My Two Best Friends and I Promised to Reunite on Christmas After 30 Years – Instead of One of the Guys, a Woman Our Age Showed Up and Left Us Speechless

“Do you remember when we made the pact?”

“Christmas Eve,” Ted said, smiling faintly. “We were standing in the parking lot behind the gas station.”

Thirty Years Ago

It was just after midnight.

The pavement was slick with snowmelt, and we were leaning against our cars, passing a bottle back and forth. Rick was shivering in that flimsy windbreaker he always wore, pretending he wasn’t cold.

Ted had his stereo turned up too loud, and I kept trying to untangle the cassette tape that had unraveled in the player. Rick laughed every time I swore at it.

We were loud, a little drunk, and feeling invincible.

“I say we meet again in 30 years,” Rick said suddenly, his breath fogging in the air. “Same town, same date. At noon.

The diner? No excuses. Life can take us in all directions, but we’ll come right back.

Okay?”

We laughed like idiots and shook on it.

Now

Back in the diner, Ted’s fingers tapped his coffee mug.

“He was serious about that night,” Ted said. “Rick was serious in a way we weren’t.”

At 24 minutes past noon, the bell above the door rang again.

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