Friends
We never officially decided to meet once a year, it just sort of happened that Bella would reach out to Alice - never to me directly - once a year. And then at some point we started casually dropping things like, "well you'll have to tell me how it went next year" or "I'll watch it and let you know what I think next year."
Friendship with Bella was never enough, but it got easier to pretend it was. Mostly because Bella was happy and she was happy being my friend. That was a lot even if it was not enough.
Bella talked with her hands more than she used to. The small, imperfect diamond on her ring finger glinted as she animatedly discussed her thesis. I wondered if she cried when he proposed or if it had been more like it had been for us...
"It's just wild that you write this monster of a paper and no one's ever going to read it but your professor and even then she acts like they couldn't pay her enough - "
"I'll read it."
She laughed. "I will definitely not subject you to that. She's right, they don't pay her enough - "
"I want to read it."
"Really, I - "
"Would you email me a copy?" Next year was too far away.
"Er... I have a copy in my trunk..."
The next year she sat across from me again. This time a thin gold band sat below the glinting diamond.
I pulled the binder out of my bag and placed it on the table.
Her eyes popped wide.
"Is that my thesis?"
"I had some thoughts as I was reading it." I shrugged, brushing my fingers casually along the multi-colored post it notes sticking out the sides.
"Yikes. No wonder the professor gave me a B minus. Those are a lot of thoughts..."
"No, no," I rushed to say. "These aren't... criticisms. I liked your points. Or you'd say something that would make me think of something else. A book you might like or a journal article..." I'd taken to reading a lot of journals. I was practically earning a masters in English, myself. "You should sue over that B minus. I thought it was brilliant."
She blushed. "Well. Thank you, Edward."
"You're welcome."