Two
Aterrible buzzingshook my pillow repeatedly until my eyes finally fluttered open.
What the hell? It’s four in the morning!
I clapped to make my nightstand light blaze and burn my eyes as they tried desperately to focus on the text after text that started to come into my view.
Mags: Fuck him. I am so freaking done.
Randy: Cali wake the fuck up, Mags just left!
Randy: Fuck! I think she’s really pissed this time. She said she was calling off the wedding.
Randy: Cali, please you have to help me!
Mags: Randy is an asshole, the wedding is fucking off!
Randy: I think she’s on her way to your place, please tell her I am not an ass and I was not flirting back with the damn waitress.
Mags: God damn him, I fucking hate his lying, stinking guts!
Mags: I’m in the car, I can barely see in all this rain. I’ll be there in 5.
Thunder crashed outside my window. Being ten floors up, it felt like I was right in the middle of the freaking storm. The windows shook as a beating started on my metal front door.
“Jesus, Mags. Give me a second,” I shouted from across my tiny one-bedroom apartment, scrambling for my robe and tying my matted blonde hair into a loose bun that was still damp from the long scrubbing I’d given it only hours before—getting jiz out of hair had been harder than I’d thought it would be.
I opened the door to see the puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks of my best friend. She stood in my doorway wearing ridiculously soaked fluffy blue slippers, one of Randy’s old Go Army shirts, and basketball shorts. Her makeup was everywhere and so was her long dark hair.
“God, Mags! You look deranged.” She shoved past me, sniffling as she huffed her way into my kitchen and went right for the fridge to grab the bottle of pinot she’d left a few nights before after one of our Netflix binges, which mostly consisted of drooling over Hook in Once Upon A Time.
“I’m telling you, Cali. I don’t know what I was thinking putting this damn ring on my fucking finger.” She downed the first glass and emptied the rest of the bottle, then trudged to my dining table to sit with pouting lips. I was still standing in the front doorway, wide-eyed at how big of a train wreck Mags was. I hadn’t seen her this bad since the night she and Randy had taken a little time off and we’d booked a cruise for spring break. My cheeks flushed and I giggled out loud by mistake when I thought about what a great time we had on that ship.
“What?” Mag’s eyes shot to mine, eyebrow raised.
“Nothing.” I shrugged, heading to the linen closet in the hallway. “So are you going to tell me what happened?” I put a towel around her shoulders and took the seat next to her.
Mags stared down at her red wine for a few seconds before diving into her rant. “Randy thinks he’s so slick and every time we’re out he hits on anything that moves.”
Randy was a nice guy and completely innocent. What Mags thought was flirting was just his way of being polite; the fact that she couldn’t see that was beyond frustrating.
“I don’t think he meant to flirt with her, Mags. You know how he is, nice to a fault.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. If he really loved me, he would watch himself and not instantly soak the panties of every girl he meets.”
“Do you want to stay here tonight?”
She nodded, toweling off her hair. “You think I am overreacting, don’t you?”
I wrapped my arms around her. “Of course I do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I have that job interview in the morning. You can hang out here while I’m in my meeting and then we’ll relax for a bit. Just let Randy know you’re safe, please?”
“Fine. But I am still mad at him.”
“Yeah, I know. I wouldn’t have expected anything else from you.”
Following me to the bedroom, Mags threw her sopping slippers into the bathroom. “Oh, how was the guy Vero set you up with?”
My stomach churned at the thought of Quinn. “All I have to say is that ejaculation is surprisingly hard to wash out of hair.”
