Becca’s breathing grew shallow again, as she frantically scoured the room, eyes scanning the throng of well-heeled Manhattanites gathered for the annual fund-raiser in a revamped Javits Center, desperately hoping to catch another glimpse of the good-looking dirty-blond in the slick smoking jacket that she’d spied earlier.

It didn’t take long.

Jo materialized in front of her seemingly out of nowhere, smiling broadly, sporting a look of genuine surprise.   Damn, Jo, you’re even better-looking than before!  I really should slap you if only for that.

Motioning to the girls with her that she was stopping to talk to Becca, Jo shrugged nonchalantly at the disappointed goodbye waves from several of them.  Turning back to face Becca once more, she grinned as she brushed back thick, silky dirty blonde hair that flopped in layers over her brow, hiding one of her deep blue eyes from sight momentarily.  She bit down on her naturally ruddy lip as she tucked hair behind an ear, an endearing habit Becca remembered keenly from their soul-shattering encounter three years ago.  Even as a flood of memories of their shared past washed over her in a torrent, Becca caught the flash of a Cartier band on Jo’s ring finger.  There’s a ring on her finger! 

Jo was not as encumbered by their past.  “Becca Phillips!  In the flesh!”  Enthusiastically.

The ring flashed by for just a moment, yet it seemed to move past Becca’s eyes in slow motion.  For this was not just any ring.  It was the gold-and-platinum eternity ring that she’d once told Jo about; the one that Becca confessed to dreaming that she’d eventually wear as a wedding ring, one day.  The ring winked as it went past, and, damn, did it look good sitting snugly ‘round Jo’s finger.

MY choice wedding ring.  You’re wearing one.  Ugh…

The knot in Becca’s stomach that had formed earlier, when she’d caught sight of Jo lounging against a wall in one corner of the ballroom, surrounded by several girls whose dresses left little to the imagination, bulged and grew heavy.  It made her sick.

Fuck – are you married?!!

Her throat tightened at the realization, and something in her mind tapped “play” in the part of her brain that stored the possible conversation between her and Jo that she’d been subconsciously rehearsing on and off over the years, the one she’d imagined they would have the first time they’d see each other after parting in that rain-drenched, dramatic train station scene in Seattle.