i have been missing my friend ron lately. why? well, i’ve been back in houston for more than two months now and have only seen him a handful of times. after living with him for the past two summers, that is hard to swallow sometimes. it’s because we’re both busy, and aren’t used to having to plan ahead in order to see each other, i think.
last week his fiance moved to houston permanently after being in england for the past three years on a rhodes scholarship. it feels a little strange to have her around, to see them together. they’ve been together for six years now, but they’ve never really been together, meaning, in the same place. it is strange that she’s finally here permanently. for so long, she was sort of a nebulous concept. we all knew ron had this other person who played an important role in his life, but we never saw her. as carter put it earlier, “you’ve been his girl for so long, it’s like ‘wait, you have another girlfriend?'” i tried to deny it, but it’s true.
it’s not that i ever wanted ron to ditch her and date me, not at all. it’s just that we’ve been good friends for so long now. i mean, we were roommates for two summers, and had a lot of great times and fantastic conversations. having his fiance back changes the dynamic, is all, and that will take some getting used to.
the fiance in question, however, is great. she’s funny and nice and easy to spend time with. i realized recently that i am very lucky to have some great friends who also have great taste in mates. all the grooms in my life–dave (cayce’s), brian (leila’s), don (jes’s) and fred (katie’s)–are guys that i probably would have become friends with even if i’d met them independent of their brides. the same thing (but in the vice versa guy-with-good-taste-in-girl pattern) goes for buzz, ron’s bride-to-be.