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“I have…I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Rhiannon pushes a hand through her hair. She looks rattled. “Let’s get some air, okay?”
“I’m not leaving this room. She’llseeme. Then again, she probably already knows I’m here, right?”
“Lenna.Who?”
Lenna stares at her friend. Rhiannon must be playing her. Of course she knows it’s someone here. “Did you keep me from writing pieces forCity Gossip?”
Rhiannon looks at her like she’s lost her mind. “Huh?”
“And did you make out with Frederick at a bar? After I said I liked him? That’s why you told me to stay away from him?” An uneasy sickness is starting to fill her. She’s there on that canyon trail again, all of the lies Gillian told her starting to unravel. “Did you randomly take off to Oregon because of our argument about you not supporting me?”
“I…no. That’s not why.”
“So why did you leave, then? Why didn’t you answer any of my texts? Why did you act like I did something to piss you off?”
Rhiannon pinches the bridge of her nose. “Your questions…from last night…I get why you’re curious. But I…I don’t have the right words. But Ididreach out, and then you told me to lose your number!”
Lenna presses her hands over her face. “I didn’t write that text. Someone else did.”
“Who?” Rhiannon sounds skeptical. “And wait, can we go back? Yougotme fired? As I remember it, Rich just called me and said they were restructuring and that my position had been eliminated.”
Lenna stares at her. “Didn’t he say something about an email?”
“What email?”
“I…I sent an email from this throwaway Gmail account, but I was told it was forwarded to you after the fact. And you’d figured out that I was the one behind it.” The words feel lodged in her throat, nearly impossible to extract.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Rhiannon puts her hands on her hips. “What did the email say?”
Lenna looks away. Now she wishes she hadn’t said anything. “The email was to Rich. About you, and the Valium. I said you distributed it, sold it to other people in the office. That’s why they let you go.”
Rhiannon’s mouth hangs open. “But I wasn’t an addict.Ora dealer. You wrote to him making it out like I was both? Jesus, it’s a good thing I didn’t try and get another job somewhere else! I’m probably on some sort of Do Not Hire list!”
“I’m sorry.” Lenna squeezes her eyes shut. “I was angry. You’d cut me off. And I thought…I don’t know, I thought you were trying to sabotage me, even keeping Frederick from me.”
“Why would you believe that?”
“Because we had that weird talk after my date, and then you were just…gone.I just thought…I don’t know. I figured we were never really friends. That I didn’t mean much to you.”
“Jesus.” Rhiannon rubs her eyes. “Okay, the Frederick thing? He corneredmeat the party. I should have said something…I just got scared.”
Lenna turns away. A likely story. “Someone said they saw you make the first move.”
Rhiannon swallows hard. “I didn’t. I’msorry,okay? I really was trying to protect you. And I never kept you from writing. Or…” She trails off, looks to the ceiling. “I don’t know. I was immature. Maybe I did, subconsciously. It’s probably why I overreacted when we fought. You were right, though. I left without explaining. And I’m sorry.”
Lenna bites down hard on the inside of her cheek, feeling a pinch of remorse and forgiveness…until the present comes rushing back.
“I planned on coming back,” Rhiannon goes on. “But then my jobwas gone, so I didn’t. And I thought you’d reach out, but when I didn’t hear from you…you hurt me, too, Lenna.Lose this number?”
“I told you, I didn’t write that.”
“How was I supposed to know?”
A lump forms in Lenna’s throat. She can’t tell if Rhiannon is the world’s best actress or if she’s sincere. She struggles to put herself in Rhiannon’s place. “Where did you go? Andwhy?”
Rhiannon’s eyes lower. “I had to…I had to take care of something.”
“What?Why won’t you tell me?”
