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Shut up!
It wasn’t something she wanted to think about. She wouldn’t think about it. Because she had no claim on him and whatever he did once she left, he was perfectly within his rights to do so. They scened together. They hadn’t kissed or anything. He hadn’t asked for her phone number.
But some part of her mind insisted the scene had been more than a scene and she hadn’t imagined the incredible intimacy that had sprung from it.
The door to her room opened and Angel glanced up, already knowing who it would be. None of her roommates would enter without knocking and Mike was out at a job interview, so that only left one person.
Musical notes clashed together before Angel reached over and turned off her speakers and a distressed looking Leigh held out her phone to Angel. It was playing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,” which was Michael and Leigh’s “song”.
“He keeps calling and I can’t… I’m not ready to talk to him yet,” Leigh said, holding the phone out towards Angel beseechingly. “I don’t know what to say to him. Please… answer it and tell him I’ll call him soon. Just not yet. I don’t know what I want from him so I don’t know what to say to him.”
Wow… that was new. Angel blinked, but reached out to take the phone from her friend. The fact that Leigh was even considering maybe she wanted to do something other than get back together with Michael… it killed her to think how much her friend must be hurting to come to such a conclusion, but at the same time she wanted to support that. Maybe this time things would be different.
She slid her finger over the little arrow to accept the call.
“Hey Michael, it’s Angel.”
“Oh… um. Is Leigh there?”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t want to talk to you right now.” Angel shrugged when Leigh glared at her. What else was she supposed to tell him? “She needs some time… she’ll call you in a couple of days, okay?”
“What does she need time for?” Michael asked, sounding frustrated. “I told her I love her and I didn’t realize she didn’t want to take an actual break… I would have never suggested it if I didn’t think it was something she wanted.” Angel tried not to roll her eyes. Maybe he wouldn’t have suggested it this time, but he sure as hell hadn’t had a problem trying to take advantage of it to date other women. She wondered if he’d been shot down already or if he’d realized how much harder he was going to have to work to find someone to bang who wasn’t Leigh.
“She needs the time and you need to give it to her,” Angel said sharply, her temper rising. “If you don’t want to then that’s your decision, but at the very least stop calling her and give the girl some space.”
“Is she seeing someone else? Is that what’s going on? Because I thought she didn’t want us to see anyone else!”
“No, she’s not, she’s not ready to talk to you, yet.”
As much as Angel would have loved to have told Michael that yes, Leigh was considering dating other people, she knew it wasn’t true and Leigh would be pretty pissed if Angel lied about it. It pissed Angel off how much antagonism and affront there was in Michael’s voice when he’d asked if Leigh was seeing other people. It was okay for him to, but not for Leigh? Ugh, she wished she could reach through the phone and punch him in the balls.
“Give her a couple of days, she’ll call you when she’s ready to talk.”
“Okay. Fine. Tell her I’m not going to wait around forever.”
Angel bit her lip to stop herself from retorting Leigh shouldn’t have to wait around forever for his proposal either. Not my business.
“Okay,” she said instead. “Bye.”
She ended the call without waiting to hear if he said anything else.
Leigh sagged in front of her eyes, going over to sit on her bed and looking pale and almost wraith-like. Immediately Angel folded the corset fabric and went to her, wrapping her arm around Leigh’s slender shoulders as they started to shake.
“Hey baby… it’s okay…” she murmured. “You know you don’t have to get back together with him if you don’t want to.”
“But I do want to…” Leigh said, turning her head into Angel’s welcoming shoulder, tears muffling her voice slightly. “I don’t know if I should. What’s the point of sitting around waiting for him to get to the perfect place in his life to propose to me if he’s going to spend the rest of his life wanting to date other women?”
“Shh…” Angel hugged her. “You are the best damn thing that ever happened to him and you know it and he knows it. He sounded pretty impatient to talk to you. He said he loves you.” Angel truly believed he did, at least inasmuch as he was capable of. Michael was kind of a narcissist, but as much as he could, she believed he cared for and loved Leigh. But he would never put her before himself, in any way.
At least from what Angel could see, but she was trying hard to be there for her friend and what she wanted. And she hated to see how Leigh’s self-esteem rose and fell with her perception of how much Michael cared about her.
“I know he does. And I love him. I don’t know if it’s enough anymore.”
There wasn’t anything she could say to that, so Angel hugged her friend and thought about how much men sucked.
Adam
“Knock knock.”
