Anna's Engagement Party

I walked into the brewery where Anna was having her engagement party. It was a small place with room for about 50 people, though you had a clear visual of all the barrels they used to make their beer, which took up at least half of the place. It was cozy and created a cool atmosphere. I wore a pretty simple dress with wedges.

When I finally spotted Anna in the small crowd, I quickly made my way over to her. I tried not to squeal too obnoxiously when we hugged, but I was so excited. After a brief hello, I had to get a look at the ring. It was really simple, but exactly what Anna wanted; one diamond centered on a gold band.

“I still can’t believe he actually proposed,” she said as she shook her head. “I mean, we were talking about getting a house and stuff, but I don’t know, I was so surprised!”

“I’m so happy for you,” I said before pulling her in for another hug. “We have to catch up later, but I won’t hog you.”

Before we pulled away, Anna whispered in my ear, “I wish you would. Some of Charlie’s family is driving me insane.” She laughed and I gave her a sympathetic look.

Darlene and Jessica were on the other side of the brewery, beers in hand, so I decided to grab a beer before I headed over there.

As I waited for some interesting blueberry concoction, I saw a tall figure out of the corner of my eye. Moose had walked in with a few of our other guy friends. I tried not to look in that direction while still maintaining a casual position at the bar.

“Hey, Caroline!” I heard. When I looked up, I saw it was one of my friends, Tom, who had walked in with Moose but was now alone.

“Oh my goodness, hi!” I enthusiastically replied as I greeted him with a hug. “Long time no see!”

“I know, can you believe it? The first of our friends to get engaged!”

“It’s crazy. How are things with you and Amber?”

The bartender brought over my drink and Tom quickly ordered a few drinks before answering me. He said things were good and that they were living together in Manhattan, but they were going to save some money before getting married.

“We’re just both really crazy with work right now,” he finished. “But what about you? How’s California? Meeting any cool guys?”

I gave him a pretty brief, generic answer. California was good. Work was good. I’d met a few people, but nothing serious.

We began walking over to our friends, each of us balancing three drinks, since he was clearly ordering for everyone. It was an open bar so things were bound to get interesting.

“Thanks,” Moose said to Tom without looking up at either of us. I held back the urge to roll my eyes. Everyone else thanked Tom and then promptly greeted me like normal adults with manners. I hadn’t seen Moose in months. Why did he have to make everything so uncomfortable?

We all chatted for a while around a wooden high top table. Anna and Charlie were able to come over for a little, but they mainly had to entertain their families.

After about an hour, I was waiting on my next beer at the bar when I heard someone say, “Hey.”

This time, I knew exactly who it was. I looked over at Moose and responded, “Oh, hey,” in a sarcastic tone.

He smiled and looked down at the bar. “Do you still hate me?”

It was a valid question, but it made me angry because I could tell he was probably on his fourth or fifth beer. I don’t know that Moose has ever dealt with confrontation without being moderately drunk.

“I don’t hate you, Moose,” I replied as I looked straight ahead and tapped lightly on the bar.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

“Well, I don’t,” I replied before I turned to face him. “Can I just ask, why didn’t you ever try to talk to me about it? I mean, you’ve had so much time.”

“I know, Caroline,” Moose replied as he let out a heavy sigh. “There were so many times that I wanted to, so many times I pulled out my phone and literally wrote out the text message, but I just felt like it was useless. I know things have been, well, tense over the years and I’m not the best at discussing, um, uncomfortable situations. You know that.”

I rolled my eyes as the bartender put down my beer. “Moose, you have to grow up sometime.” After the words left my lips, I realized that it may have come off a little harsh, but I didn’t even care as I turned to walk away.

Moose didn’t stop me. He didn’t gently reach out to me or say my name. He didn’t do anything. And it was actions like that that always made me dismiss Moose. I just couldn’t handle someone with such poor communication skills. I deserved better. And I felt like I actually had that with Tom so far. Sure, it was early, but he didn’t do anything cryptic. I felt like I always knew where things stood with him.

When I got back to the table, I pulled out my phone and quickly texted Tom, “I miss you” with a kissy face emoji.

Within five minutes, he texted me back that he missed me, too, and asked me how New York was. We texted briefly back and forth before I put my phone away.

As the night began to wind down, I collected my things and finished off my last beer. I pulled my phone out to text my sister to see if she’d pick me up but before I got a chance, I saw I had two text messages from Moose.

“Can we just talk?”

“Please, Caroline.”