As I settled into a corner table at Sip Champagne and Dessert Bar on Sunday morning, I began to think. Think of the friends on their way to accompany me for my graduation brunch, the way four years seemed to have been swept up into a thirty-second reel, and how, in exactly a week and a day, I would be walking across the stage to receive my diploma for the first time since the eighth grade.
The voices of my four closest friends streamed in a seamless wave of laughter as they positioned themselves in chairs across from and next to me. Two of them ordered espresso martinis, raving about the smoothness of the chocolate and the way the alcohol seemed to whisper in the background. I opted for a guava mimosa, the champagne twinkling in a rose-colored glass.
Our server was cheerful and timely, offering congratulatory sentiments as she deposited our drinks and food at our table. Perhaps instinctively, she knew we were all about to embark on very different journeys, our only intersection after graduation taking form in daily FaceTime calls and the hope of trips to see one another sooner rather than later.
Our chicken salad sandwiches, fragrant with dill and served on a bed of fresh croissants, were delicious and fresh, accompanied by crunchy, flavor-filled chips.
The conversation flowed long after the checks had been placed at our table, all of us savoring the simplicity and beautiful routine that comes with dining with one’s friends on a Sunday morning after a weekend out.
After the meal, we headed outside for a photo. A group of friends offered to take our picture after we did the same for them. It was a morning I wish I could bottle and taste, one I will treasure for the rest of my life.