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What kind of sick game is he playing?
Is he going to dump me in the middle of nowhere like Kyle did that one time?
You should have taken your own car, you idiot.
As soon as I see the cemetery, my chest is crushed under the weight of my own shame.
I am such an asshole.
When he offers his hand to help me out of the truck, I take it.
We’re still quiet as we walk, but it’s a somber silence rather than a painful one. Then she’s right in front of us.
Julia Murphy, a mystery wrapped in an enigma and the best friend you could ever wish for.
Now that’s an epitaph.
Jamie clears his throat. “Avery, I’d like you to meet my wife, Julia.”
“You never told me you were married. It still would have hurt my feelings a bit, but I would have understood why her name slipped out. Why is this the first time you’re telling me?”
“I promise to answer that question, but it’ll be easier if I start from the beginning.”
“Okay.”
He opens the box and hands me a photo album. “Go ahead, Take a look.”
I open the album and see a collection of photos of a blonde woman with traditionally Irish features. Some photos are of her and Jamie, who apparently had strawberry blond hair before it went silvery, but there are others of her alone, her with friends, and her with people who I can only guess are her parents.
If the pictures are anything to go by, she seemed like a happy, fun-loving woman.
In another life, I wonder if we would have gotten along.
“How did you meet?”
“Well, my grandparents still lived in Ireland, and just on a whim in my senior year, I applied to Trinity College, Dublin. To no one’s surprise but mine, I got in. My grandparents were thrilled and insisted on hosting me and helping with my tuition. My family did okay, but we weren’t so well off that we could turn down that kind of offer. So I went.
“We met freshman year. She was from Donegal, so she was living on campus, and I can’t tell you how much time we spent in her dorm room.” He shuffles his feet awkwardly. “Sorry, you probably didn’t want to hear that.”
“It’s okay. This is your story. Whatever you want to tell me is alright. Just don’t make the intimate bits more detailed than that, if you don’t mind?”
“I can do that.”
“Go on,” I encourage. “I’d love to know more about her.”
“Well, we fell head over heels in love, and she complemented me in many ways. Her wicked sense of humor helped keep me from getting too serious, and my gosh, was she a hopeless romantic. We didn’t even make it to graduation before we got married. I was twenty. She was nineteen. All of our family was there, and they were so happy for us.
“Right after we graduated, we moved back to the States because there were better business opportunities for me. Julia was nervous to move from the only place she’d ever known, but she told me she would follow me anywhere.
“I made sure we visited Ireland together at least once every year, and whenever we had a little extra money, I’d send her back home on her own for a little vacation. The only thing she wanted that I didn’t give her was kids. She was set on having them as soon after graduation as we could. Her career was in the art preservation field, but she felt like her true calling was to be a mother.”
“Is that how she passed?” I ask gently.
“No.” His voice is saturated with grief. “I kept putting it off, telling her we didn’t have enough money, the house was too small, I wouldn’t be able to take off enough time from work to help her, etcetera. She was patient with me. When I was twenty-nine, I felt like I was in a place where I could take care of her the way she deserved. My company was in a position where I could take all the time I needed to be with her when the baby came. We had enough space, enough money, so we decided it was time to add to our family.
“The first year, we didn’t have any luck, but we kept trying and then—” His voice breaks. “Then a few weeks after her twenty-ninth birthday, I came home and found her on the floor, and she was already gone.”
I put the album back into the tin and set it on the ground before holding him close and letting him grieve how he needs to. The shoulder of my dress quickly becomes damp with his tears.
