Conrad got married in Kindergarten at PS 58. He was 5 year’s old. Eva, his bride was six. Then we moved to New Jersey and he didn’t see Eva until the summer when a friend had a party at Victoria Gardens and they rode the flying swing ride holding hands about ten times—no exaggeration—and then he gave her the stuffed dragon he won playing Wack-a-Mole. Seeing them together made me realize how important their friendship, uh, commitment to each other was. I wanted to say to Conrad, why didn’t you tell me how much you liked and missed Eva? But then I remembered that he was the boy part of this relationship and he wasn’t going to be swooning at six, at least not in front of me.

We tried to keep in touch and invited Eva to his birthday party last year, she came out to Montclair but I think it was a disappointing visit. I saw her sitting next to Conrad at his party, but I could tell she was feeling alone as he talked with all his new friends.  Its hard to be the old flame in your boyfriend’s new town.

Conrad let Eva go and we didn’t really know what to do about it. David in particular would say out of the blue that we should  get them together. So when Eva’s mom emailed me to for our address because Eva wanted to send Conrad a birthday card a few weeks ago I suggested we have lunch in the city and make it a yearly tradition (Hello Vows column!).

We met at Sweetiepie in the West Village on Sunday, a chic ice cream parlor decked out with wall and ceiling mirrors and tufted banquettes. It is like a modern take on Rumplemeyer’s, the ice cream parlor that used to be at the St. Moritz where stuffed animals—poodles and afagans and lions—would sit at white rod iron tables eating faux ice cream sundaes. Emily, Eva’s mom and I had soup and salads (very good!), the kids had fish and chips and broccoli (they sauteed the broccoli and shallots and it was so tasty we brought ours home) and ice cream sundaes. I don’t think their reunion could have been sweeter.