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“So, how are you feeling?” she asks, taking a deep drink of her Diet Coke. It makes my eyes water seeing how much of the bubbly stuff she can drink in one swallow.
Slouching and groaning, I say, “Like shit. And I don’t just mean the hangover.”
“Yup. Been there, too. It’s awful.”
“Jess, I don’t know how this happened?”
“Really? You really don’t know?” she asks sarcastically.
I huff at her. “You know what I mean. And I’d already gotten him out of my system, too. Now I have to start from scratch.” First thing I did this morning was seal up that cursed dress again and stuff it as far as it would go in my linen closet.
“Maybe AA would help?”
“It’s not an addiction,” I tell her exasperatedly.
“Sort of, it is. I’m sorry, Cris. Joking aside, I know this is tough. Especially for you because you have feelings for Bo even though you have an awesome life with Owen.”
“I love the way you remind me of my love for Owen, even though you’re just as guilty of my affair with Bo as I am.”
“What! I admit I was a little excited about the idea of Bo, but you know anything I ever told you about my life was never meant to be used as a manual for yours!”
“I know, I know.” I wave her indignation away. She really never meant for this to happen. Matter of fact, she likes Owen a lot more than she does Bo. All she did was try to be there for me, and that’s a hard thing to do with a friend when you want to give good advice, but the little devil in you who wants to live vicariously through others ends up throwing his two little cents in, too.
I rest my head in my hand and moan. “What am I going to do?”
“Well, for starters you need to talk to Owen.”
My head pops up. “I can’t talk to Owen about this!”
“You’re kidding, right? I mean, wasn’t that one of your biggest claims when he had his affair, that he should have told you right away?”
“This is different,” I say.
Jess crosses her arms, her blue eyes daring. “How is this different?”
“Well…” Shit, I can’t think of a reason. “It just is. I am trying to rebuild my life with Owen. In fact, I think we’re doing pretty amazing. Better than ever!”
“Hm, if you’re doing better than ever, why did you sleep with Bo?”
“He caught me off guard.”
“Does that mean that dude over there could fuck you right now if he catches you off guard?” she points to a single guy, handsome really, if not too young.
“No, of course not.”
“What about that lady there, or that couple over there.”
“Jess, stop, you’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I? Because from where I’m sitting, I think it’s you that being ridiculous. Look, Cris, you know I love you, and I have your back no matter what. But when I see that you may be doing something wrong, I have to call you out on it. And it’s not that you love two men, by the way,” she says shooting down the words that were about to escape my lips. “It’s not even about your affair. It’s about keeping this secret. Not only will you feel like a hypocrite for faulting Owen on that, but it will also consume you from the inside out. And that one I say from experience.”
Before I get a chance to reply to her little speech, Caleb comes tumbling out of the tube slide, Mia right behind him. Before she’s all the way down, he stands and faces the slide, and whack! Mia’s feet make full force contact with his tummy and throws him a good foot or two. Both Jess and I are up in a flash. He’s crying that sort of cry where no sound comes out for what seems like a minute, then finally after a deep breath, the fog horn is set free and it’s deafening.
“Well, sounds like he’s all right,” says Jess, holding him to her.
Mia, who is also crying, is hanging over my shoulder. Then just like that it’s over, and they’re both playing with Josh and another little girl they met there.
When we sit down, Jess takes a big bite of her chili burger, staring me down the entire time. She’s making me so uncomfortable I can hardly eat.
