Finding Forever

Chapter 3

I'm ready to ease into my senior year of college. After spending the entire summer in Yachtas, Oregon, with my mom, I'm ready to return to my friends and studies. Junior year wasn't exactly everything I expected it to be. After the events of my twenty-first birthday, I was nervous things would change between me and Ryan. But what I didn't take into consideration was the strength of our friendship. I mean, it was just meaningless sex. I underestimated our ability to bounce back to normal and move on.

The day after we stupidly slept together, I was relieved when Ryan called and asked me if I wanted to join him for a beer and a game of pool, like we hadn't just had sex the night before. Of course, I went. I was thankful as ever we could put our drunken sex behind us, never talk about it again and keep our best friend status.

Even though things hadn't changed much between Ryan and me, many other things did change pretty quickly. For starters, Ryan called Alodie, and she asked him on a date. I laughed when he told me she planned for them to go to a wine tasting. I also told him the thought of him wearing loafers and acting appropriately while sipping wine was ridiculous. Ryan agreed. He admitted he knew it was entirely out of character, and then he asked me if he should call her back and decline. I told him he should go with her if he wanted to, even though he was not a pretentious wine drinker.

One date led to another, and by the end of the second semester of junior year, Ryan and Alodie were a couple.

It took me a while to adjust to Alodie sitting next to me on the sofa during Monday Night Football and showing up to my apartment unannounced to hang out when Ryan was at Lacrosse practice. Of course, none of our friends knew what happened between us. Our epic mistake was locked tight in a memory vault, and the key was thrown away. What happened happened, and there was nothing we could do to erase what we had done.

It was weird seeing Ryan in a relationship, though, and not because we slept together, but because girls barely made it to a second date for as long as I'd known him. Yet somehow, even though Alodie and Ryan were complete opposites, she kept his attention long enough to be every which way I turned. According to Ryan, their relationship was casual and nothing too serious. But Alodie had a very different outlook. She would tell me he was "the one" and thanked me for introducing them more times than necessary. I just wanted to stay out of it and hoped Ryan didn't break her heart anytime soon. The last thing I needed was to lose another female friend over Ryan's inability to commit fully, especially someone I had no choice but to see every Saturday morning at the Ballet Academy.

A text from Alodie lights up on my phone screen:

Did his plane land yet?

I put my car in park and text her back:

I just found a parking spot. Relax. His flight lands soon.

She types back a reply right away:

Make sure you tell him to call me as soon as he lands!!!! So excited!!!! xoxoxoxox Thanks for picking him up!!!

Over the summer, Ryan accepted a job in Australia's student exchange program. He worked on a farm during the day and partied at the beach all night. His father wasn't impressed he wouldn't be returning home to Sacramento to work at his law firm. Still, Ryan insisted he needed to do something different over the summer before the pressure of getting into Yale Law School became his focus. I secretly hoped his time overseas meant an easy end for him and Alodie. Not because I had developed feelings for Ryan, but because if things ended organically between them, my life would be a hell of a lot easier.

So when Alodie told me they would make it work long-distance, I was shocked. Not only because their relationship was only a few months young but because it was almost comical to believe Ryan would stay faithful to one girl for three months while bikinis on the Gold Coast surrounded him. Hell, it was impressive he made it this long in a committed relationship. Then again, who was I to judge?