Post Eight

I know you are going to own a bakery one day. I see the bakery being on a corner near a park with french bistro tables outside, where people can bring their dogs (like the one we went to in Paris). I see it named ‘Katya’s Korner,’ and you having everything accented in Tinker Bell green. All the mugs and plates will have purple butterflies on them, and everyone would get a complimentary piece of pumpkin bread. You will be behind the counter brewing the best tea and coffee, and of course, there will be freshly baked chocolate croissants in the oven. I can’t tell you where or when this will be, but all I know is that I will be the first customer every single morning.

I know we are going to be roommates after college. I can’t tell you where our apartment will be, or what we will be doing, but I just know we will be. I know we will make it work, because if we could stay in Hotel Oxford together in Rome and share a room this summer without even being close to a fight, then we can do anything. I know the TV will have re-runs of Friends and Gilmore Girls at all times, and there will always be a bowl of cookie dough in the fridge. I know you will interrogate the people I bring home, and you KNOW I will too. I know you will be baking all the time and making fresh cookies and creamy buttercream, and you know I will be eating the fake shit from the can. Sorry, not sorry.

I know you are going to be my Maid of Honor at my wedding. I know you will go wedding dress shopping with me, and you will only let me buy the dress that makes me cry when I put it on, you wouldn’t let me settle for anything less. I know you would choose my wedding cake flavor, and you would take the challenge very seriously. I can see you at a table with 20 slices of cake, and you are taking notes on which cake goes better with which frosting and so on. I know you will be the one helping me pee in the dress, and you will be laughing the whole time doing it. I know you will make the most embarrassing speech ever, but I also know I will be too drunk to remember all of it. I also know you would be doing the shopping cart on the dance floor, and I will be right beside you doing it with you.

I know you will be my children’s godmother, and you will be known as ‘Auntie Kats’ or something cliche like that. You will be the first call to tell I am pregnant, or you will be the one buying me the pregnancy test. I know you will end up being in the delivery room. Fuck my future husband or wife; you will be the one screaming with me and giving me ice chips.

---

I am aware that all of these things are a little premature to think about; I mean, we don’t know the ends and outcomes of our lives, but the one thing I know for sure is that you will be in my life until the very end. I know you will be the first call when I have my heartbroken or meet someone who gives me butterflies, or when I do something unbelievably embarrassing. I know you are the person I will do all these things with because you already are that person.

It all started that first day in Supreme Court when you walked in with your piping hot tea in your bright pink thermos that is bigger than your head. You complimented my pompom sandals, and I knew we were destined to be friends. I was the Lemon to your Kurtzman, and you gave me that ‘you got this’ look when NL and NbS made me bawl on the podium. You gave me your blazer when I had a wardrobe malfunction while literally walking into the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

You made me sign a petition promising you that we will skydive together for the first time (we have yet to do it, but I know it will be soon). You dressed up as a fairy with me when we were proctors together. You wrote me a letter as soon as I had my first breakup, slipped under my door. I never told you this, but I instantly felt loved by you when I felt broken everywhere else. You would drive to me at night in your pajamas to bring me desert and to listen to me when I cried.

We decided to travel to Europe together, and we planned it two weeks before. You ate gelato with me every day, and we walked the streets of Rome, drunk and giggly. We flew on sketchy airlines in the middle of the night, and we would walk in circles around Florence on no sleep with no shower. We sat in the gross hallway of the scam hotel laughing on the phone with Expedia, and instead of being concerned or annoyed, we found it the funniest thing in the world. We drank giant drinks with cute boys, and you gave me constant shit for my yellow jumpsuit. You would talk to me late into the night in our hot Airbnb in Paris, and we would scoot around the whole city on Lime scooters.

We talked every single day, even when we lived on the opposite sides of the country. You were my first call whenever something terrible happened, and you were the first call whenever something good happened. You were my roommate this summer, and although I always was considered ‘family,’ this summer, I became another Giffenig sister. You capsized our paddleboard twice in ten minutes, just because the rainbow was so pretty at sunset. I don’t think I have laughed harder.

You are my favorite person to drive around in the Jeep with; you are the queen of the shotgun seat, and it feels wrong whenever someone else sits there. Country music is our anthem, and both of our blonde hair blows in the wind with the top popped as I drive 12 miles over the Connecticut speed limit. We get our enormous coffees that make us take on the world like the queens that we are.

---

Katya,

I wish you so many Dunkin coffees.

I wish you the best runs that clear your head.

I wish you the perfect kitchen in the future with an island and every kitchen appliance you will ever need.

I wish you a fluffy bed that has at least ten pillows on it.

I wish you a guy that makes you feel like the most special person in the universe because anything less than that is not sufficient.

I wish you all the ice cream in the world, and pastries, of course too.

I wish you more days of wearing your blue mascara.

I wish you the best songs any country artist can make.

I wish you as many puppies as your heart desired.

I wish you to laugh that laugh (with my snort) every day, all day.

I wish you oversized T shirts that smell like sexy man.

I wish you bags and bags of cool ranch Doritos every time you need a snack.

I wish you an endless supply of snuggles and hugs.

I wish you all the things that make you giddy.

Because Katya, you deserve all that and more.

---

I can write so many stories, and I can predict even more, but all I can say is that you, Katya, are stuck with me for life. I wish you everything good. You are my sunshine when it’s dark; You are my rainbow when it pours. You keep me both wild and safe at the same time, and I love you for it.

Never let anyone dull your sparkle.

Can’t wait to continue to go through life with you, hand in hand.

Sound good? Ok, cool.

I love you, Kats.

Wish on a dandelion for me.

Your best friend,

G