Page 119 of Grasp The Moment

Georgia and I are on ten tonight, and so is Delilah. She’s been dancing in the center of the living room with Jace and Sienna since the party began. We’re laughing and dancing as a group, unaware of life’s problems.

As the night begins to dwindle, more and more people start to leave. We dance under the moon, all laughing and drinking until the music pauses abruptly.

“Sorry!” Jace calls out, fumbling with the speaker to play the music again, when the sound of shouting echoes around us.

The music starts playing again, but it's too late—we already heard them.

In a matter of seconds, the front door slams so loud that we hear it from the backyard, and Denver comes running outside. She looks through the yard of her friends, tears streaming down her face, ruining the hours of labor she’d spent doing her makeup.

Georgia is the first to move. “What happened?!” she exclaims, rushing to her friend, but Denver is speechless as she shakes her head, and more tears fall.

Blake and Sienna are next, approaching her, but she backs away.

“We…” she hiccups, her entire body trembling.

It’s only the normal crew outside still. Delilah and Mom called it a night hours ago, and everyone else left soon after. When Denver realizes this, she shudders.

“We just broke up.”

THE END.

Epilogue

December 31st, 2029, four years later

“Mommy,I think Auntie George is going to die…” Blair, Cleo’s two-year-old, shouts in a whispered tone.

Cleo smiles down at her daughter and pats her head, “AuntieGeorgiais a bit nervous, B, that’s all.”

Blair couldn’t care less about the pronunciation of my name. Instead, the small girl turns to me, her blue eyes wide like her father’s. “Auntie George, why do you look like that?”

“Don’t be mean, sissy. She only looks alittlesick, but nottoosick.” Camden, Blair’s older twin brother, chimes in, pointing at me with orange, sticky Cheetos fingers that I’m pretty sure he got from my daughter.

Sometimes I wonder how the hell I ended up here, and then I remember that my friends are all way too close and now we’re parents. Four years ago, I was stumbling into this very chapel, drunk out of my mind with a man who became the love of my life. Now, I’m here again, sober as a doorknob, watching a set of toddlers go back and forth on whether I’ll be dead before I walk down the aisle.

Sienna, to her credit, tries to stifle her laugh before she letsout a cackle. She doubles over in her laughter, her now burgundy hair spilling in front of her face as she tries and fails to compose herself, while her four-month-old, Juniper, stares up at her in bewilderment.

“Har har…” I mimic, scrunching my nose as she sobers up.

“No.” She laughs. “I don’t think you get it. Camden is hilarious, G.” She giggles, and even though it’s Sienna’s birthday, I want nothing more than to give her a wet willy right now.

Looking down at my childhood friend holding her baby, I sigh and take Juniper from her mom.

“You hear that, June-bug? Your momma’s being so mean to Auntie George.” I pout, squeezing her little chubby brown cheeks as she giggles.

We’ve built a little family these last few years, and though some of the gang is here, it sucks that a piece of our pie is missing. Denver’s off living her dream in California, working with her favorite director on an upcoming project. It’s been years since all of us girls have been in the same room, though we’ve tried to on multiple occasions.

I miss her, and I miss our group.

Juniper babbles in my arms, her tiny, moist fingers tug and pull on my nose and lips as I stare at myself in the mirror. It’s been four years since Derek and I got married. Four years of joy and love. Four years of being a mom to Delilah while building my clothing brand, Destined.

After graduation, I spent the summer in New York, Monaco, and Paris, working directly with Eden Marlowe on building Destined. It was the craziest thing that I’ve ever experienced. We watched Formula One races, met drivers like Ri Ri Highwater and Alejandro Sanchez, sat front row at Paris Fashion Week, and have sold over a million pieces in two years.

About a year and a half ago, Derek opened hisfirst restaurant, Lemon’s, in Baltimore, and it became an instant hit, fusing Mexican American cuisine with a fine-dining experience, known for its lemonade and lemon drops.

Looking in the mirror, I feel my shoulders relaxing. I’m about to walk down the aisle for the second time, and this time—I’ll remember it all. My family is here, and he’ll be there, standing at the front of the aisle, waiting for me.

Sienna takes Juniper from me the second my energy shifts. She gives me a sweet smile and kisses my cheek before patting my shoulder, taking Cleo and the twins out of the room with her.