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“Yep. The text was meant for Romy. Turns out they’d been seeing each other behind my back. We were still officially together, or hadn’t officially broken up, depending on how you want to think about it.”
My default emotion is tightly wound anger, but I feel for her too. So unfair what happened. Then again, that’s life, I suppose. We won’t find heaven here on earth.
“They confessed to me their feelings for each other. Supposedly, they’d been quote,hanging out,end quote for only a few weeks.” Seated upright, she flashes air quotes. Her voice drops when she says, “But when I think back, it was probably for a while. Ross and I dated for a few months and things were good, but then they started to cool off around the same time Romy, he, and I started to hang out more. My apartment was halfway between theirs and she’d just moved back to Atlanta after following her ex to Chicago and then breaking up.”
I hammock my hands behind my head. “Too much drama.”
“You’re telling me. Is there anything worse than your boyfriend hooking up with your best friend? Actually, yes. What’s worse is them getting married and asking me to be the maid of honor. Some might consider me a pushover for agreeing. I think of myself more as a peacemaker. Better not to make a scene. Already learned that lesson.”
“Is that what went viral?”
“Yeah. Um, I didn’t take the news very well.”
Sitting up, I swing my legs over the side of the bed and face Lally. She’s a slim outline in the near darkness, but I can see the glint of her eyes, meaning she can see mine.
“If you need to rant, cry, complain, or if you want me to go drag Ross out of bed and drop him out of the window and into the pool, I’m your huckleberry.”
She takes a sharp intake of breath and then laughs lightly. “I’ve never had a huckleberry before.”
“You do now.”
Lally takes a moment before she says, “It isn’t so much what they did because, honestly, Ross wasn’tthe one.I’m not sure I even loved him. We never said as much.”
Thinking back, I’ve never been in love. Never felt what I’ve been feeling all night, anyway. But after hearing her story, the red flag doubles and then triples in size.
“Trust me, I know what love is. I might look like a tomboy, but I believe in romance and true love and—” Lally covers her face with her hands and then quickly draws them away. “Forgot that I’m wearing this face mask. You must think I’m unhinged.”
“All things considered, I’d say you’re quite hinged...and quite beautiful.” The last bit spills out of me but doesn’t sound accidental or haphazard. No, the words have weight, meaning, truth.
She laughs softly. “I wouldn’t want to date or move further in life with someone who’d cheat on me with my best friend. It’s more the bitter reality that two people I was close to and trusted would do something like that behind my back.”
“A betrayal.”
“Exactly. For a long time, I thought that tears of betrayal were among the saltiest. But they’ve dried up. I’m not so quick to excuse bad behavior or lack of integrity. I lost my boyfriend and best friend, but also a sliver of hope about the goodness in them and my judgment of character. Had Ross felt things cooling off between us and came to me and broken things off first, it would’ve been a different story if Romy then expressed interest.”
“I never respected him.” And I’ll keep to myself the comments Ross and Linc made at the pool so as not to upset Lally more.
“It would’ve been weird, but not that big of a deal. I just want to get tomorrow over with.” She flutters a sigh through parted lips.
I did too, at least until I met Lally. This unexpected situation notwithstanding, I’m not in the market for romance, drama, or relationships. I have work to do. Family issues to resolve, and yet, that flare burns inside.
“Magnus, I’m sorry for unloading on you.”
“No need to apologize. I asked.”
“These are the kinds of thoughts that are bound to result in me getting frown lines and I’d prefer to age gracefully with laugh lines.”
I grin in the darkness. “That’s a good way to think.”
“How about you?”
“Laugh lines for sure.”
“No, I meant what brought you into this mess?”
“I was best friends with Ross’s brother.”
“He doesn’t talk about Sean.”
