‘Holly! And you must be Steve!’ Shadee smiled widely at the couple standing on her porch.



She hadn’t seen her friend in more than three years and hadn’t heard from her since they were still in college ‘Wow, what a surprise! Come in, you two!’



Shadee led them into the living room and invited them to sit down on her 3000$ sofa in front of the fireplace. She felt really ecstatic to see her old friend back. Holly looked very good, she was glowing, even though she seemed to have gained quite a few pounds since they had last seen each other

‘I missed you so much, Shadee!’ Holly grinned happily while giving her a tight hug ‘Look at you! You look gorgeous and look at this house!’



She took an appreciative look around the spacious room and finally sat down next to her boyfriend.

‘Let me just go fetch Seb, he’ll be thrilled to see you!’ Shadee hurried back to the second floor, returning in less than two minutes with Sebastien on her tail. He exchanged a few warm greetings with Holly, shook hands with Steve and they all sat down for a chit chat.



‘So, what have you been doing?’ Shadee asked, looking at the young couple ‘I kept calling your mother to see if you were back in town, but got the same answer every time. She must have gotten sick of me calling every few days.’



‘Well…’ Holly started, making it obvious that she was about to tell a long story ‘I kind of dreaded coming back in town without having had an unforgettable experience first. You know, they all say your college years are the wildest, when you do all kinds of things you’ve never done before, but for me it was as usual as always.’ She paused, throwing Steve a loving look ‘Of course, apart from meeting this one here! So, after graduation, I went to Steven and told him “I want to do something crazy! I refuse to settle down without having done something unusual”. You two know me, I’m not the whacky type of person, but what I did really was whacky!’



Shadee giggled, unable to imagine what whacky thing Holly could have done. Just then did she notice the shiny golden ring on both her friend’s finger and her lover’s.



She decided to keep quiet though. Chances were Holly was going to tell them everything anyway.

‘The two of us thought and thought for a few minutes. Our bags were packed, we had to leave the college premises, but we really didn’t want to return. So instead we took a taxi to the airport and chose the first flight away. This is how we got to Las Vegas!’ she started to laugh loudly at the faces Shadee and Seb had made ‘Without any plans, any scheming, we just got onto the plane and left. We stayed there as long as we could, seeing that we had quite a big sum of money from our scholarships. We visited the casinos, which by the way were really glamorous, but not really our type of thing! In the end, we decided to do another crazy thing and…’ she stretched out the hand with the ring ‘…we got married!’

There were a few moments of silence in which Sebastien and his fiancé digested the news.

‘Wow! You really did do something!’ Seb observed amusedly.



‘What bothers me’ Shadee pouted ‘is that you got married without me being there with you!’

‘Ah, well…we hadn’t thought about all this in advance’ Holly shrugged ‘But we didn’t really have any people invited. I didn’t even tell my mother until we got back, earlier today. She was actually a little upset at first, but she knew I never wanted a big wedding anyway!’

‘So, you’re a married woman now!’

‘Yep, Mrs Holly Rendell. I love the sound of that!’

‘Well, Mr and Mrs Rendell!’ Shadee got up from the couch ‘You do know you’ll have to stay for dinner! God knows when we’ll be having the chance to see you two again!’



She took a few steps in the direction of the hallway but was stopped after a few seconds by a very eager-to-help Holly. She had bolted up from her comfortable seat and sprinted the few meters to Shadee.

‘Let me give you a hand! So the boys can have a manly talk among themselves…’

She gave a small laugh and followed her friend inside the spotless kitchen, letting out a murmur of admiration that stroke Shadee’s ego.



Even though she had known Holly for quite some time, the period they had spent apart had made them feel a little estranged all, a sense of competitiveness rising up in them, each trying to outrun the other. In an effort to push the barrier between them away, Shadee gave her old friend another hearty hug, and smiled warmly.



‘Let’s get down to business, shall we?’ she grinned and walked over to the fridge, trying to decide which of the ingredients she could find there were most suitable for a fancy, yet quick meal.



A half an hour into their cooking, both young woman felt themselves warming up more and more to each other, thinking back at all the memories they shared together, be it sad or happy ones. In an impulse of sincerity and in the name of their old friendship, Holly blurted out: