“Because, she was really upset, and if she had wanted to talk to you about it, she would have, but she came to me for some reason, and?—”
“I get it. She asked you not to tell anyone. I won’t tell her you did. Just get to the damn point, Gwen.”
“Something happened at work,” I blurted. “When she was outside on her smoke break, she saw a couple fighting. She got really triggered by it, and it just blew up. She couldn’t get it out of her head all day, and she had a few panic attacks, and it was just a mess. It was the first time since she got here that she really broke down, and she was embarrassed, and upset, and angry, and she just wanted to talk to someone who got it. Someone who’s been there. Then she got that opportunity to leave townfor a week, and she figured it would be a good place to get her head on straight. She doesn’t want Junie to see her like that.”
His expression didn’t change. Neither did mine.
There were three possibilities.
1. Axel was the anonymous texter, and he knew I was lying. The point of this discussion was to see if I would confess. Doing so would endanger us both. He was relieved that I continued to lie.
2. He was not the anonymous texter, but he was worried about our mutual friend. He came to me hoping for more context. Now that I’d given it to him, he believed me and was relieved.
3. He was not the anonymous texter, he was worried about our mutual friend, he came to me for more context, but he didn’t believe a word that came out of my mouth.
I hoped it was the second possibility.
“She was okay though?” he asked. “When she left this morning, she was okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “She was alright.”
“You know she has really bad depression, right?” His expression and tone remained the same. Blunt, assertive. “I don’t think she would do anything crazy. She wouldn’t abandon Junie. But depression is a screwed up disease.”
Was he worried she was going to kill herself? I didn’t see that happening.
“She needed a girls’ night,” I said. “But yes, she seemed better this morning. I’m sure she’s gonna be alright. She just needed a couple days away to get her head on straight.”
No change in his demeanor. I couldn’t tell which of those possibilities was the case.
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Whatever. I’ll talk to her about it when she gets back. You coming down to town tonight?Rhiannon wanted to talk to you. Said she stopped by earlier, but you weren’t here.”
“I don’t think so. I’m exhausted. My four hour, easy shift wound up taking seven. My back’s killing me, and I still need to cook something for dinner.”
“I’ll let her know.” Walking to his car, he spoke over his shoulder. “She’ll probably want to talk to you at breakfast.”
Or she would show at my door in the next few hours, only to find Simone sleeping on my couch.
