Read Online Auld Lang Syne by Judith Ivie - Free Book Online

out, that’s when we spoke to you, and then we caught up with Mindy. We stood around for a while, but these heels are murder, and we all sat down at a little table to check out the crowd. Well, Ari and I were looking at the dancers. Mindy was focused on the DJ,” she amended.
    “Someone she knew?”
    Joanie snorted. “No, but she had high hopes. Mindy was always trolling, looking for the next guy, you know?”
    “She was not married?” Armando asked.
    “Not at the moment,” Joanie confirmed, “but honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered even if she hadn’t been between husbands. She was always on the prowl for as long as I knew her.” Her eyes filled again, and I dragged her back to the subject at hand.
    “So you sat down at the table. Did anyone join you?”
    That banished the tears. “Oh, sure, they were lining up to say hello, couldn’t wait to sit down and talk about the good old days,” she sneered. “Can’t say I blamed them,” she added a bit wistfully.
    I looked at the woman next to me in her party dress, showing every one of her fifty-two years despite her carefully coiffed hair and professionally applied make-up, and my heart softened in spite of myself. Of the mean girl trio, Joanie had never quite seemed to fit the mold. To my knowledge, she had not been an instigator, merely a follower so happy to be included that she went along with whatever Mindy and Ariel proposed. The fact that she had chosen to appear with them at the reunion seemed to indicate she still craved that connection.
    “Forgive me for asking, Joanie, but why did the three of you even attend the reunion? You had to know you weren’t exactly going to be welcomed. What was the attraction for you?”
    “Oh, gosh, I don’t know. No, that’s not true, at least in my case. I do know.” She gave me a wobbly smile. “I told you about my husband being away with his new girlfriend. He’s trading me in for a younger model. It’s an old story, and I’ve seen it coming for years. Between you and me, it’s sort of a relief, but then the holidays came along, and that was depressing.” She looked over my shoulder, then down at her hands. “You probably can’t understand, having been married for so long and all.”
    Armando and I smiled at each other.
    “We have been married for only four years. It is a second union for both of us,” he clarified.
    Joanie didn’t even try to hide her amazement. “Goodness, you could have fooled me. Actually, you did fool me, you seem so comfortable together.”
    “We are,” I assured her.
    “Anyway, I was pretty bummed with Christmas and all, and the reunion invitation showed up. I started thinking about Brewster and some of the kids I really would have liked to get to know back then. There was one fellow in my English class, Harold King. Do you remember him?”
    “I sure do. I also remember Mindy humiliating him very publicly on at least one occasion, the poor guy. He was at the reunion, I was glad to see, and he looked great.”
    Joanie nodded sadly. “I felt awful about what Mindy did to him in high school. Harold was always very sweet to me, one of the few guys who were. I saw him Saturday night but not to speak to, even if he would have, which I doubt.   He left early. You’re right, he did look good.”
    Armando covered a yawn, and I struggled to get back on track.
    “So the three of you sat by yourselves for the rest of the evening, nobody joined you?”
    Joanie frowned in concentration. “That’s about it, but let’s face it, by the time we sat down, there wasn’t much of the evening left. We never intended to stay long anyway, just stop by. Mindy and Ari wanted to strut their stuff, lord it over the ones who’d put on weight, that sort of thing.” She looked ashamed, as well she might, as she remembered Ariel’s snipe at me.
    “You never left the table?”
    “No. Oh, wait, we did once just for a minute to get more punch.”
    Aha, now we’re getting somewhere. “Where were