AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shelby charmed them, “Now boys, I’ll take two scoops of your nonfat peach frozen yogurt, so you can both help me.”
I couldn’t be friends with someone who came into an ice cream shop and ordered nonfat frozen yogurt. Why was that even a thing? What joy would you get out of eating that? Apparently, Shelby must have gotten some pleasure out of it because as soon as they handed her the paper bowl with two very generous scoops, she took a large bite, closed her eyes, and sighed as if she’d had a bad day. When she opened them they lasered right in on me. I probably shouldn’t have been staring at her from our small table near the entrance.
“Oh, my goodness.” Shelby began prancing toward me. “Emma, sugar, this is an answer to my prayers,” she spoke loudly. “I’ve been wondering if I should call you and here you are.” She landed in front of us and looked between Bridget and me. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I’m interrupting you.”
I couldn’t help but be nice to her. There was something about her, and dang if she wasn’t polite. “That’s okay. This is my friend Bridget.” No need to mention how she was affiliated with my former friend.
Shelby gave Bridget a warm smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Any friend of my friend Emma is a friend of mine. This woman saved me from the fullest bladder I’ve ever had.”
Bridget gave me a curious smile. Mine in return said I would tell her later.
“Do you mind if I join y’all?” She didn’t wait for our response—she set down her frozen yogurt on our table and grabbed one of the white wooden chairs from a nearby table. She sat down and let out a deep breath. “Mylanta, has it been a day. I’ve been feeling awful all day.”
“Are you sick?” I asked.
She reached out and took my hand. “Darlin’, I am heartsick. I owe you an apology.”
“What for?”
She took another bite of what I assumed was basically orange colored ice. No way that nonfat crap had any flavor. The way she savored it, though, made me wonder. She swallowed and breathed out. “I’m a horrible, awful friend.” She looked between Bridget and me. “This might be a delicate, private situation.”
I was more than perplexed. “I’m sure whatever it is you have to say, you can say it in front of Bridget.”
Shelby’s shoulders relaxed. “Okay, then here it goes.” She reached out and took both my hands. “Emma, why didn’t you tell me that you and Sawyer were a thing?”
For not wanting to talk about the man, that was all I was doing. I pulled my hands away from her delicate, perfectly polished ones. “That’s because we weren’t.”
Bridget rolled her eyes.
“Now, Emma, I know that to be an untruth, and here I was going on and on about him and fawning all over him. My goodness, you must hate me.”
Oh, I had tried to hate her, but how do you hate pure, sweet perfection? “I don’t hate you. Like I said, there was nothing between us.”
Bridget coughed out, “Liar.”
Shelby gave her a dazzling smile. “I knew it.”
“How do you know that, Shelby?”
“Well, on Saturday I asked Sawyer to dinner and I was thrilled he said yes because he’d turned me down before.” She bit her lip. “This was before I figured it all out.”
I was suddenly feeling ill. I knew I shouldn’t care that he had dinner with her, but I did.
“There we were in that nice chateau up on the mountain. Lovely, by the way, and the food was fantastic. I could tell he wasn’t himself from the beginning, so I did my best to cheer him up by . . .” her face tinged pink, “you know, never mind.”
My mind was swirling with unsavory possibilities. She was lucky I didn’t kick her stick legs under the table.
“My point,” Shelby continued, “is all that sweet man talked about was you, Miss Emma.”
I tucked some hair behind my ear. “What did he say?” Not like I really cared, but I thought I should at least ask to be polite.
She pursed her pretty pink lips together. “First, he was kind of angry, which surprised me. He was lamenting something fierce about you just not understanding, though he wouldn’t say what about. Then as the night went on, every little thing reminded him of you. Like when he looked over the menu and said, ‘If Emma were here, she’d want to me to order the shrimp scampi so that she could order the ribeye and we could share.”’ Shelby flashed me a smile. “He did order that shrimp scampi and only ate half of it.”
“He did?” That sounded good right now. I wonder if he had the other half boxed up to go. What a dumb thought. I shouldn’t care.
