Hey stranger
Ava was enjoying her life. She was in a magically beautiful place for a wonderful occasion surrounded by lovely people and she could truly say that she hadn't felt this calm and content in a long time. It didn't even bother her to see all the happy couples getting all sappy and romantic as soon as they entered the palace hall, which was illuminated by antique chandeliers and decorated with freshly cut flowers. She didn't envy them. She had just gotten out of a long, chaotic and exhausting on and off relationship, which had made her lose all interest in dating. She was so done with romance that she had sworn to herself she would stay single for at least half a year after her last and final messy break-up and the first month of her chosen romance-break had been awesome. She was single, she was free, she was happy. She wasn’t even interested in the occasional casual one-night-stand opportunities that she had had in the past weeks.
And a huge, fancy ass, classic 19th century romance novel-themed wedding would not break her resolve. She was here for her friends and them only. She was going to celebrate and enjoy the wedding of two of her best friends. She was going to chat with people she hadn’t seen in a long time, dance with her friends from uni and get drunk with Mary. No flirting, no looking for someone new, no chasing adventures that always ended in disaster anyways, definitely no jumping head-on into romantic entanglements again. Nothing that would even open the path to something akin to dating. And she even had a clear plan on how to do that: stay busy and close to her friends at all times, dodge all advances, avoid any and all temptations. Easy. Bulletproof. What could go wrong? Nothing! And nothing did go wrong. At least not for the first hour of the celebration.
And then she saw her, walking down the stairs of the lavish wedding location, dressed simply in a shirt and a blazer, her hair in an immaculate bun, looking effortlessly stunning. And apparently that was enough for Ava to momentarily forget all her post-break-up resolutions. All she could do for a moment was stare, her mouth half-open, her heart pounding loudly.
Ava had thought that Beatrice Young couldn’t get any more enchanting than she had been 5 years ago, when they last saw each other, but here she was, taking her breath away by just entering the room.
Beatrice looked different, somehow. The carefully hidden, but ever-present nervousness of her 5 years younger self had been replaced by an unpretentious confidence. The controlled rigidness had softened to a casual elegance. The caution and reserve had given way to an observant, steadfast calm.
She hadn’t changed into a whole new person in these 5 years, she was still very recognizably her, but so much less en guard than before. Ava thought of the last time she had seen Beatrice at a party. She still remembered how nervous and out of place a five years younger Beatrice had looked. This new version of Beatrice looked so much more at ease with herself and the serenity she radiated made it impossible for Ava to look away.
When Beatrice’s searching gaze met hers across the room, lighting up in recognition, Ava’s breath caught in her throat. They held each other’s gaze for a breathless moment and Ava felt light drowning in a wave of unexpected emotions. She was relieved when a familiar annoyed voice next to her broke the spell: “Seriously? How do you do it?”
Ava blinked to bring herself out of her trance and forced herself to redirect her look towards Mary. “Huh?”
Mary rolled her eyes at Ava. “You just stand here staring like a pathetic looser and somehow it still works…”
Ava furrowed her eyebrows. “Works how?”, she asked dumbly.
Mary huffed. “You still charmed the girl somehow.”
Ava instantly froze. She didn’t! “I wasn’t… It wasn’t… That’s…”, she heard herself stutter and when she was met with Mary’s amused look, she tried to reinstall some of her composure, before clarifying: “I am not looking for anything serious right now, Mary. You know that!”
That did nothing to quell Mary’s clear amusement. On the contrary, it was now mixed with bewilderment. “Girl, calm down!”, she laughed, but her eyes showed some curiosity that Ava didn’t like one bit. “Way to jump the gun, babygirl. No one was talking about anything serious here. I just pointed out that you clearly just caught the eye of that woman. And even if you are not looking for a relationship right now, you are allowed to flirt a bit and just have some fun when you find someone attractive.” Ava felt her face and ears go increasingly hot and damn, why the hell did just the thought of any of this with Beatrice make her lose all her cool? She really did not need this right now! But Mary was still talking and decided to conclude her monologue with: “And, I mean, I get it, she is hot…”
“I didn’t say I find her hot!”, Ava blurted out, her face turning even more red than before. Mary just rose her eyebrows. “No, you did not.", she drily commented. "Your staring at her for a full 30 seconds before though…”
“She is Camila’s friend!”, Ava interrupted her quickly and immediately regretted it, because Mary’s mild curiosity from before had clearly risen to danger levels now.
“Oh, so you know her?”, she noted with poorly hidden smugness.
Ava tried her best to calm her racing thoughts and think before she next spoke. Play it cool, Ava. You can do it. “I mean, I wouldn’t say I know her.”, she replied as casually as she could and then she added for good measure: “As I said, she is Camila’s friend. I’m not sure if I even remember her name.“
Mary’s eyebrows rose to her hairline at that and she seemed even more amused than before. “Well, you better wreck your brain then,”, she drily suggested. “because she is coming over.”
Ava felt herself freeze again and she knew she had a look of utter panic. “What?!?”, she stammered. Her brain quickly rushed through a dozen different escape scenarios, but before she could settle on one plan, the all too familiar, soothing voice of the reason for her panic held her back.
“Hello stranger.”
Ava span around like on autopilot, staring at the woman in front of her, her heart beating out of her chest. She looked even more stunning up close, with her hands in her pockets and a surprisingly teasing smile on her face.
“Beatrice.”, was all Ava could croak out. She could feel Mary’s incredulous stare on her face, but could not focus further on her best friend, because Beatrice had decided to say her name in that impossibly gentle tone of hers that Ava still remembered like it was just yesterday she had last heard it.
“Ava.” It was accompanied by a softer, warmer smile that went straight into Ava’s pounding heart.
Ava inhaled sharply. Damn. “You look… wow…”, she breathed helplessly, purposely ignoring how Mary was crossing her arms in clear interest, watching them like she was just witnessing the most fascinating film she had ever seen.
And there it was again, that amused smile with a hint of teasing on Beatrice’s face. “Thanks. You don’t look too bad yourself.”, she answered. She gave Ava a short once-over. “You look beautiful.”, she then added sincerely, giving Ava another soft smile and holding her gaze, even when all of Ava’s instincts told her to run and hide. But instead she stood there spellbound, swallowing hard. Fuck. When had Beatrice learned how to flirt?
Ava's lack of response lead to a loaded silence, filled with vivid memories of a fleeting, unspoken past and this new, unsettling something in the air.
“It’s been a while.”, Beatrice finally broke the silence, still smiling, though a bit wistfully.
Ava took another deep breath. “Yeah.”, she said. “Yeah. 5 years is a long time.”
“It is.”, Beatrice agreed.
Another pause. Ava was vaguely aware of Mary still observing them like she was trying to solve a puzzle. So Ava decided to break the silence. “I hope you managed to do some of the things on your list.”, she remarked and was rewarded with another soft smile, which she couldn’t help but return.
“I did.”, Beatrice simply replied, biting her lips in a clear attempt to supress a teasing grin. “How about you?”, she then added. “Did you manage to get arrested eventually…?”
That actually made Ava laugh. “No,”, she admitted. “I grew out of this wish a couple of years ago.”
Beatrice smiled, tilting her head, with her hands still in her pockets and regarded Ava pensively. “Good to know.”, she then said. “And do you…?”
She was interrupted by a loud, happy scream. “Beeaaa!” They both turned around to see one of the brides rush towards them in her waving white dress and a second later, without stopping, she had engulfed Beatrice in a bearhug. “I am so glad you are here!”
Beatrice instantly hugged her back with a wide smile. “Camila.”, she chuckled. “Congratulations.”
Camila stepped back and grinned. “Thank you.”, she replied happily. Only then did she seem to notice Ava standing beside Beatrice. “Oh, hey Ava! Sorry, I didn’t see you.”, she said and gave Ava the umpteenth hug of the day.
Ava huffed mockingly. “Yeah, don’t mind me.”
Camila just shoved her with an eye-roll and they both giggled. “Don’t be stupid, I am happy you are here, but I just saw you an hour ago when you picked me and Lilith up from the ceremony.” Camila had respected Lilith’s wish to get married in a very small, but surely romantic ceremony just the two of them and Lilith had in exchange made sure that Camila would have the grand, exquisite, royal celebration she had always dreamed of. She really went all out, secretly booking the city’s old, majestic palace for the occasion and Camila couldn’t have been more excited. Ava was very happy for the two of them, it had been a long time coming.
“Do you remember Beatrice?”, Camila suddenly changed the subject and pointed towards Beatrice in honest oblivion. “She is a friend of mine from university.” Ava saw Beatrice look to floor with a shy, but cute smile and bite of her lip. At the same time she could feel Mary’s stare burning into the side of her skull. It made her tense up and melt and consequently short-circuit.
“Ava?” Camila again. Ava quickly cleared her throat. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. I remember.”, she tried to answer as casually as possible. “We were actually just, ehm, catching up.” She forced herself to look at Beatrice again, who had looked up and caught her eyes with a small smile that was not hidden from anyone’s views but still felt like it held a precious secret. And it kind of did. Ava smiled back, unable to stop her eyes from softening and her lips from curling up.
Camila looked between them curiously for a moment and Ava couldn’t blame her. She had probably never seen her and Beatrice exchange more than a couple of words. But to Ava’s immeasurable relief Camila decided to drop any questions or comments she might have and instead turned to Beatrice with a wide grin: “Where is your plus one?”
The question hit Ava like an ice-cold bucket of water and it angered her. Because of course Beatrice would have a girlfriend. I mean, look at her! Of course she wouldn’t still be single after 5 fucking years. And why did Ava care anyways? She was not interested. In anything. Or anyone.
She was so preoccupied with her internal scolding, that she nearly missed Beatrice’s perplexed answer. “Oh… I actually don’t know where she is…”, she admitted, looking around the room. Then she shrugged with a nonchalant chuckle: “Probably somewhere studying the ancient wall paintings of the location.”
What the hell, a grumpy voice in Ava’s head commented. Who the hell does something like that at a party? She refused to listen to the second voice that reminded her that Beatrice, at least the Beatrice from 5 years ago, probably also would have done something like that and a five years younger Ava definitely would have found it endearing. Nope, she would not think of that. It was fucking weird and rude to wander around in a wedding location and look at the architecture and paintings instead of focussing on the brides.
Camila did not seem to have any issues with that though. Instead, she laughed. “Wow, you actually managed to find someone as history-crazy as you are.”, she noted. It sent another pang to Ava’s stomach.
Beatrice rolled her eyes with a grin. “She is definitely even more into history than me, believe me.”
“That’s hard to believe.”, Camila joked and Ava would have agreed, hadn’t she been too busy trying to push down the unwanted anger building up in her stomach.
Beatrice chuckled again, but then said with an apologetic shrug in no specific direction: “I should probably go and look for her.”
“I am coming with you! I want to meet her!”, Camila decided excitedly. “You told me so much about her and I am sure she and I will get along swimmingly.” And with that she already started dragging Beatrice away. Ava inhaled sharply and tried to ignore the dreadful feeling of disappointment threatening to rush through her, when Beatrice stopped and turned around to her with her beautiful, big, brown eyes warmly holding Ava’s.
“It was great seeing you again.”, she said in all sincerity and gave Ava another soft smile. “See you around, Ava.”
And then she left with Camila, leaving Ava standing there with a heavy, pounding heart she didn’t want, looking after Beatrice for an embarrassingly long time.