The Saturday came with a gentleness that only happens when a week has been as long and grueling as this one has been. Ericka led the charge, entering the restaurant, scanning the room from habit rather than need. She spotted their table, the one by the window that always caught the light exactly right, and smiled. Then Bianca appeared, and suddenly the intervening month never existed.
They met with a easy hug, one that said “I’ve missed you” without going on about it. There’d been a lot going on in life. Careers had been on the rise, stretching them in different directions, but always moving ahead. This, though, was a meal that had no obligations attached to it. It belonged to them.
They sat down, comfortable and unhurried. The menus seemed unnecessary. Plates arrived hot and bountiful, and conversation flowed. Bianca described marathon meetings, small triumphs she had not had a chance to celebrate. Ericka shared her own experiences ambition tempered with weariness, moments of laughter interwoven with the sense of responsibility. They listened attentively, heads nodding, connecting the dots but never disrupting the line. “Best friends,” Bianca said, “are the only ones who know when to talk, when to just be there, when to keep a listening ear, when to keep a silent one.”
“Laughter burst through, loud and uninhibited. The sort that draws you back into your own skin. Then there were moments of softer sounds: the clinking of forks, the meeting of eyes, the settling of silence between them. No need to rush to fill it, to pursue it. The friendship had ripened to a point that didn’t need maintenance to keep it alive.”
The world was alive, bustling, moving quickly on the outside, but inside this space, time is slowed. Ericka catches a glimpse of Bianca, and she is forced to recognize, once again, that no matter how far life takes them, they always manage to wind up in the same spot, at the same table, with the same rhythm, with the same understanding.
It hung back when they finally stood to leave. Not because of the sadness, but the thanks. They were busy, yes. But they were grounded, too—to each other. Ericka and Bianca – it seemed that there was never a dull moment with them. It is a reminder that some bonds do not necessarily fade with the passage of time but grow.
Thee Juju Aura 