AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I wasn’t.”
“Then why have you been avoiding me?”
Esther didn’t have a good answer for that. Because I’m a giant baby who got her fee-fees hurt didn’t make a convincing case for winning him back. “I didn’t want you to be caught in the middle,” she said. “I didn’t want to make you choose between me and Jinny.”
“So you chose for me?”
She hung her head a little. “Pretty much.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I know.”
He pushed his glasses up, frowning. “I can be friends with Jinny and still be friends with you.”
Esther stared at her hands. “I wasn’t sure you’d want to be.”
He kicked her chair to make her look up again. “I do.” His eyes were so deep and kind, she felt like an even bigger ass for pushing him away. She shouldn’t have given up on him so easily. She should have known he’d still be there for her, because that was the kind of person he was.
“I was dumb and I’m sorry,” she said. “Can we go back to being friends?”
A smile spread across his face. “I’d like that.”
She smiled back. “Me too.” She felt lighter already. Like some of the poison that had been building up inside her had drained away.
His smile faded. “We don’t have to hug, do we?”
Esther laughed. “God, I hope not.”
Things were better after that. She told Yemi what had happened at the roadblock meeting, and he agreed that it was stupid and unfair. Having someone take her side made the situation feel more bearable.
Now that she had Yemi to talk to again, she didn’t think about Jonathan quite as much during the day. Only once every fifteen minutes or so, instead of every thirty seconds. It was progress.
Evenings were a different matter, of course. Esther still thought about Jonathan obsessively when she was at home. It was hard not to, knowing he was so close. Hearing his coffee grinder through the wall and his wind chimes on the balcony. Walking past his window at least twice a day. Wondering if she was going to bump into him again.
She tried not to think about Jinny or the letter at all. Tried not to wonder when it would arrive. If she’d read it. If it would do any good.
It would happen when it happened. Or it wouldn’t.
Two days later, an hour after Esther got home from work, Jinny called.
She stared at the screen of her phone, relieved and terrified all at once. It took her until the third ring to work up the courage to answer it. “Hi.”
“You wrote me a letter,” Jinny said.
“Yeah.” Esther’s mouth felt dry. It was hard to get the word out.
There was a pause. “Who even writes letters anymore?”
“Nobody does.”
“Your handwriting is terrible, by the way.” That was when Esther knew it was going to be okay. If Jinny was mocking her, she couldn’t be that mad. Jinny was relentlessly nice to people she couldn’t stand. Insulting people to their faces was something she reserved for her friends.
“I know,” Esther said, letting out an unsteady breath. “It really is.”
“It made me cry.”
“My handwriting?”
