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I glance down into the stroller at a sleeping Jacob. He’s been napping since we got in the car to begin our adventure for the day. I love our weekly outings because they help give us both a needed change of scenery, but this little trip to the zoo is turning out to be a major fail. I thought this would be fun for us, and more importantly it would help keep my mind off Asher for a little while, but it’s turning out to be useless. Jacob’s extended nap has put a damper on my plans, and so far all I’ve done is push him around the crowded zoo. I could have just taken him to the park if he was going to be such a sleepyhead.
I’ll wake him up when we get close to the elephant exhibit. I know he’ll perk up once he sees his favorite toy alive and moving about.
Imaging the way his eyes will light up brings a smile to my lips. Just then, my cell phone vibrates in my pocket, interrupting my happy moment, and I reach for it, hoping it’s Asher.
I wonder if he can get free for an hour or two and come to the zoo for a little impromptu date.
Unfortunately, it’s not Asher, and the disappointment makes my heart sink a little. Rachel’s name flashes across the screen and I debate answering her at all. I know she’s going to be upset that we haven’t talked in a while.
“Hello?”
“Oh my God, Jade! I was just about to hang up and call your parents,” says Rachel.
I walk over to a covered bench and take a seat. Anything dealing with Rachel is a “sit-down” type of conversation.
“Why on Earth would you call them?” I ask, turning the stroller around to face me so I can watch Jacob, who’s still snoring peacefully without a care in the world.
“I thought you were dead or something,” she says. “I haven’t heard from you in weeks and we haven’t seen each other in over two months!”
I laugh and shake my head at her theatrics. My schedule has always been busy, but with Asher stealing away all my free time I guess my best friend has gotten the shaft a little more than usual as of lately. After years of knowing her, I certainly don’t expect anything less than her exaggeration.
“Well, here I am, alive and well, so there’s no need to call in the cavalry. Go ahead and fill me in on everything. What’s been going on with you lately?”
“Oh no, I didn’t call so we could talk about me. You tell me what’s been going on with you. What’s got you pulling a disappearing act on me? You’ve got something going on, I just know it. You’ve seen my texts and missed calls, don’t tell me you haven’t.”
She’s right, I did see all her calls and messages, but Rachel is worse than a veteran police detective searching for the missing piece to an unsolved mystery. She knows when someone is hiding something from her and I don’t want to be subjected to the third degree. I’m not very good at lying. I can do it, but I really don’t like to. Plus, I’m not sure what to say about Asher and what we have going on just yet. I haven’t even worked through how I feel so I’m not ready to share anything with Rachel.
“I’ve just been busy,” I say, skirting around the question, while silently reminding myself that is the truth. “You know, the older Jacob gets, the busier he gets, so I spend a lot more time chasing after him.”
“Yeah sure,” says Rachel, her voice thick with disbelief. “That accounts for some of the time, but not all of it. I used to be a nanny, I know exactly how active kids his age can be. A busy baby isn’t taking up that much time, so spill it.”
I sigh, and decide to go ahead and tell her. She has an uncanny way of chipping away the layers of a person until they relent and give in to her demands. I’d rather break the news myself than be tricked into revealing too much.
“Well, there’s this guy,” I begin.
“What!” she screams. “You met a guy and didn’t tell me? I thought I was your best friend and you’re over there keeping secrets!”
“It’s not like you think,” I say. “I haven’t been seeing him very long, so there’s really not much to tell. We’re still getting to know each other, you know how that goes. Slow and steady wins the race, right?”
“Bullshit,” Rachel huffs. “Don’t you dare think you’re going to blow smoke up my ass and downplay this situation. I’ve known you long enough to know when there’s more to a story than that. For whatever reason, you always start avoiding me when you really like someone. It’s not like I’m going to run a background check on him or something.”
