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Darcy cackled to herself as she placed the gaudy, ugly vase in her now-oversized mom bag - really just the same canvas backpack she had carried since secondary school - cushioned by diapers, baby clothes, and extra blankets. Tara appeared in the doorway, with their daughter Missy on her hip, looking stunning as always. The frazzled life-with-a-1-year-old expression on Tara’s face just made her more beautiful in Darcy’s eyes.
“Yeah yeah” she stated “just gathering up the final supplies. It's so exciting that he’s finally opening his own bookshop.”
Isaac had a special place in Darcy’s heart. It started the first year that Tara went to university, when things were bad between Darcy and her parents. Well, worse than usual. They were always some semblance of bad, but when the fighting was more than usual, the under-breath comments louder than normal, and Tara who had always been her safe space was gone. Gone to university, a 3 hour drive away. With a demanding class schedule and new friends and - well - Darcy’s mind had made up a lot of reasons why she couldn't or shouldn't call Tara with all of her problems. Looking back now that seemed silly, but it had felt very real then.
The Paris squad was split, and hanging out with Charlie and Tao just felt like it put a laser focus on the sad left-at-home, half-of-a-couple feelings. Naturally, she had gravitated towards Isaac. Isaac with his observant, sarcastic remarks, and his overall calming presence.
When she first met Isaac he hadn’t made much of an impression on her. He was so quiet. It wasn't until the Paris trip that she noticed that when Isaac did talk, you paid attention. He didn't say much, but what he did say was usually miles more insightful than the constant chatter of everyone else. And he was funny, particularly if you liked sarcastic in-jokes.
Isaac's quiet, insightful presence filled a Tara shaped hole in her day to day life, highlighting the value of a platonic safe space - a different type of relationship. Their text string was filled with inside jokes and daily commentary. Isaac might just say one or two things but Darcy could riff off that for hours.
Over the summer when everyone was home they would gather all together, the Paris squad, back again, and their shared love for the larger group of friends just brought Isaac and Darcy even closer together.
Darcy lived at home while attending the local university. It wasn't ideal, particularly with her “parent situation”, but it was what she could afford. Long distance with Tara was going ok. Actually it was going really well. Surprisingly well. But home-life was stressful. That second year Charlie and Tao were gone to university as well, and sometimes it seemed as if her entire social life had abandoned her. Isaac, however, had opted to take a gap year, working at a bookstore during the day, and working on his own book during much of his non-working hours. Darcy in return found herself crashed on the couch in Isaac’s parents house almost as many nights as she spent in her own home.
Darcy’s third year home at University, Isaac finished his gap year and left. He was only a half hour away, so it wasn’t quite as far as the rest of the Paris squad, but that year hit her the hardest. She found herself a common presence at Isaacs residence, much to the amusement of the others who lived in Isaac’s flat with him who often couldn’t figure out how exactly the two of them fit together. But she was welcomed in and made comfortable when she needed a day off from her parents’ comments.
This was when the tradition had started. Was it a tradition? Maybe just a silly joke? Anyway, one of Isaac's flat mates had decided to “decorate” their flat with a cheap ceramic vase, painted a garish shade of gold, with fat cherubs surrounding it. It didn’t take long for that vase to become the center point of many of Darcy and Isaac’s jokes, and when Isaacs flatmate moved back home and left it? Comedy gold. Well, comedy with cheap gold paint, to be literal.
Since that day, the abandoned vase (lovingly referred to as “golden baby butts”) had traveled around the world as it “somehow” ended up in Isaac’s luggage after Darcy had given him a ride to the airport on his book promotion tour. Shortly there-after it had mysteriously appeared in the middle of a shelf of family photos in Darcy and Tara’s first apartment right after their housewarming party.
From that point on, it became a challenge to sneak it into the other’s residence and see how long it took the other to notice. Or to gift it, unawares, and make the other person open it in company. Extra points if the company that was not in on the joke and made polite, strained comments about how “interesting” the gift was. This was how it had ended up in the most beautiful, elegant wrapping paper possible in the middle of the pile of Darcy & Tara’s wedding gifts, as well as on the mantle of Isaac’s new house, only to be returned at the Tara & Darcy’s baby shower, accompanied with a onesie that bore a picture of the same vase.
******
Isaac’s book had been met with moderate success, and although he continued to work on more books, he had scraped together the money to open a cozy independent bookshop. It really was his lifelong dream. The small opening party had been perfect - his friends both close and far had traveled for the opening. Tao and Elle were living in Paris at the moment but gladly took a weekend off of their metropolitan lifestyle to come to the party. He was sure that his small group of friends sitting around, drinking wine (and juice for the kids), and just chatting was less of a social scene than they were used to, but it meant so much that they came.
Their friendship group was scattered and busy with adult life, but somehow closer than ever. Nick and Charlie were planning their upcoming wedding, Tara and Darcy were now parents with the hectic life adjustments that came with that, and Tao and Elle seemed to live in a new city every other year. But there was a love there and a friendship there that was solid and foundational for each of them, upon which they could really build their lives.
As Isaac straightened up after the party and readied himself for opening up to customers tomorrow he saw the glint out of the corner of his eye. There, among the “books about friendship” section, was a suspiciously golden looking butt, barely peeking out. It might be silly how something as dumb as an ugly inside joke of a vase can fill him with so much warmth and love, but he couldn’t stop his eyes tearing up just a bit as he walked over. He snapped a picture of the vase, nestled between the books about friendship, knowing he would want to remember this moment - this placement. He knew he would eventually return it, somehow, to Darcy’s house. But for now, it was perfect, right where it was.
