Photo by Chris Tweten on Unsplash
“I can’t believe you remembered our five-year anniversary,” Alledria said, a smile rippling across her face. “Even the same restaurant location, even if it is a steakhouse now instead of a fish camp.”
Wayne, her husband of three years growled a little, whether in thankful agreement or disgust of what he would have to live up to in the future was in question.
“Of course I did,” Dara replied as she buttered the small brown loaf provided while they waited for their salads to arrive. “I introduced you after all.”
“Not an introduction,” Wayne groused.
Alledria bumped shoulders with her grumpy man. “I needed a website made for my writing, you had been talking about starting a side hustle of making websites while doing a side hustle at that big box retail store with her. Both of us hemmed and hawed, being overworked, underpaid, too busy and not wanting to see people after dealing with them all day at work, until she finally nailed us down for a meet-up. I would call that an introduction.”
“It is.” He smiled reluctantly. “Thank you, Dara.”
“And I’ll shoot you the other dates I got on my calendar, including your actual first date.”
Wayne perked up.
“Hey, that’s cheating.” Alledria accused her best friend.
“Do you, or do you not, want him to remember to buy you flowers for April 19th?”
“Tulips.” Alledria immediately responded. “Three red and one yellow.”
They paused as the server delivered the salads, Ranch dressing for Wayne, French for Alledria, and a Ceasar salad for Dara.
“You will only get these cheat codes once,” Dara informed Wayne once the server left, waving her fork in his direction, “after that, it is up to you to enter them on your calendar and save it somewhere in case your computer goes down.”
“That is fair.”
“And they don’t cover everything.” Dara nodded to the two of them. “You should talk about what is important, what dates you want to celebrate. Don’t make assumptions, different things are important to different people.”
“We know,” Alledria assured her.
“Yeah, well, I thought Kase and I did too, but we didn’t last four years.” Dara stabbed her salad. “You are coming up on that magic number sooner than your think.” She lifted her eyes. “And I want you two to make it. You are good for each other.”
Alledria reached across the table to squeeze Dara’s left hand.
Wayne stuffed a forkful of lettuce into his mouth while he looked around the room awkwardly. Any Kase conversation came with a load of baggage he hadn’t been privy too, nor did he want to at this late date. After swallowing the greenery and taking a sip of beer, hoping he was gauging the break in conversation correctly, he asked his wife, “Hey, is this a good time?”
She glanced up into his chocolate brown eyes. “You know, I think it is the perfect time to tell her.”
“Tell me what?” Dara asked as she chased the last bit of dressing with a softened croissant.
“You know how we have been trying?” Alledria asked, leaning over to grasp her husband’s hand.
“What?” Confusion crossed Dara’s face, then cleared, “Oh, that.” Then joy lit her face. “Oh, that. You? Yes?” At Alledria’s nod and Wayne’s slight blush, Dara exploded. “Yes! Oh, that is amazing news. So now we are celebrating an anniversary, a book birthday, and … how far along?”
“Sixteen weeks. After all the troubles I had in the past, I wanted to make sure before telling anyone. We will be letting my parents know tonight when we call about my new book coming out tomorrow.”
Dara clapped her hands in delight. “I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. I am so going to Auntie all over the place.”
(words 635; first published 4/4/2026 – This was not the story I was trying to write. The characters just went off on their own.)
Anniversary Dinner Series
Chapter One: Anniversary Dinner (9/11/2022)
Chapter Two: What’s Wrong (9/8/2024)
Chapter Three: What’s Wrong with Me? (12/29/2024)