Between Friends (29 page)

“
Hey Megan, long time no
see.” Fiona says taking her toothpick full of olives out of her
martini glass and bites down on one. She slides over in the booth,
to let me sit beside her, “Love the dress. Very chic”

“
Thanks” I reply then look
over at Darla and say hello.

Darla doesn’t respond, and
hasn’t even once looked up from rudely texting on her cell phone to
acknowledge me. Finally she places her phone on the table and grabs
a bacon wrapped scallop to plop in her mouth.

“
Was that him?” Emily asks
Darla with bright eyes.

“
It was.” Darla says in a
singsong voice.

“
Darla just met someone.”
Emily adds in an attempt to involve me in their
conversation.

“
Oh that’s nice.” I smile,
“Who is he?”

“
Oh that’s the best part.”
Emily grins and the three of them share a laugh.

“
What? Is he famous or
something?” I innocently say.

“
No” Darla laughs and takes
a sip from her martini. She leans back in the booth with a bashful
grin and tucks her hair behind her ears, “He’s my
gynecologist.”

“
No way” I shout, slapping
my knees. How weird would that be? “How long have you been
dating?”

“
A couple weeks now.” Darla
proudly says.

“
That’s great,” I
say.

“
Yeah, his name is Drake,
and he’s really handsome. He is such a sweetheart.” Darla pauses,
and then adds with apprehension and a furrowed brow, “But he’s in
his forties…”

“
He doesn’t look it
though,” Fiona pipes in.

“
True” Emily agrees, “But
we all know how you like to rob the cradle.”

Fiona and Emily share a
laugh, only to have Darla pipe in, “Okay girls. That was one time
and he actually wasn’t even that young. He was twenty-one, and in
my defense, he told me he was twenty-three.”

“
Sure, sure” Emily laughs
and nudges Darla in the arm.

“
Anyway” Darla dismissively
says and looks over at me, “He’s going to be coming by later with
some of his friends, so I hope you don’t mind a little male
commodore tonight.”

“
Not at all” I say, and
can’t help but think this is the perfect opportunity to help me get
over Ben.

“
All I have to say is that
his friends better be hot.” Emily chimes in and takes a sip of her
martini.

The server approaches our
booth and interrupts our conversation to ask me if I would like
something to drink. I opt for a martini, just like the girls and
order us a round of shots.

The four of us laugh and
chat, snacking on tapas and sipping on martinis while we wait for
Darla’s new man and his mystery friends to arrive. In the meantime,
Emily is the life of the party and tells us story after story about
all the bad dates she has recently been on and keeps us in
stitches.

“
Oh, they’re here” Darla
says, and waves over to a foursome of men headed our
way.

“
Thank God.” Fiona moans,
and jokingly adds, “This party is in need of some
penis.”

As the group of men
approaches us, I can tell Drake is leading the way. His eyes are
locked on Darla as he pushes through the crowd in his charcoal grey
business suit and blue pinstriped shirt. She is right, he is
handsome, and hardly looks like he is in his forties. He is in
great shape, and has curly dark hair and big hazel eyes. As soon as
he greets her, they share a quick kiss before she begins to
introduce us. Drake is polite and shakes all of our hands. Then he
moves out of the way to reveal his three other friends standing
behind him, and that is when I hear a familiar voice say,
“Megan?”

I look up and focus my eyes
to see Steven standing in front of me.

“
Steven?” I say, noticing
his black eye has finally disappeared.

“
You two know each other?”
Drake says with a smile.

“
Megan is friend’s with my
cousin Jessica.” Steven says and clears his throat.

“
Oh so this is the
mysterious Steven from Costa Rica.” Emily loudly says and beams at
me.

Oh no Emily, please don’t
say anything.

“
Oh, so Megan told you all
about me then?” Steven coldly says.

“
She told me a little.”
Emily smiles, “But she definitely forgot to mention how hot you
were.”

“
Emily!” I snap feeling
myself begin to sweat.

“
So then this is the
infamous black-eye Megan?” Drake laughs along with the other two
guys who have still yet to be introduced.

I just sit there, completely
speechless. I mean, what do you say when someone refers to you as
black-eye Megan? I look over at the girls, who are all intently
staring at me, and I turn completely red.

“
What is he talking about?”
Emily finally asks.

“
Oh nothing – “ I mumble
until Drake cuts me off.

“
Her boyfriend sucker
punched Steven at that wedding and left him with a black eye.”
Drake arrogantly laughs, making me immediately decide Drake is a
jerk.

“
Okay that’s enough!” I
sputter, as my face burns.

“
Whose boyfriend?” Emily
asks glancing between Steven, and me “Megan doesn’t even have a
boyfriend.”

“
Look, it’s not a big
deal.” Steven says coming to my rescue, “Its water under the
bridge.”

“
No, no, no” Emily says
waving her hands in the air, “Megan, who is he talking about? Who
is your boyfriend?”

“
Emily, I don’t have a
boyfriend. Believe me, it’s a long story.” I snap, taking a sip of
my drink.

Emily looks suspiciously at
me, and I feel the tensions quickly rising. I should have never
come out tonight! Emily grabs her drink and demands I meet her at
the bar pronto. I slide out of the booth and let the guys slide in.
I brush against Steven’s shoulder on my way out. He looks up at me,
but doesn’t smile. I look away and follow Emily.

“What the hell was that
about?” Emily asks, strategically leaning against the bar to let
her boobs hang out as she waves down the bartender for another
drink.

“
It was Ben,” I blurt
out.

Emily’s mouth practically
drops to the floor. She shoves me and shouts “Shut up!” making me
stumble backwards and slam into a man sitting behind me on a
barstool.

“
I’m serious.” I say, and
see Emily’s eyes light up, “We weren’t dating, but we were you
know…”

“
I knew something was going
on! Why did you lie to me this afternoon?” Emily shouts.

“Honestly Emily, it’s really
complicated, but whatever it was it’s over now.” I sigh, feeling
myself become emotional all over again.

“
You better tell me
everything! Not tonight of course, this isn’t the proper forum to
rehash all the juicy details. This calls for a night of sweats and
a good bottle of wine.”

“
Deal” I say.

She squeezes my hand and
then unnecessarily adds, “So how was he? As big as I normally like
to fantasize?”

“
Emily!” I shout and roll
my eyes, only to feel my phone vibrating in my clutch.

“
What?” Emily says, “You
can’t leave me hanging. Those are important details girlfriends
must share.”

I look at my cell phone,
and see it is Michelle calling, “One second Emily, I have to take
this.”

“
Is it Ben?” Emily
giggles.

“
No” I roll my eyes, “I’ll
be right back.”

I push my way outside into
the cool night air, so I can answer my phone without any background
noise to muffle out Michelle’s voice.

“
Megan, it’s me.” She
breathes into the phone, “Where are you right now?”

“
I’m out with Emily. Why?”
I say feeling a tad panicked.

“
You need to get down to
The Berghoff right now.” Michelle says in a hushed
whisper.

“
I can’t. I’m out right
now. Besides, isn’t that restaurant close to my condo?” I ask with
curiosity, “It would take me at least thirty minutes to get there
in good traffic.”

“
No seriously Megan. You
need to ditch Emily and get down here right now, if you don’t want
to lose Ben forever.”

My heart pounds like crazy
in my chest. I am scared to know what Michelle is hinting at. I
stand still on the pavement, completely frozen from fear. I do not
want to hear any more words about to come out of her
mouth.

“
Megan? Are you still
there?” she asks.

“
What’s going on?” I ask
with a tremble in my voice.

“
Look, I don’t know Megan,
but I met some girls from work here for dinner, and as we were
leaving, I saw Ben in the restaurant having dinner with another
woman.”

“
What?” I shout into the
phone completely gob-smacked. I start to feel the tears well up in
my eyes, but I knew it was only a matter of time.

“
Megan, you need to get
down here right now and –“

“
No” I shout into the
phone, “Michelle, please! How pathetic do you think I
am?”

“
I don’t think you’re
pathetic at all” She says, “I just can’t handle this happening
between you two.”

“
Forget it Michelle.” I
wave my hand in the air, “It is Ben. I didn’t expect any
less.”

“
Do you want me to go in
there and say something?” Michelle asks.

“
No” I breathe helplessly
into the phone.

“
Look, I’m sorry I called,
but you deserved to know.”

“
Thanks Michelle.” I mumble
and before we say our goodbyes, she says she will call me tomorrow.
I vaguely remember her making me promise we are getting together
for my birthday next weekend, or her telling me she found a pair of
my sandals in her luggage, and that she’ll bring them by my condo
sometime next week. I finally hang up and throw my head back. I
look high into the starry night sky and let out a huge sigh. This
was supposed to be a good night! First Steven! Now this? Suddenly
this night couldn’t possibly get any worse.

“
Are you coming back in or
what?” Emily says, poking her head out the doors of Sangria, “I
ordered another martini for you. Hurry up.”

“
Thanks Emily, but I think
I am just going to go home.” I sigh and wave down a cab to call it
a night.

Chapter 25

The morning of my birthday, I wake up
in a state of panic. How did this happen? How did I suddenly reach
the quarter century club? I can’t believe how another week has
flown by and all I have done is work, work, work, work, work
spreading myself thin from open house to open house and client to
client, to distract me from my pathetic life.

I brew myself a fresh pot of coffee
and sit at my kitchen table letting the soft morning light beam
through my patio doors. I fumble through my piles of client
contracts, thinking about Jessica and how I have never celebrated
my birthday without her. I stare at my phone and hope the longer I
glare at it, the more likely it will ring with her on the other end
of the line. When my phone does ring, I snatch it up in my fingers
optimistic this blocked call may be Jessica. But it isn’t, it’s
Blake Donahue, Ben’s rival realtor. He is calling to let me know
his clients have accepted Mrs. van den Berg’s counter offer. I
thank Blake for the call, and smile from ear to ear. This is the
best birthday present ever! I successfully closed the deal on Mrs.
van den Berg’s million-dollar listing! I did it!

I call Mrs. van den Berg to give her
the good news, but she doesn’t answer. I leave her a message and
make myself some breakfast. I am cramming my mouth full of eggs
when I get another call, but this time from Clint. He tells me he
has heard the good news, and invites me to his office for some
champagne to celebrate. I tell him I will stop by (even though it
is a Saturday and my birthday), to which he replies he looks
forward to it.

By the time I shower, blow dry my
hair, and answer a string of birthday calls; I have talked with my
mother, then father, then grandmother, and finally my crazy cousin
Tiffany, all wanting to wish me a happy birthday. When I pull my
phone away from my ear, it is half past noon.

I scurry around my front hall closet,
searching for my black boyfriend blazer, to professionalize my dark
wash skinny jeans and plain white tank top. I am ten minutes late
for my meeting with Clint, and can already see him foaming at the
mouth from my tardiness. Just as I am barreling out the door, my
phone vibrate with a text message from Michelle:

Happy Birthday
Girlie!

So I promptly text her
back:

Thanks!

Michelle responds right
away:

Remember we’re going out
for a drink tonight you old bag
.
It isn’t everyday you hit the big 2-5!

I cringe at her old bag reference,
then text back:

Sounds good. Call me
later.