When We Were 19, My Best Friend and I Promised That If We Were Both Single at 60, We’d Find Each Other – I Turned 60 Last Tuesday, & My Old Landline Rang

I stared at his hand.

He wasn’t laughing anymore.

“Jeffrey.”

“I’m serious.”

“What if we never get it right?”

“Why 60?”

“Because if we haven’t figured things out by then, we obviously need help.”

I hooked my pinky around his.

“Deal.”

He smiled.

“Deal.”

For one second,

I remember thinking I should say something. I didn’t.

Two months later, Jeffrey left for college three states away.

“We obviously need help.”

***

At first, we wrote constantly.