Two White Adirondack Chairs

Avery Cartwright sat at her desk and rubbed her temples for a few seconds, willing a solution to appear behind her tightly closed eyes. In the year since her promotion to Team Leader at LaunchSquad, a PR firm in Cambridge, she had piloted her team in creating a lot of really cool ad campaigns for new companies as well as helping to rebrand established ones. But right now, this one company’s request had them positively stumped. She had a well-earned reputation for always finding a solution, and that was being severely tested, but she refused to give up. She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. Rolling her head back, she stared unseeingly at the ceiling and slowly exhaled. Avery closed her eyes again, and there it was. The Answer. She smiled widely, her eyes still closed, and then gleefully began to spin her office chair in circles. Avery let the chair spin slower and slower and slower until it completely stopped, then she rolled it back over to her desk and picked the receiver up off of the phone. After she quickly jotted the idea outline in her notebook, she pushed three numbers on the phone's base. “I gotttttt iiiiiiit!” she said in a sing songy voice into the receiver.

“You did NOT!” her second-in-command and BWF (Best Work Friend) Georgia Fieldstone screamed through the phone. Avery laughed and said “Have the team meet up in Conference Room 3 in ten minutes. We can all work out the details together.” Georgia agreed, and Avery hung up the phone. She sprung up out of her chair and walked towards her window. It had been touch and go for the past few days as they scrambled to create the perfect remodel for one of their largest and most established clients, so Avery was anxious to put the proposal together with her team. After that, they could present it to the client as soon as possible - maybe even as soon as tomorrow. Relief washed over her as she connected her hands up over her head and extended her arms and her back as tall as she could. She held the stretch for an extra beat and looked out her window. Then, standing on her tip toes, she unhooked her hands, reached for the ceiling and held her breath for a few seconds..she then released all of the tension from her body, lowering her arms with a long, satisfying exhale. Rejuvenated and now even more eager to get everything rolling, she turned back towards her desk to grab her notebook, but something outside the window caught her eye. Confused, she spun back around to look again. Was that? Something on her windshield? She was 17 stories up, so she couldn’t tell exactly what it was. Maybe a flyer? It looked like a piece of red & white paper? Oh God. She groaned. Someone probably hit her car and left their information under her wiper. No time to check it out now, though. She whirled around, grabbed her notebook and flew out her office door.

And then after hours of organizing, writing, editing, drawing, rewriting, redrawing and then editing some more, Avery, Georgia and the team began to practice pitching their idea to their client. It was a LaunchSquad tradition that the team member who best pitched the idea to the team got the privilege of then pitching it to the client, and this was a huge and very popular one, so everyone brought their “A” game to the table. For the first time in their team’s one year history, the vote for the winner was unanimous, and Georgia beamed with pride and excitement. She practically floated out of the conference room next to Avery as everyone headed back to their desks and offices. Most of them would be packing up as tomorrow was going to be their most crucial pitch meeting so far. Everyone needed to be well-rested and primed for the pitch of their lives: if the client was happy with their idea and extended their contract with LaunchSquad, Avery and her team would essentially be the office heroes. A huge proponent of positive thinking and envisioning, as she gathered her things to leave, she was already picturing the client shaking everyone’s hands and thanking them for such an innovative campaign.

Lost in her visions of tomorrow’s success, Avery found herself walking towards her car and was startled by the items on her windshield. With everything that had happened since, she completely forgot what she had seen out of her window earlier. She stopped and looked skeptically at the white paper and the two red roses tucked underneath her wiper. Then she looked around. Then back at the windshield. Maybe someone meant to put them on one of these other cars? Because she couldn’t even make a list of one person who would have intentionally put them on hers. She was infamously too busy to date, so everyone knew Avery had no time for romance. Assuming that the paper would hold a clue, she walked over to remove everything from the windshield and was surprised to see her name written across what was actually an envelope underneath the two flowers. Her heart skipped a beat or ten, and she cursed it under her breath as it did, since she recognized the handwriting. She lifted the wiper with one hand and grabbed the two roses and the envelope with the other: “What in the actual f-“ and then got into her car.

Avery slid into the driver’s seat, looking incredulously at the envelope in her hand. It had been so long since she had even thought of him, it never even occurred to her that he could have been the one to leave it on her car. And the roses. He was always one for romantic gestures she thought.

“You know what? I’m not even gonna open this,” she said to absolutely no one in her empty car, gesturing as if to chuck it in the backseat. Then stopped. And brought it back towards her. Don’t open it, don’t open it, don’t open it, don’t open it...annnnd it was open.

She pulled out a card with a photograph on the front. It was a picturesque scene showing the backs of two white Adirondack chairs sitting on a swath of grass that sloped down to a rocky cliff. Beyond them, bright sunlight shimmered off of the Atlantic Ocean. She knew it was the Atlantic because Trent had taken the picture himself from the front porch of that adorable B&B in Ogunquit where they had stayed a lifetime ago. She could practically smell the fresh baked almond croissants and old-fashioned percolated coffee that they shared in those actual chairs one morning, and then could almost taste the locally made wine that they sipped while nibbling on cheese and crackers before dinner that night with the setting sun glinting off of her Tiffany engagement ring. She sighed, closed her eyes, and she could picture everything so vividly: running through the rain back to the B&B after a lobster dinner at that cute restaurant down the street, walking the Marginal Way hand-in-hand with the sun on their faces and the ocean breeze in their hair and then cuddling up by the fireplace in the B&B’s main room that night when it had gotten unseasonably chilly.

Avery took a deep breath, opened her eyes and looked at the photo on the card again. How could two white Adirondack chairs turn her inside out so quickly after all this time? She kept staring at the card, remembering everything. Don’t open it, don’t open it, don’t open it, don’t open it...annnnd it was open. Her heart hammered throughout her entire body as she read Trent’s words, written in his typically perfect handwriting:

Avery ~

I hope red roses are still your favorite, and that you don’t mind my reaching out. A business associate was bragging about her PR rep at LaunchSquad and asked if I had ever heard of the relentless Avery Cartwright? Apparently, you’ve never let her company down since you took over her account almost a year ago. Since that conversation, I’ve been thinking of you constantly, how much I miss us and what we had. If I could go back and change just one thing in my entire life, it would be how I reacted to your news and that I didn’t fight for you - for us - as hard as I should have. These past few years have taught me what is most important to me, and that is you.

Avery stopped reading and dropped the card down to her lap, propping her left elbow on her door and bracing her forehead with her thumb and her second finger, massaging her temples. She had come so far - too far - since it ended the way that it had. But it was Trent, her Trent, and despite the hurricane swirling inside her head and her heart, a small smile grew on her lips and she put her head back on the headrest. They had been perfectly matched in almost every way. The smile grew as she stared up at the ceiling, lost in their sublime yesterdays. Thinking of getting back together with Trent gave Avery the same feeling as reaching for that soft sweater that felt like a hug every time she put it on, or snuggling under her favorite blanket on a snowy afternoon, or putting her pajamas on at the end of a long, rough day.

Avery lifted her head, picked the card back up and read the line again. The words that would have changed everything for both of them five years ago were right there in black and white:

These past few years have taught me what is most important to me, and that is you.

She took a deep breath and flipped the card over to read the rest of Trent’s message: I’m embarrassed that it took me so long to see that my priorities have been out of order, and if you are willing to give us another chance, I know that we can figure out everything else. Please call or text me at (212) 505-3242

All of my love,

~ Trent

Avery sat, disconcerted. This could change everything. Everything. She shook her head to clear it, took yet another a deep breath and placed the card on her passenger seat with the roses and noticed that Trent had even attached the little green water vials to each flower so they’d survive the day on her windshield. The man leaves nothing to chance she thought as she started her car and pulled out of her space.

Avery’s head was abuzz as she navigated the city on autopilot and wasn’t surprised when her mind cleared a bit and she found herself heading north on 95, out of the city entirely. She needed fresh air. And the ocean.

Just over an hour later, Avery was winding along the picturesque back roads of the New Hampshire shore with her windows down and her radio up, lost in memories and picturing many different futures. Once she got to Route 1A, she followed it up the coastline, sneaking glimpses at the jetties, the beaches and the water as she escaped a little further north.

She pulled over in Rye right next to a steep wooden staircase that went up and over a rocky wall that separated 1A from the beach. Avery was practically vibrating as she yanked off her heels, tossed them on the passenger side floor and threw her door open. She jumped out, and as she slammed the door shut, she was already running towards the stairs, her heart hammering yet again.

Avery took the steps two at a time and came to a halt at the top, bending over with her hands on her knees and gasping for air. After catching her breath, she straightened and steadied herself with her hand on the railing, gazed out over the water, and everything within her slowly started to quiet. The ocean breeze greeted her like an old friend, and she descended the stairs on this side in a much better state of mind that she had gone up the other side.

As she stepped off the stairs, the warm sand hugged her toes. She stood there with her eyes closed and her face turned towards the setting sun, and the buzzing in her mind was completely gone. There was nothing that could calm and heal Avery like the ocean. She stretched her arms up over her head and remembered doing that same exact thing in her office only hours before, and it seemed like a lifetime ago. The letter from Trent had changed everything. Or had it?

She lowered her arms and thought about it all. She had buried the endstory so deep within her subconscious that it was almost as if it had happened to someone else. Around five years ago, Trent was already a highly successful Finance Manager, they were living in New York City and engaged to be married in less than a year. But then Avery was offered the opportunity to start at LaunchSquad in Cambridge, and she was intrigued by their business practice along with their obvious potential, so she didn’t immediately dismiss their offer. Trent was surprised. He hadn’t ever actually said that he expected her success to take a backseat to his, but after many hours and days and weeks of discussions and possible compromises that led to arguments and tears, Trent was staying in NYC, and Avery was heading to Boston.

At the time, they were both heartbroken but decided that their careers and the distance between them would prevent them from having a normal relationship and future, and since neither wanted to make the transition any harder, they promised one another a very clean break. No social media connections, no contact by phone in any way. Hence, the loophole of the envelope and the roses on her car, she thought. Although the breakup had made the beginning of her venture extremely difficult for Avery, she found things out about herself that she never would have known if she had stayed with Trent. Independence had taught her many things, and she had a lot of power and perks to show for it. How much would she have to change or sacrifice if she tried fitting Trent into her life? A sudden laugh burst out of her mouth, and she smiled wide. Shaking her head, she thought, five years ago, who would have ever thought that she’d be the one deciding whether she wanted to fit Trent into her life? She had come a long way.

Avery closed her eyes one more time, wrapped her arms around herself and savored the warmth of the sun for one last moment. Dropping her arms, she turned towards the stairs and was relieved to be able to think more clearly as she made her way up and over them and then back to her car.

Back in her driver’s seat, Avery picked up Trent’s card and read it again, remembering how special their relationship was and how much he still meant to her. She gingerly picked up the roses, pulled the little green vials off of them and thought, maybe I’ll go to his office in NYC and leave a couple of roses and an envelope on his car. She pushed the button to put down her window. It didn’t feel right to keep them. But it probably wouldn't be for a few years. Avery closed her eyes briefly and gently dropped the roses out the window onto the side of the road. “I'm sorry Trent, but right now,” she said aloud, “I have a very important meeting to plan for,” as she spun her car around and headed back towards the city.