Matt watched her walk away with a fond, proud smile. “She’s great, isn’t she?” he asked. “Did I tell you she’s finishing up vet school? And not just poodles and things. She’s going to be a large animal vet. As little as she is, she can handle a bull or a wild horse.”
“She seems terrific,” Elena said, sipping her wine. She was happy for Matt, but she couldn’t help missing Jasmine, the girlfriend he’d had for so long in the world she remembered. Maybe not everyone had a soul mate.
A thick band across one of Matt’s fingers caught her eye, and she leaned forward suddenly, shocked. “Matt Honeycutt! Is that a Super Bowl ring?”
Matt blushed, and Meredith stared at her in disbelief. “Honestly, Elena,” Meredith said. “I know you live in France, but don’t you even hear who wins the Super Bowl?”
Elena was momentarily dumbfounded, but Matt just rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassed. “It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I’m not first string, I only played for a little while.”
“Are you kidding?” Elena said, and got up to hug him. “It’s a huge deal.” She held onto him tightly for a moment. He was happy and successful. Even without Jasmine. Maybe this is his true destiny.
Time passed and Elena drank wine and talked to familiar faces. Dinner was served, salmon or steak, and the DJ began to play. Bonnie and Zander came out onto the dance floor for their first dance, gazing up into each other’s eyes. Elena was watching their dance from the half-empty table when she looked up and saw a familiar face. Alaric.
He was listening to Meredith, his sandy head inclined politely as she talked, a smile on his handsome, boyish face.
Alaric Saltzman had been called in by some of the citizens of Fell’s Church to investigate Mr. Tanner’s death. He had taken over as their history teacher to investigate the possibility of vampires being behind Tanner’s murder.
In a world where Mr. Tanner had lived, Alaric had never come to Fell’s Church. They had never met him.
So why was he at Bonnie’s wedding? Why was he talking to Meredith?
“Who’s that with Meredith?” she asked, leaning across the table toward Matt and interrupting his conversation with Sue Carson. They both looked.
“I don’t know,” Matt said, and Sue shook her head. “One of Zander’s friends, probably.”
As they watched, Meredith took Alaric’s hand and pulled him out onto the dance floor.
“He’s cute,” Sue said. “They look good together.”
“Excuse me,” Elena said, pushing back her chair and getting up.
When she found Bonnie flitting about happily between tables, the redheaded girl hugged her enthusiastically. “Was that not the best wedding?” she asked.
Zander’s smile widened. “She’s been saying that to everyone,” he said affectionately. “I totally agree, of course, but I might be biased.”
“It was a wonderful wedding,” Elena agreed, “but actually I wanted to ask you, how do you know Alaric Saltzman?” On the dance floor, Alaric said something softly in Meredith’s ear, and she tossed her head back and laughed.
“Alaric? Oh, the High Wolf Council called him in to consult on some problem they had a while ago,” Bonnie said vaguely. “He and Zander got to be friends.”
Zander added, “He’s a really good guy. Meredith’s okay with him.”
“How do you know Alaric Saltzman?” Bonnie asked curiously.
“Oh.” Elena shifted uncomfortably. It was way too much to explain, especially in a crowded reception hall. “It’s complicated. I’m sure he won’t know who I am.”
“Huh. Oh,” Bonnie said, getting it. “One of those kind of friends. Out of the past. Or a different time, anyway.” Zander frowned, looking slightly bemused, but he didn’t say anything.
“Yes,” Elena said. “Exactly.”
A few minutes later, the photographer came over to ask Bonnie and Zander to pose with a table of Bonnie’s cousins, and Elena went back to her own table. From across the room, Elena watched as Alaric and Meredith danced, and then got a drink at the bar together, laughing and leaning toward each other, Meredith reaching up unconsciously to push twirl a falling tendril of her own hair around her finger as she smiled up at him. When they went out on the dance floor again, Alaric was holding Meredith’s hand firmly in his.
Elena took another sip of wine, but it suddenly tasted bitter.
She was happy for her friends. She truly was. They deserved every happiness, both of them, and Zander and Alaric were perfect partners.
But, despite that, Elena felt like the walls she’d built up inside herself were breaking, cracking, letting a flood of misery spill through her, one small stream at a time. She put down her wine glass and clenched her hands together, willing back the tears. She wasn’t going to make a scene at Bonnie’s wedding.
But she would grow old and die, and she would never know what had happened to Damon and Stefan. If they’d stuck together.
She might love each of them. Did love them, had a thousand memories of love, but they were only hers. They wouldn’t remember.
A lump was rising up in her throat, and she knew with sudden, devastating certainty that she was about to cry after all.
“Hey,” Matt said, leaning toward her. “Elena. Are you okay?”
“Of course,” Elena said, her voice brittle and cracking. “I always cry at weddings.”
“Sure,” Matt said. “Come dance with me, then. You don’t mind, do you, Jeannette?”