CHAPTER 4
Debra
She had been to the cemetery so many times over the years that she felt like the bench beneath her had formed around her butt.
She had her spot. She had her view. She had a place where she parked her car on the thin road behind her, which she did her best not to block, and she had her flowers.
She always brought flowers. The grocery store and the florist she frequented knew her well.
Sometimes, Debra needed to visit her wife on a Monday, when the florist was closed, and the grocery store was her destination, so practically everyone at both locations knew her by her first name.
She changed out the flowers she brought every time, even if the older ones weren’t dead yet, and she moved those to another headstone that seemed like no one had visited it for a while.
“Hi, honey,” she said to her wife. “I know I normally just sit here, and we talk about my week at work or something else like that, but today, I need to talk to you about something important.” She sighed.
“It’s been five years. I lost you five years ago today, and I’ve been waiting to tell you about this thing I did.
I probably shouldn’t be telling you on the anniversary of your death, but I was so nervous to tell you.
I have been waiting and waiting, but now, it’s getting to the point where you need to know.
I’m leaving tomorrow. Not forever, obviously, but I’ll be gone for a week.
I know you’re used to seeing me a few times a week, so I wanted to make sure you knew that I wouldn’t be here. ”
Debra looked around and saw a man and a woman walking hand in hand with a bouquet of flowers.
She wondered if they were there to visit a parent and silently hoped that they weren’t there to visit a child.
She’d met many people in this cemetery over the years just by sitting on this bench or by placing flowers on graves, but she hadn’t met this couple, and whenever she saw someone new, she always wondered whom they were there to visit.
“I’m going to this event, and it’s not at all like me to do this,” she continued.
“You’re going to laugh when you hear it, but it’s a singles’ week event, and it’s less about sharing a drink with someone to see if there’s a connection and more about maybe seeing if there’s a physical connection.
” Debra swallowed. “I haven’t… I haven’t been with anyone since you, honey.
I don’t think I’m going to come out of this with a girlfriend or anything, but I’m very lonely.
I know you told me that you wanted me to find love again, and I said I never would, but it’s been five years.
I’m only forty-five, and I just had a physical.
Turns out, I’m in really good shape, and the doctor had no complaints, so barring some accident, I might live for a long time.
I don’t want to do that alone if I can help it.
I don’t know that I’ll actually sleep with anyone there, but I think I’m ready to try to maybe find someone.
The woman in charge of this thing, Nia, has this amazing track record of introducing couples this way, so I applied to join an event six months ago, thinking that by the time she called me, if she ever did, I’d either have met someone or I would have talked myself out of going.
” She laughed at herself a bit. “I suppose I still could, but I’m going home to pack after this, and I think I’m going to do it.
I had them book me a first-class flight because I knew that if I did that, I’d definitely go.
I’ve never flown first-class before.” She smiled.
“We were going to do that on our fifteen-year anniversary when we went back to Italy, remember?” She wiped tears from her eyes.
“Anyway, I have to get going to pack, but I love you. I miss you. I hope you’re okay with this. ”
Debra stood, walked to her car, and after seeing the couple from earlier holding each other at a grave, she drove herself home, pulled out the suitcase that she hadn’t used in years, and began to pack.