CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO Tashas Wedding
Tasha got married in spring.
The ceremony was held in a garden in Pasadena where jasmine climbed a stone wall and the chairs sank slightly into the grass.
Maya stood beside her as maid of honor, holding a bouquet and trying not to cry before Tasha even reached the aisle.
"If you ruin my makeup," Tasha whispered as she passed, "I will sue you.
"Maya laughed through tears.Tasha's fiance, Marcus, cried openly when he saw her.The sight made Maya's chest ache in a way that was no longer connected only to loss.It was tenderness.Hope, maybe.Not the desperate hope that one specific person would return.A wider kind.At the reception, Maya gave a speech about friendship, bad advice, good advice, and the fact that Tasha had once threatened to hide Maya's phone for her own protection.
"I should've let her," Maya said.The room laughed.Tasha pointed from the head table.
"Correct."Later, Maya stepped outside for air.Julian joined her.
"You okay?""Yeah. Weddings make me reflective.
""Dangerous.""Very."They stood beneath string lights.
"Do you want to get married someday?" Julian asked.
Maya turned toward him.The old Maya would have heard a proposal hidden inside the question.The current Maya heard exactly what he asked.
"I think so," she said. "If the relationship makes sense.
If we're good to each other. If we choose it for the right reasons.
""Children?"Maya looked toward the reception where Tasha was dancing with her mother.
"I don't know. I used to feel like I needed to know by a certain age.
Now I think I need to be honest about what I want, not scared of what I might miss.
"Julian nodded."I can work with honest."Maya smiled.
"Good. Because that's what I have."He took her hand.They went back inside.No promise was made.No future was guaranteed.Maya found comfort in that.A healthy future did not need to be claimed before it could be trusted.