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“Then you should try the blue one on next,” I ordered, sorting through the stack of dresses Tabitha still had left to try on to pull out the blue one.
After she made her way back over to me, so I could unzip the back of the dress she had on now, she asked, “So, how have things been going with the new job?”
“Great,” I bubbled.
Lifting her hands to her shoulders to slide the dress down her arms, Tabitha spun around and lifted a brow, silently questioning me. When I pressed my lips together inan effort to stifle a smile, she asked, “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
I shook my head.
“Spill it,” my best friend demanded, tossing the dress she’d just taken off in my direction. As she reached for the blue dress, she noted, “You haven’t had a look like that on your face in ages. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
Tabitha sent me a look that told me she wasn’t buying a single word that came out of my mouth.
I caved quickly and sighed. “Fine. Maybe things have been better than great.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, I almost got fired,” I blurted.
She gasped. “What? Why? And how could you possibly now say that things have been so wonderful, if that’s the case?”
I inhaled deeply before I shared, “It happened at the end of my first week there.”
Tabitha began stepping into the blue dress while I went on to tell her about what happened that day when Banks came home from work. I explained how I’d shared details of the day Rhys and I had together, assumed his reaction about it was related to the wife he was in the process of divorcing not liking that I’d gotten on a video call with Robin, and Banks informing me that he wasn’t getting divorced. Of course, seeing the distress on my best friend’s face, I quickly went on to explain how I had assumed it was the worst-case scenario that night when I went home, but then ran into Banks the next afternoon as I walked past the cemetery.
It took her a couple of seconds, but it was clear understanding dawned when her eyes flashed. “His wifedied?”
I nodded. “Yeah. That’s the reason I never met her. Anyway, Banks all but begged me to go back to his house, so we could talk and clear the air, because he felt horrible about the way things went down between us the night before.”
“Well, that’s good. And you still have your job, so it’s obvious you worked everything out.”
For several long moments, I didn’t respond. I zipped up the blue dress when Tabitha moved toward me. I sat silently as she allowed her eyes to roam over herself in the mirror. “This is a classic case of the dress looking far better on the hanger,” she declared.
She didn’t need my confirmation, because that much was already obvious.
What I gave her instead was something she hadn’t been expecting. “I told him about Graham.”
“What?”
“After Banks told me about his wife, I told him about Graham and Henry.”
Her eyes roamed over my face for a long time, but I had not a clue what she was searching for or hoping to find. “What exactly did you tell him, Lamise?”
Shaking my head, I replied, “I didn’t tell him about the possible murder. I just told him about the snake bite and how Henry went missing.”
“And?”
“And we’ve found a common ground to build a friendship upon,” I remarked.
“What does that mean?”
I licked my lips and swallowed hard. “It means that no matter how much I love you, Jolene, or my mom, and all that each of you has done for me in this whole situation,the reality is that none of you can truly understand what I’m feeling. Banks does.”
“So, you’re leaning on each other for emotional support?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I guess you could say that. I mean, it’s not like we’ve had these deep philosophical conversations at this point, but I think there’s this mutual respect and understanding between us that wasn’t there before. It’s really nice to have that.”
