Coming Attractions (16 page)

Nicole sat unmoving on her bed, blinking through a flood of tears. She offered a nod, and Katie let herself out.

Three women stopped Katie as she made her way to her room at the end of the hall. Two of them wanted details on the Spring
Fling, the all-dorm social that was scheduled for the second-to-last week of April. One of them just wanted to talk.

Katie listened absentmindedly for about four minutes and then said, “Can we finish this conversation a little later? I really
have to go to the bathroom.”

It was the truth. But as soon as Katie sequestered herself in the bathroom stall, she didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want
to face anyone on the floor. She didn’t want to write any papers, nor did she want to go to class Monday and ask for another
week on one of her projects that was already overdue. No way could she finish everything. She was exhausted. Mind, body, soul.
Exhausted.

T
he alarm on Katie’s phone went off at 8:00 Saturday morning, forcing her out of bed after less than five hours of sleep. She
stumbled around her messy room looking for something to wear and jammed her toe on the desk chair. Hopping up and down on
one foot, she wanted nothing more than to fling herself back into bed and sleep for another week. But Julia had hunted her
down last night and insisted that they schedule their long-overdue appointment for this morning. Exhausted and bleary of eye
and mind, Katie wasn’t looking forward to all the words she would have to form to catch Julia up on her overturned life.

Pulling on a pair of crumpled jeans, a sweatshirt, and flip-flops, Katie put up her hair in a clip. Her head ached.

“I’d better not be getting sick, that’s all I can say. Please, God, just a few more weeks. Then… well, I don’t know what then,
but I’m sure it will be more convenient to be sick.”

Katie stopped at the bathroom on her way down the hall and felt admiration for Christy. How she had managed last year to graduate
and get married a week later was beyond Katie’s comprehension. She was sure she hadn’t been sufficiently helpful or sympathetic
toward her friend at the time. Now she knew all too well what it was like to be in the final stretch.

Julia was waiting for her in the lobby with a brighter-than-usual smile. “You look like you could use some coffee.”

“Yeah, about twelve cups of the strongest you can find.”

“Do you want to drive, or should I?”

“You better. I didn’t bring my wallet.”

“That was convenient. Good thing I told you I was paying.” Julia opened the door for Katie and followed her out into the bright
new day.

“That rain last night really made everything clean and fresh.”

Katie yawned. “Did it rain?”

“You’ve been in a cave, haven’t you?”

“Worse than that. More like a coma. Are you sure you want to try to debrief with me this morning? I already know my final
RA score for the year.”

“No you don’t. And yes I do — want to debrief with you, that is. We’ve put it off too long.” Julia opened her car door for
Katie. She crawled in and curled up sideways, as if she would go back to sleep.

Julia laughed. “I’ll wake you when we get there, and you can answer my long list of questions. Between here and the coffee
shop, all you have to do is listen. I have something to tell you.”

Katie’s eyes were closed for only ten more seconds. What Julia said next made Katie’s eyes snap open.

“I’m getting married.”

Sitting up, Katie spouted, “To whom? Trent?”

Julia pulled back, stunned. “How did you know about Trent?”

“You told me about him a few months ago.”

“I did? What did I tell you?”

“You said you were in love with him when you were a student here at Rancho, but you obviously didn’t end up with him. What
you said stayed with me because you told me you still had feelings for him, that love doesn’t go away just because people
go away. Something like that. I remembered what you said. I also asked if he married someone else, and you said no.”

Tears had formed in the corner of Julia’s eyes and trickled down her face as she drove down the hill.

“Oh, no. I said the wrong thing, didn’t I?”

“It’s okay. Really. I forgot that I told you about Trent.”

“So you’re not marrying Trent.”

“No, I’m marrying John Ambrose.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?” Katie snapped her fingers and sat up all the way in her seat. “Dr. Ambrose? Are you kidding
me? I was in his Old Testament history class a few years ago, right after his wife passed away. He is the coolest man ever.
And that voice! I used to love it when he read Scripture to us in class like a benediction. But wait. When did all this happen?
When did you find time to fall in love with one of the Rancho Corona professors?”

Julia smiled. “Last year. He gave the closing prayer in chapel for the missions conference, and I just opened my eyes after
he said ‘amen,’ and I don’t know, my heart was turned toward him.”

“That’s so beautiful! Then what happened?”

“It took John a little longer to discover me, but once he did, everything went pretty fast. We’re getting married right after
school is out. We have just enough time to squeeze in a honeymoon before he has to be back for summer session.”

“Wow! Julia, I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you. I’m ecstatic. We both are. We chose to keep our relationship quiet for such a long time that now we’re officially
engaged, I’m practically giddy.”

“As you should be! This will show that old Trent, huh?”

Julia’s expression went from rosy beams of love to a downcast shadow.

“I did it again, didn’t I? Sorry. I just don’t know when to keep my beak shut.”

Julia seemed to be thinking for a moment before she turned the car into the parking lot of a hardware store.

“Why did you pull in here? Are they selling coffee at hardware stores now?”

“No.” Julia turned off the engine and adjusted her position so she faced Katie. “I want to tell you about Trent.”

“You don’t have to.”

“No, I think I do. None of what I tell you is general information around campus, okay? John knows, of course, and when Craig
hired me as a resident director, he knew. Now I want you to know.”

Katie wasn’t prepared to be invited into Julia’s confidence this way. She wished she hadn’t popped off with the comments about
Trent and had just let Julia keep her secrets.

“Trent and I got engaged a few months after we finished college. We went on a water-skiing trip at Lake Tahoe with some of
our friends that summer, and Trent was injured seriously in an accident with another boat while he was water-skiing. He had
to be flown out to a hospital, and he went into a coma.”

Up to that point in the explanation, Julia spoke at a normal pace. When she came to the next part of the story, her voice
became low, and her words were stretched out, as if each one were painful to say.

“Trent lost his right leg and was in a coma for two weeks.”

“How awful!”

Julia pressed on without receiving Katie’s sympathy. “When he came out of the coma, he just wasn’t himself. He didn’t remember
who I was. I moved so I could be near him and help with the physical therapy and the long recovery. He worked at it for about
three months, and then his spirit just gave up, I think. The doctor said the damage to his brain was more extensive than was
first suspected. Two years after the accident, Trent still didn’t know who I was.”

“Oh, Julia.”

“He passed away three years ago from an aneurysm.”

The two of them sat in silence for several moments before Katie spoke again. “That’s why you told me that love doesn’t go
away even though people go away.”

Julia nodded and reached for a tissue from a box on her car’s backseat.

“You can really love someone but not end up with him forever.” Katie repeated what she had said when she was in Nicole’s room
yesterday.

Julia nodded again. “Love is mysterious. It can be irreparably painful as well.”

“I agree with that more than you can imagine. Christy talks about how real love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect
person. It’s more than that, though, isn’t it? Love has to be a lot about accepting what is true and going from there.”

Julia tilted her head. “Would I be correct in guessing that you’ve been doing some extra credit studying on love lately?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to talk about me yet. Keep going with your love story.”

“I don’t know what else to say. I’ve come to believe you have to be courageous to survive real love. Both John and I went
through some very deep, dark valleys. John says all the pain and darkness we experienced now makes our love for each other
so much more powerful and highly valued. I agree with him. We aren’t going to be the sort of couple that argues over the small
stuff. We know what a gift this is, having each other and feeling the way we do.”

“That is so amazing, Julia. So beautiful. I don’t know if I have the right words to tell you how happy I am for you. For both
of you. It sounds like the biggest God-thing ever.”

Julia offered Katie a smile. “You just said it all right there. Thank you, Katie.”

“Hearing your story gives me hope.”

“ ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.’
”

“I love that! You didn’t make that up just now, did you?”

“No, it’s from a poem by Emily Dickinson.”

“Do you mean Emily on our floor? The one who plays the guitar? I knew she wrote songs. Does she write poems too?”

“No, I’m talking about Emily Dickinson, the poet. Mid-1800s? Hundreds of short poems published after she died?”

“Oh. I suppose I should have known that, right? I mean, I am almost a college graduate. I’m supposed to be well versed now
in arts, literature, science, humanities, and — ”

“And the eternal mysteries of love,” Julia added with a grin.

“That too.”

“So start there. Tell me all about what you now know about the eternal mysteries of love.”

“It hurts.”

“Ah, then I’m guessing you and I have a few things to talk about.”

“Yes, I guess we do.”

Julia and Katie started their many-faceted conversation in the car while parked in front of the hardware store. About forty
minutes later, after Julia had been given a fairly thorough overview of the last month of Katie’s life, she started the engine.

“Are you going to drive me to the nut farm now?” Katie asked.

“No. I need coffee before I hear any more.”

Katie turned the topic back to Julia and her wedding plans while they drove a few more miles down the road. She thought it
was great that Julia and John were going to hold the ceremony on upper campus in the meadow where Todd and Christy had their
wedding last May.

What Katie didn’t think was great was the place Julia selected for their coffee.

Bella Barista.

It was a place Katie and Rick had visited a number of times. On their first visit, Katie initiated a fun tradition of kissing
Rick on the cheek at the register. As soon as Julia and Katie walked inside Bella Barista and the swirling fragrance of fresh-roasted
coffee came over them, Katie wanted to cry.

But she held steady and braced herself while standing at the register.
Don’t think about Rick. Don’t think about Rick. Don’t think about Rick.

“Do you know what you want?” Julia asked.

“Eli.”

Julia looked at her, amused and surprised.

Katie looked back, just as stunned, and said, “What did you just ask me?”

“A better question would be, what did you just answer me?”

“Tea. I was trying to order some tea.” Katie turned to the young woman behind the counter and said, “I’ll have a hot tea.
Large. And one of those cinnamon rolls.”

Julia paid, and the two of them went over to a corner table. “Well, that was rather revealing.”

“What? That girl’s top? I know. Hello! Leave a little for the imagination.”

“Katie, I meant your saying you wanted Eli.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Julia took a long, slow sip of her latte.

“I was trying to say I wanted tea. ‘Tea’ comes out sounding like ‘Eli,’ I suppose, when you haven’t had enough sleep. It’s
the long
e
sound. Teeee. Eeeeli. See?”

Julia kept her glowy, composed look as she nibbled on a corner of Katie’s cinnamon roll. “You know, my mother used to say
she grew to appreciate PMS.”

Katie made a face. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“She said that on those days of the month her emotions were at their most vulnerable and rawest. That’s when she discovered
that the words coming out of her mouth were closest to her real thoughts and feelings. She didn’t have the usual filters on
when her hormones were on edge.”

“Are you saying my hormones are on edge? You sound like Rick. I’ve already told you where that relationship went. If you know
what’s good for you, you won’t call me out on my hormones. Or on my verbal skills when I’m ordering tea and I’m sleep deprived.”

Julia didn’t seem to see the humor in Katie’s comments. With a straightforward expression she said, “Katie, do you want to
hear my opinion?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I think you did a fantastic job navigating all of it. All of it! Including the way you went directly to Nicole but didn’t
say anything to Rick. I agree with Christy. You should look at the big picture of this whole year and accept the invitation
to the graduation party at the Doyles’ home.”

“If Rick’s mom will still have me.”

“I think she will. This is your community. These are your people; Rick’s mom is one of your women. You need to stay connected
to your circles for this important moment in your life.”

Katie blew on her tea in an attempt to cool it some. “Do you think I should have waited? Before breaking up with Rick, I mean.
Do you think I should just have rolled on through graduation and the party and whatever else, and then, after all the attention
was off us, I should have broken it off?”