his hand. He pulled up a bar stool and handed me a beer.
“Hey there,” I said with a big smile. “What’s this for?”
“This is for making me one of the coolest guys in underclassmen history.”
“Really? And how did I do that?” I asked, amused.
“You asked me to dance with you at prom, and it isn’t very often that a freshman boy gets to dance with the prom queen.”
I sat there thinking back to my senior year and then started to laugh. “I completely forgot about that. Weren’t you on the student council and collecting tickets that night?”
“Yeah, and we danced right after you were crowned queen and made out with the king.”
“I did not make out with the king.”
“It’s your story, and you can tell it however you want,” he said, patting my leg.
“Whatever. If I remember right, I had just finished having a very traditional queen/king kiss when your mom came to pick you up. I asked her if I could have one dance with the kid who tormented me every day of my senior year.” I then chuckled out loud. “I will never forget the look on your face when I did that. For the first time ever, you were speechless and almost looked horrified. But eventually you loosened up and even dipped me when the song was over.”
“What in the heck was I thinking? I was a little squirt back then and could have easily dropped you. I was already petrified of the senior guys, especially after you threatened me, saying you would have them beat me up if I pulled any more pranks on you.”
“Well, can you blame me? All I wanted to do was work on my college portfolio, but you and your friends wouldn’t leave me alone. You all were like a swarm of bees and pestered me from the time I walked in until the time I’d leave.”
“Sorry about that . . . We were kind of mean to you.”
“Kind of?” I asked, raising my eyebrow up at him, and he smiled back at me with this innocent grin on his face. “Seriously though, you guys weren’t that bad and when the jokes weren’t aimed at me, I kind of liked hanging out with you. You were all funny and definitely made me laugh a lot.”
“Whew! That’s a relief to hear. I was worried you might still be plotting your revenge on me. So before you change your mind, I say we call a truce,” he said, putting his beer bottle up.
“Truce,” I said, tapping his beer bottle with mine.
“So what brings you out tonight?” he then asked. “I had to look twice when I walked in and saw you. You haven’t been up here in years.”
“I know,” I started to say. “Since having kids, I have kind of turned into a hermit.”
“What do you mean turned into one? Weren’t you always one?”
“Ha-ha,” I said, jokingly slugging his arm.
“I’m just kidding,” he said. “So, speaking of kids, how many do you have now?”
“I have two daughters. Jenna, who turned ten in November, and Mia will be three in April.”
“Wow, a little bit of an age difference there.”
“Yeah, I spaced them out so I would always have a built-in babysitter,” I joked.
“So where’s Aaron tonight?” he casually asked, obviously not knowing we were separated.
“Well,” I started to say, but then paused. “The truth is Aaron and I are going through a divorce.”
The second the words left my mouth, his brown eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “I’m so sorry. I swear I had no idea or I never would have asked,” he apologized.
“Oh, no, please don’t be sorry. This just happened a month ago, so you wouldn’t have known.”
“Wow, I’m in complete shock. Never in a million years would I have guessed something like this would ever happen to you two. Are you doing okay?” he asked with a concerned look on his face.
“To be honest, this last month has been pure hell, but things are slowly getting better. This was something I never saw coming, so I was completely blindsided when it happened. But thank God for my family and my friends. Mom and Dad instantly offered for me and the girls to stay in the apartment above their garage, and my sisters and friends have just been plain great. Even though