Thinking about it afterwards, Phil realised that Chris had talked him into instigating their little get together, but then, ‘Anything for a quiet life’, he had sighed to himself, and it would be good to meet up, just them, before they attended the wedding to which they had all been invited. That was scheduled to be quite the event at a swanky country house commandeered for the whole weekend and so hardly the place for a cosy chat.
Phil could still picture the bride and groom, from the time when he had first moved into the rather shabby university accommodation at which he and Chris had already pitched up. Even then, Hester and Charles had seemed set apart for greater things. He could still remember them all during that freshers' week, drinking foul coffee together in a corner of the student’s union where the floor, still slightly sticky with stale beer from last night’s gig, was being slowly covered in tables. They were being erected by second year students who oozed sophistication as they laid out free wares and flyers to attract new members to their societies. Full of naïve enthusiasm, Chris had suggested that, like his new acquaintance Phil, Charles and Hester should join the Dungeons and Dragons. First Hester and then Charles had said they would love to, but that they had already joined so many sporty things they might not be able to fit in the long hours it took to play D and D. Beneath their tact, the implication was clear. Why would they want to spend any longer than necessary with two apparent losers who wanted to waste their time on some fantasy pursuit, when there was a real world of competition and reward to be discovered.
Anyway, it hadn’t mattered in the end because Carrie and Connor, two freshers who had also been allocated rooms on their floor, had both joined the D and D society. The four of them had effortlessly became a little group, playing for entire weekends as the autumn term progressed into the monotony of writing assignments and the damp darkness of November. It was strange that, more than a decade later all four of the ‘D Ders’ who still lived in Manchester, had been invited to Hester and Charles’s wedding. Mind you, Phil had heard that there were going to be more than two hundred guests, so he guessed that they had invited all the ‘friends’ they could lay claim to. It would certainly give the impression that they were an uber sociable pair, and presumably this would impress the couple’s newer and more important acquaintances.
Phil hadn’t been all that surprised that Chris had introduced the idea of a pre-posh wedding meet- up. Chris had always carried a torch for Carrie since that first term when she’d arrived to study biochemistry, having failed for reasons that seemed unfathomable to secure a place to study medicine. If she had been disappointed, she certainly never showed it. Carrie had simply applied herself to doing well enough to be offered a transfer to medicine as soon as someone else dropped out. Doing well enough had meant avoiding wild parties. Phil wondered if that was why she had settled for their little D and D coterie, with its inherent nerdiness. At the time, Phil had been convinced that there had been some short-term dalliance between her and Chris, but later he had concluded that this had been merely the impression Chris had wanted to create.
After university, Chris had led a fantastic, if complicated, life, acquiring money and a wife who loved to spend it, before emerging from a divorce into his thirties to do it all over again with a succession of partners. Currently he was living alone. Carrie had left their fantasy world days behind for the grind of working and studying with no respite it seemed. Nonetheless, at their infrequent reunions, she seemed still to shine with energy, akin to happiness, fulfilment in her role as a consultant gynaecologist. It was that energy that made it difficult to get her attention sometimes. This time, even when he had managed to get a response, he had found himself agreeing to the venue being a coffee shop opposite to the hospital main entrance so that she could manage the whole thing in a little over half an hour in the early evening. He understood the time pressures she was under of course but couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that she didn’t remark on his witty reference to arranging a ‘P-reunion’ in his message. Perhaps Carrie had never really noticed him, he thought. He had never been all that noteworthy he supposed. Chris had studied economics with no apparent interest in the subject, but with enough flair to get himself a good enough job in finance to launch himself into the kind of league frequented by Charles and Hester.
Phil could see that his sociology degree and the range of jobs he had tried and not settled into, might have been off putting to a woman as single minded as Carrie. Even so he was surely not as much of as a loser as Connor, the fourth member of their little D and D group, who had always intrigued Phil with his obsessive enthusiasms and their sudden reversals. Connor had been totally preoccupied with D and D until well into their second year, when suddenly he had become fixated by Poker. Then Poker had been ditched for a seemingly unrelated mania for collecting music hall ephemera. The last time they had met up, Connor talked only about his campaigning for social change and a recent failed attempt to be elected to the local council as an independent socialist. He had studied history and in the last few weeks, had left the fee-paying school where he had worked since graduating to teach at a Pupil Referral Unit instead.
On the day of their little reunion, Phil arrived at the designated coffee shop in good time to claim a larger table. As he waited, he found himself wondering whether Carrie would be impressed by his new venture into the police force, then saw her coming through the door and waved her over. He hurried to the counter to get them both a drink, but by the time he had returned with their americanos, Chris had arrived and plonked himself down next to her. She was already laughing at some little joke he was making. Phil knew that he would not now have a chance to share with her his career news unless Chris moved to get his own coffee, something he showed no sign of doing. Chris had been asking Carrie what on earth, they should select from the gift list for Charles and Hester, perhaps one silver spoon between them he had then joked. On that note, Phil suggested that they should decide on their gift tactics once Connor had arrived. Carrie agreed with him, looking across at him with her beaming smile. For a moment, Phil glowed with the expectation that Carrie might at least be interested in spending more time with him.
Then Connor arrived, head down and a little distant in manner as usual. He went straight to the counter to get macchiatos for Chris and himself. By the time he’d returned, and they had all decided to circumvent the gift list completely and give the couple an experience voucher, Phil felt that there was barely any time before Carrie signalled that she must get back to check up on her patients. Chris had hurriedly grabbed his discarded jacket and said that he too had a bit of a work crisis to attend to, so that he and Carrie had left together, though from what Phil could see of the doorway they parted rapidly in opposite directions. He and Connor had carried on a little more desultory conversation, before Phil had felt able to make his excuses and leave. As he did so Connor was heading to the counter for a second coffee and pulling a book out of his pocket as if he intended to settle in to read whilst he drank it.
Still, Phil supposed that it had been good to meet up. Chris messaged him a little later to say just that, though also to point out that they had runout of time to discuss sharing lifts to the wedding venue. In the end, perhaps inevitably, Chris offered to drive them all in his new electric BMW. Carrie declined because she was not yet sure of her timings and preferred to make her own way. Connor sent a rather mysterious reply, saying that he was not sure where he might be coming from so had better make his own travel arrangements. Phil accepted and prepared himself for a long monologue from Chris on the journey down about the advantages of the vehicle he had chosen with his latest bonus. Neither spoke of Connor, nor said much about Carrie, though she dominated their unshared thoughts with her caring face, her determination, her natural charisma.
A few hours later Chris and Phil were standing on a terrace overlooking a lake at the venue, sipping some pre-ceremony mega cocktails, when they found themselves united in amazement. They had been chatting idly, each watching out for Carrie’s arrival. Then they spotted her, radiant as ever, walking slowly towards the terrace from the car park. For once, however, Chris and Phil’s eyes were fixed not on her, but on the companion at her side. It was Connor. Not only did they observe that he was keeping pace with her and sported a well-cut suit and an open, sunny expression. No, what shocked them was seeing that he was holding Carrie’s hand. She did not seem to notice them watching from a distance. Instead, she paused and turned towards Connor, taking his other hand briefly and laughing with him, before they continued down the gravel path, hand in hand, towards a cocktail waiter.
About the author
Jane Spirit lives in Suffolk UK and has been inspired to write fiction by going along to her local creative writing class.
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