AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I toldhim that I wasn't and kind of braced for his reply. My friend wasn't stupid, but he trusted me enough that maybe he could see past this.
I felt bad lying to him but when it came to Beatrice, there was no way I could ever tell him the truth. There was always going to be something in between us, just like there had been before. Was that why she had taken off the way she had? Because of this right here?
“Well, damn, that's nice of her. She hasn't been in town very long; I couldn't imagine her doing all that. My birthday is next week.”
I told him that I knew that, and that he should lower his expectations because of it. “What did you tell her?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, what did you tell her to do?” Lester wanted to know.
The problem was I was not that good of a liar on the fly. I needed time to come up with something. Right now though, I was supposed to be coming up with answers and I surely didn't have any.
“You know, just stuff you like. She hasn't gotten anything for it yet, not that I know of. Do you want me to tell her anything specific?”
He grinned from ear to ear and then said that it wasn't necessary. “I’m sure that whatever you told her will be fine. You know me better than I know myself half the time.”
I agreed with the sentiment. We had been friends for a long time and that's why it made me feel so bad to do this. He wasn't just some friend, he was my best friend, and Beatrice wasn't just some girl, she was his sister. What the hell was I thinking?
The more I asked that, the worse I felt about it all. I was trying to justify it in my head but wasn't quite able to absolve myself of my sins, even in my own mind.
The rest of the night went down with a little more failure, though I had to bite my tongue once or twice because every time I turned around, Beatrice was in the arms of another man. She was beautiful, which made her popular, which made me jealous to the extent I couldn't even fully describe. I hated watching any man put his hands on her and that feeling didn’t get better as the night went on. I just had to focus on ignoring her and all the attention that she was getting, wishing it was me holding her in my arms again.
When it was time to go, all I could do was be relieved. Then I didn't have to continue with the torture of watching Beatrice flirt and dance with every other guy but me. Certainly, I was feeling left out and when Lester was calling it, I was ready to go just as bad. Then he asked me to take Beatrice home and I groaned inwardly. Another ride and another opportunity for me to lose my cool that I was holding onto with tiny shreds of will. I didn’t want Lester to know what was going on, but damn, didn’t he see what he was doing to me?
“You ready?”
She had the biggest smile on her face. Was she messing with me, or did she just not know what we’d talked about? Did she know what she was doing to me?
I didn’t think I was ready, but Lester was watching. So I smiled and pretended like I was happy to help. I wasn’t. Not in this case, not when Beatrice was going to take the time to mess with my head, but for what? What was the point? What was Beatrice’s end-goal?
“Yeah, I guess I'm ready.”
Ready for what though, that was the question.
11
Beatrice
“You sure did have a lot of admirers tonight,” Jeff commented.
“Fresh meat in a small town, I reckon.”
“Is that really what you believe?”
I looked over at him for a moment, telling him that he was acting weird, because he was, and I wondered what was on his mind. Things were getting complicated with him; it felt complicated. I didn’t like complications.
“Yeah, that's what I believe. What else could it be?”
“Probably that you're gorgeous. You have a damn nice body, and good personality, and every guy there wanted to dance because you were the hottest one in the room.”
I couldn't believe what he was saying and turned flush with such words. What was I even supposed to say to that?
“I thought we were going to be good because of Lester.”
Jeff told me that he thought it would be easier.
“You probably just had a little too much to drink, Jeff, and you'll see how bad of an idea it is.”
