“Hey, Bess.” She peeked out of the bathroom, her hands and lower arms lined in yellow rubber gloves.
“You have a sec?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said, waving me in before peeling off the gloves.
I sat on the edge of the couch in the room, keeping my eyes down as I smoothed my hand over the paisley fabric. “I need your opinion.”
She sat next to me without a word, covering my hand with hers.
“I mean, your opinion without any of that Prince Charming bullshit. I’m a waitress, you’re a maid, and we work in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Nobody is going to come and swoop me up.”
Squeezing my hand, she said, “Bess—”
“No, it’s all right,” I said, interrupting her. “It’s all right because at least that realization lets me understand why I fell for AJ when I shouldn’t have. I believed I didn’t have a chance with anyone else, so when he kissed me, I just let it happen. But then I felt what things could be like with Lane, and now I know whatrealfeels like. All of a sudden, I understand commitment and unconditional love, those things I always thought were myths.But now they’re gone.”
I sighed deeply, then looked May in the eye. “And I think in order to move on and have anything close to that with someone else, I need to make amends with Lane. His brother came to see me and told me Lane’s hurting. Maybe I owe it to him to check on him, to put his mind at ease and let him know that I forgive him.”
“Honey, he’s hurting because he lost you,” May said, weaving her fingers through mine.
Laying my head on her shoulder, I said, “No. He just needs to be absolved of his guilt, and I should give that to him. After he gave me my heart back, it’s the least I can do.”
May dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Bess, love, that man did more than give you your heart back. He pumped oxygen into it and watched it dance. If you’re asking me if you should go to him, I sayyes.But not to absolve him. To love him.”
Her answer made my heart smile. Looking up into my friend’s face, I leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek and asked, “Can you watch Brooks again?”
