The Time Capsule

Amber

“Caroline, I need those tarts pronto,” I call out to one of the cooks. It was a busy Friday night and I didn’t have time for a dish to be out late, or even worse, overcooked.

She pulls them out and puts them on the counter. I check both and then send them out with the waitress.

“Amber, the customers would like to meet you.” my boss peeks her head into the kitchen.

“I can’t right now.” I tell her.

“we talked about this Amber, it’s part of the job.” I have a short stare off with her and she wins, like always.

“fine, Kennedy, take over for me here.” I tell the guy next to me and then take off my apron to go meet with them. “what table?”

“23,” she answers and then goes back to the front of the store.

I walk to table 23 and look at the two people sitting there. They were in deep conversation when I showed up and I cough a little.

“oh!” the brunette lady exclaims and takes another glance to the man with her. He nods and she turns back to me, “this mousse is delicious.” She comments.

“thank you,” I reply, I turn to leave but she continues.

“it has a little, oh, cinnamon, right? And I think I detect some chile powder in there, a little spice.”

I retreat and stare down at her. The recipe was one that I made up with my old friends from middle school. We spent days just messing around in the kitchen and this recipe stuck to me. “Well I’ll be damned, Selena Lawrence.”

She grins up at me, “hey Amber.”

I cross my arms and examine the situation, “when did you get married?” I ask, looking over to the guy. He spits out the coffee he just took in, covering Selena in it.

Selena blinks a few times and pats her face dry, “would it really be that terrible to be married to me James?”

My mouth drops open, not only from the surprise of seeing him, but seeing him and Selena in the same room and not at each others throats. “James Watson?”

“the one and only,” he gives me his signature grin.

“also known by a multiple of other names to hide his identity from the hundreds of women he dates.” Selena says with a grimace on her face. Never mind about not being at each others throats. She looks back up to me, “anyways, can you meet up after work?”

“It’sSeattlegirl, I don’t get off shift until the early hours. How about we meet up for coffee?”

James was the one to speak up about this, which didn’t mean Selena wouldn’t get her voice in too. They always fought. “How about breakfast at your place. I’m all for an amazing batch of your waffles,” he says.

I smile at him, it’s great to know he can still be civil sometimes. “For once, Watson, I agree with you,” Selena says.

“okay, my place it is then. Say, eight?”

“Is that too early for you?” Selena asks, obviously worried about how much sleep I’d be getting. Typical of her.

“not at all.”

They both nod, “eight sounds good.” I give them my address and then get back to work.

I wonder what they were here for. And both of them at the same time. I mean, Selena never did forgive James for what he did to her, not that I would put it past her. He not only broke her heart but basically tore it out and stomped on it, laughing the whole time. That’s what really broke the group apart. After that summer nothing was ever the same and it changed how we all saw each other.

James became even a bigger player than he was before and I wouldn’t be surprised if he still hadn’t had a girlfriend since Selena. Selena, after the break-up, became quiet and depressed. She went through a face of bulimia which now, looking back, I wish I was there for her. But instead, I was into being the popular girl in high school, prom queen and all. Greg, he became glued to his computer. I don’t even know if that boy graduated from high school. He just seemed to blend in with the crowd. And it all happened because of that one break-up.

I call Peter up, my boyfriend, and tell him that I won’t be able to make it to breakfast the next morning. “what do you mean you can’t make it?” he asks.

“two friends from high school are here and I want to spend some time with them. We can still meet up for dinner.” I say, trying to negotiate.

“But you know I’m on call.”

“yeah, and? If the dinner gets interrupted it gets interrupted.”

“I’ll just join you for breakfast.”

“No! I haven’t seen them for over ten years. Plus I think something is wrong since James and Selena wouldn’t get caught dead in the same room together.”

“We’ve been dating for six months and I can’t meet your friends?”

“I’d barely call them friends Peter. They’re more like acquaintances. Plus you’ve met my actual friends.”

He’s sighs angrily, “whatever. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” With that he hangs up. What just happened there?

The next morning I was up and mixing together the batter when the buzzer went off. I unlocked the door for them and the two came up to the top floor.

“am I the only one with a house?” Selena asks when she steps into my apartment.

James and I look at her, “you’re the only one who ever wanted a house,” I point out.

“but still, don’t you ever think that by now you should be married with kids? Living in a small house in some community neighborhood…”she trails off when she notices neither James nor I agreeing with her. “well then, I guess that’s just me.”

“you live in a mansion on the beach inMiami, Selena. It’s not exactly your little yellow house with a white picket fence.”

I gawk at her, “you live on a beach inMiami?” I always knew she’d make it big doing whatever she wanted, but still, that’s huge.

Selena just shrugs it off, “I’m really liking these apartments though.” I stare at James and he shares my look of how crazy she is. If we had actual sandy beaches here in the northwest, I’d definitely be living in a house on it.

As I finished up the breakfast, we all caught up with what each of us was doing now. Or at least I did. It seemed as though Selena and James had already talked. Which still, the idea of them in the same room together just amazes me. Wasn’t she still mad at him?

I didn’t ask though. Knowing that even if she did forgive him, it would be a touch subject. Instead I just focused my questions around school and work, feeling as if that would be the safest.

“so, what brings you two to the rainy city? I’m sure it’s not just to visit me.”

James looks to Selena to answer. “Well, it isn’t to visit you. more like to pick you up.”

“pick me up?” what was she talking about. I couldn’t leave.

“my parents mailed me a bunch of stuff from them cleaning up and well, there was this slip of paper.” She opens her purse and pulls it out, handing the frail paper to me.

It was obviously old, torn on the edges and darkened with age. I carefully unfold it to and read each and every word. In big black letters it read ‘when we’re thirty.’ And then underneath, all four of us signed our names.

Everything came back to me then, about that summer. The summer that tore us apart. But before then, it made us the closest of friends that we’d ever been. We buried a small box and filled it with knick-knacks from our childhood. And now, when we’re all thirty, we had to open it.