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I slow down, glancing at the hospital door. “Good.” Maybe it’s the adrenaline, or all the other things going on, but I don’t feel nervous. “I’m writing again.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh! That’s really good to hear. I heard you’re all moved in into your new place.”
“I am, yes. It’s great.”
“I bet. You were always great at making a place a home.” She gives me a smile. It’s the kind that saysI know this won’t fix anything, and you know it, too. But I still know you, and you still know me. Even after everything.
And I can’t argue with that.
“You doing okay?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Yeah. I got into the midwifery program, actually. I’m starting in the fall.”
“Really? Congrats.”
“Thanks,” she says, her expression tightening. “I know it doesn’t matter, but I really am sorry, Eden. What I did… there are no excuses.”
“I know you are,” I say. “It’s just that…”
“I did it anyway,” she says and takes a deep breath. “I know.”
I take the chance to ask the question I’ve wanted answered since those first ugly weeks. “So, have you and Caleb been…?”
She shakes her head. “No, not at all.”
“Right,” I say. I don’t know if I expected the answer to make things easier or harder, somehow. To hear that they tried to make a real go of it, or that they blew up my life just for some casual sex.
I find that it doesn’t really matter, though. Actions speak loudest. Because intentions? They whisper.
I bet he tried with her. Just as he’d tried to get me back. Apologizing for his behavior and seeing who would be willing to take him back.
Cindy shrugs. “I know, it’s such hypocrisy, but I didn’t want to have a relationship with him. Not when I’d seen how he treated you. With my help.”
“Yeah, you dodged one, I suppose.”
“I’m in therapy,” she says. “To try to understand why I… well. I’m sorry, that’s all.”
“Thanks,” I say.
She nods again. “So, how’s Becky?”
“She’s giving birth,” I say and hold up her bag. “Like, right now. I have to head inside.”
“Shit, really?”
“Yep.”
“Oh my God,” Cindy says, and a real smile transforms her face. She looks like the friend I remember, the one who had cried beside me when Becky first told us she was pregnant. “That’s incredible.”
“Yeah. I have to go.”
“Of course,” she says. “I know she won’t want to hear it, and you won’t tell her, but I wish her all the best. Both of them.”
I nod. “Yeah. I know.”
“Bye, Eden.”
“Bye.”
