I hadn’t seen Nancy in five years — not face-to-face, anyway. Like most old friends, we had kept up with each other through birthday texts, late-night memes, and the occasional Zoom call when life felt particularly heavy or lonely. We used to be inseparable.College roommates. The type who could finish each other’s noodles, steal each other’s hoodies, and laugh about it afterward. But life shifted.
She moved to another state for work, and I settled into my life with my husband, Spencer, and our six-year-old daughter, Olive. Somewhere along the way, our closeness slipped into the background — not gone, just… paused. So when Nancy messaged me saying she’d be in town for a training seminar and wanted to meet up, I felt that warm, familiar flutter of nostalgia.
