CHAPTER 4
When Jen’s alarm clock buzzed at 6:30 Friday morning, February 17, it woke her from an intense and vivid dream in which she and Zoë were seated at a small white table in the middle of a field talking about Jen’s life. There was a pink frosted cake with “Happy Birthday Zoë” scrawled in icing on top. The only specific part of the dream that Jen remembered was Zoë leaning across the table, grasping Jen’s hands, and telling her, “Sometimes being in the right aisle can change your life…so can the right dress.”
Zoë was on Jen’s mind all day, through her last evening class. As the class ended, Jen announced the next assignment to her students, and in doing so, finally looked at the calendar, noticing she had missed Zoë’s birthday. Jen jotted herself a note to call Zoë and shoved it into her briefcase. She hoped to call, but wouldn’t feel guilty if she forgot — they hadn’t spoken in nearly three years, despite a pledge to always speak on each other’s birthdays.
Sometimes the good intentions between friends fell to the wayside. Life had a way of wreaking havoc on even the best old friendships. If it hadn’t been for Zoë, there’s no telling when Jen would have discovered boys — a milestone in any girl’s life. Not that one evening with Zoë and some boys at a hotel created a lifelong string of romantic successes. Jen’s dating life peaked that night at the beach and had been in shambles ever since. All her high school dance experiences had been awkward evenings that usually ended in a failed kiss attempt by either her or her date.
Jen met Reed Thorson her senior year and dated him on and off through college. Reed was part of the school theater crowd — bad boys compared to all the guys that the academic team girls usually hung around.
Reed was Jen’s first. He was slender, had deep gray soulful eyes, a square jaw, and an electric personality. In addition to performing in school plays, Reed also edited the yearbook. He was good looking, creative, and witty, but square in that “up with people” kind of way. Reed’s talent as an actor was far superior to his talent as a lover, and being with Reed dampened Jen’s interest in sex. If sex with Reed is what sex was like, Jen couldn’t see why people made such a big deal about it.
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