“Yes, you paid me more than enough with your company.”
I get up off the stool and head toward the door, but something in me falters. At that moment, just as I’m turning around, I catch Manny looking at me, as if he were already in the middle of asking something. When my eyes meet his, his words finally find their way out. “Actually, there is one thing. I’m not sure how much longer you are in town, but if you aren’t too busy, could I see you tomorrow night? We could talk about books and poetry?”
“I’d like that,” I answer.
“It’s a date,” he replies, a smile reaching from ear to ear. He knocks the wooden bar top. “You know where to find me.”
Chapter five
Emotional Extravaganza
Iwatch in feigned amusement as an underpaid park employee pretends to outrun a massive rubber boulder. For a moment, it seems like he’s done for, the boulder rolls over him, the kids in the audience gasp, and then he stands up, unscathed, to thunderous applause. The Indiana Jones Stunts Spectacular certainly doesn’t live up to the name.
“See? This isn’t so bad!” Gabby says, clapping along.
It really isn’t so bad, taking in the over-engineered distractions of an amusement park. However, the fact that I never got an update from last night, the fact that there’s still this little edge in Gabby’s voice, and the nervous way V walks on eggshells around her do little to make it feel like I can relax.
“How many more of these are on the schedule?” I ask.
“This one isn’t even over!” Gabby pushes back.
“What do you mean? He got hit by the boulder.”
“Yeah, but there’s a plane and a chase,” V tries to add in a supportive tone.
“See! Besides, it’s still drizzling.”
“Or I could go buy an overpriced umbrella.”
Gabby’s lips draw into a thin line at the sight of my disinterest. “Are you not having fun? It’s your trip. I promise, we can do something else.”
V looks around Gabby’s pale form with a stern face, the kind that asks why I’m making her girlfriend upset. It’s about this time that I get tired of this game of cat and mouse, and under the cover of a public place and a desire not to focus on the sudden pyrotechnics, I just lay it all out there.
“Gabby, what’s going on between you two? Why did you really rush down here to see me?” My words are sharp and direct.
At first, Gabby looks confused, almost offended. “You just broke up with Chad. We wanted to support you.”
She’s sincere, she’s always sincere, but knowing what I know, I can see the little she’s holding back, the line in her jaw. “But that’s not the only reason, is it?”
V makes another frustrated face, begging me not to push, but I’d rather have us all be upset and miserable than whatever this is—finally,Gabby relents. “No, it’s… No.”
Another cheer comes from the crowd as the Indiana Jones actor shoots a caricature of a sword-wielding Middle Easterner, making me pity the fact that this is probably how half the world looks at Manny, as some sort of scary, barbarous, brute—a feeling I find all too familiar.
“V told me something was up with you two. Things have been rough?”
V stares daggers, but Gabby doesn’t even deny it. “Yeah, I uh, yeah.”
“And you think getting me to move back will fix it?”
This time something sours on Gabby’s face, as if I’ve said all the right words in the wrong order. “No! Franky, you’re my friend, not a bandage. I don’t want you to fix our relationship. It doesn’t need fixing. I just miss you. I miss what we used to do together. Talking about books and movies, finding new music to listen to. Gossiping about everything.”
Gabby takes V’s hand, a loving, tender grasp. “V is who I love, but you’re my best friend.”
Something hitches in me at the admission. The strangeness of living with someone else for literal decades, knowing you three are best friends, and not being able to internalize it even as the other says it out loud. The tightness returns, paired with a burning behind my eyes, and not just because of the latest blast of flames from the show. I try to make sense of the turbulent emotions swirling within me, but all I manage to do is leak tears down my cheeks.
Gabby doesn’t say a word, she just leans in in her understanding Gabby way and hugs me, her hands gripping me in a tight hold, as if to anchor me in a spinning universe. Even V gets up, shooing aside a man on the bench opposite me so she can close the protective loop.
“I’m sorry.” I don't know why I say it, I don't know what I’m even sorry for, it just feels like what I’m supposed to say in that moment.
