It was nice being around my old friend. It was comfortable and familiar. And most of all, normal

B

eing engaged is a unique time in a girl’s life. It’s like riding a cyclone of emotions at full speed: joy and hope, excitement and apprehension, gratitude and fear, all lumped together. It’s also a very busy time, a short window during which so much has to happen; shopping, apartment hunting, gifts, wedding prep. The list never ends.

Between gown and sheitel appointments and keeping up with lesson preparations, grading papers and actually showing up to teach every day, I was constantly chasing my shadow. I was so busy, I didn’t have time for anything.

Not even for Ahuva.

It was strange, because Ahuva had just gotten off this same cyclone. She’d just been through this engagement thing, and somehow, she’d had all the time for me throughout.

What happened? Why were things so different now?

I didn’t have the time to mull over this question. I didn’t have much of an inclination to, either. Thinking about Ahuva had become extremely unsettling. Nothing was the same anymore. The magnetic pull of our friendship seemed to have lost its power. Much as I tried to tap back into it, it didn’t work.