IT’S A BEAUTIFUL FALL EVENING and our friends and families are all gathered together for a barbecue at Dee’s house. At least that’s what they think. I smile at what they’re really in for. All our friends know how close Dani and I are but they have no idea about the rest of our story and they’re going to be completely blown away. I can’t wait.
We told our families our story and about our engagement last week, and to say they were surprised was an understatement. In the end, they were delighted with the way things turned out and are here tonight, with the promise of keeping quiet, to see everybody’s reaction.
My parents were friends with Scott’s parents and they too lost contact with one another. They never made the connection because they respected our wishes and never read any of the articles written about the accident. They also didn’t attend the trial because it didn’t get that far. The bastard admitted his guilt and accepted his fate. Dee and I spent a lot of time texting about him. I wanted him to be killed, like he killed my family, but Dee, in her infinite wisdom, showed me the power of forgiveness. You’ll never forget, but you need to forgive. And that forgiveness has helped me heal.
Lysee and Justin are here, as a couple. They’ve been inseparable since they met that night at Hennessey’s. Lysee brought Tonya and Maurice from The Spot and Justin brought his mother, Mary, who came with her longtime boyfriend, Charles Ericson.
Charles became a huge part of Justin’s and Mary’s lives after the death of Justin’s father. Even though it was clearly a case of self-defense, Charles made it his mission to protect them and never stopped. He took Justin under his wing and he and Mary fell in love.
Justin inherited his father’s share of the firm, which Charles ran while he was in college. Justin graduated, on the dean’s list, with a double major in economics and political science, and a minor in digital communications. He’s always been incredibly driven and is brilliant. He spent his summers interning under Charles, attended USC Law, and the minute he passed the bar, he literally drove across town to assume his role as the Sinclair at Sinclair and Ericson.
Chance is here with his college friend, Kyle, who met Josh when he came into Josh’s shop to get his car repaired after a small fender bender on the 405 freeway. Josh and Kyle hit it off immediately and are here as a couple.
Barbara, our grief counselor, is here with her wife, Corinne. And to say she’s thrilled is an understatement. She said she had a “feeling” and boy was she right. Dee and I had lunch with her and Corinne earlier this week to tell them our story. She’s the reason all this started in the first place and we didn’t want to blindside her. She deserves more than that. She deserves everything.
Barbara and Corinne, who also promised not to spill our secret, are currently in a corner, laughing with George Mitchell, the man who saved Josh’s life both figuratively and literally. We’ve gotten to know him through Josh. They’re exceptionally close and he’s come to several of the same events Dani and I have been at. I can see why he did what he did; he’s just that kind of person.
Jayden and his wife, Camille, are also talking with them. I’ve become very close to him over the years. Austin House is very important to me and I’m happy they could be here to share in my special day.
Dee’s friends Beth and Sandi came up from San Diego with their husbands, Michael and Adam, and their daughters, who Chloe was beyond thrilled to see. The girls are currently being watched at my house, no doubt having the time of their lives. Dee’s mother didn’t come but that’s a story for another day. I hate how sad Dee gets every time her mom lets her down. But, like I did through texts, I continue to comfort her with humor, friendship, and love.
Dee and I are standing by the fireplace in her living room. We asked everyone to come inside and when I see that everybody has their food and are settled down, I tap my bottle of beer to her wine glass to get their attention.
Clink, clink, clink.
Everyone stops talking to look up at us.
“Can I have everybody’s attention?”
Once the room is quiet, I continue. “I’d first like to thank all of you for coming here tonight. Dani and I have quite a story to share with you.” I stop and laugh because we’re about to blow their minds. “It’s actually more of a mind-fuck. But trust us, it has a very happing ending.”
I look at Dee and see she’s failing miserably at hiding her shit-eating grin. I casually nudge her and find I’m having an equally hard time hiding the exact same thing.
“One year ago, a very insightful woman forced Dani and me to communicate with one another.” I go on to explain what Barbara did and the rules of our relationship. “Our angel, Barbara,” I tip my drink in her direction and give her a wink, “put her career on the line to help two shattered souls. I never planned on texting Dani but with all hope and the will to live gone, I reached out to her and it was the best thing I could ever have done.” I then start talking about our early texts and how we started saving each other. Reliving this brings up a lot of sad memories and I bring Dee in close to absorb some of her strength.
“We cried, grieved, and raged. We listened to each other, comforted each other, and rescued each other at the same time.” I continue after nods of understanding. “I forgot how to smile, I forgot how to live, and even bigger than that, I forgot me. Dani, as Dee, showed me how to laugh again through her words, taught me how to live through her wisdom, and allowed me to find myself again through her spirit and strength.”
I turn to Dee, catching the tears falling down her beautiful face with my thumb, and give her a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Do you think you can take it from here?” I ask her softly, while looking into her teary, yet still beautiful eyes. She nods. I give her another gentle kiss, put my arm around her, and wait for her to continue our story.
“Phew!” Dee exhales a shuddered breath and fans herself with her free hand before she continues. “Ean, as E, was the only person who truly knew what I was going through and the same thing applied to him. Like he said, we cried, commiserated, screamed, and grieved. Then we started comparing all the things that were being said to us out of pity and for the first time in what felt like forever, we smiled. Very soon thereafter we became each other’s lifeline, best friend, and other half.”
I take over explaining what we achieved, how we achieved it, and how we would never have survived any of it without each other. But, with one another, we not only survived, we thrived.
She gently wipes the tears that are now falling down my face with her delicate finger sharing the pain we both felt. We hear sniffles around the room and Dee continues through her tears. “Our relationship kept growing. We laughed, joked, and debated about which one of us was the wiser.” I point the neck of my bottle to myself and she rolls her eyes and groans, which gets a watery chuckle out of everyone.
“Seriously?!” she says, rolling her eyes again. I shrug one shoulder as if to say, “Well yeah,” and she continues. “We covered all our favorites. Everything from movies to books to colors to food and so much more.”
At this point, Dee and I turn to one another, laughing and sharing inside jokes. When we stop, I look up and see a room full of confused smiles. Dee notices it too and continues. “This relationship right here…” she points her wine glass back and forth between us, “…this has been our relationship for the past year, as Dee and E. And for the past six months…” she points her wine glass back and forth between us once again, “…this has been our relationship as Dani and Ean.” She looks at me and smiles. “Our friendship turned to love somewhere along the line, and that love made us stronger in the end.”
“Before Dani left for San Diego, we texted a lot,” I say, continuing our story. “At that point in our lives, change was scary for both of us but things were too difficult for her here and we knew a change of scenery would do both her and Chloe a world of good.”
“We also both agreed on when and why I came home,” Dee adds and then continues with our story. “Around the six-month mark, Ean and I met. But when we met, we didn’t know we were meeting the person we were texting and we didn’t meet under good circumstances. As most of you know, I hit Po with my car.” Dee shakes her head at the memory, looks up to the sky to stop her impending tears, lets out another shuddered breath, and tells everybody about that day. “That was really hard. It hit too close to home, for both of us.”
She pauses and I squeeze her shoulder in a silent show of support and add, “Dani as Dee didn’t know I had a dog and I, as E, didn’t know she had a cat. You have to remember, we never shared any personal details so I also never knew what kind of car she drove, where she lived, or that she bought a new car the same day she hit Po.
“Two weeks after Po was hit, I was on the beach with him, throwing around a ball when he, once again turned and bolted,” I say, continuing this part of our story. “I chased him to find he had stopped and was madly licking the face of this amazingly beautiful woman who was crouched down by the ocean petting him.”
I smile, remembering the day I saw her on the beach playing with a very happy Po. “I still think he has a crush on you,” I tell her in a whispered voice and then I add, “I do too.” Because I really do!
I go on to tell them about how I acted the day of the accident and how I quickly apologized for my god-awful behavior. I share how easy the conversation was, how I felt like I’d known her forever even though we’d just met and how, after I said my goodbyes, I noticed that she was following us, heading home too. “Turned out, Dani was my next-door neighbor. Living next door to one another was the very first of the many connections that Dani and I share.”
On that note, Dee and I stop our story to give everyone a chance to use the bathroom and refill their drinks. Everybody has questions but we make them wait because we have so much more to reveal.