Gwen: Are youkiddingme?
Me: Give me a chance toexplain.
Me:Please.
Gwen: I want a mocha. Yourtreat.
Me: As many as it takes. Halfanhour?
Gwen: See youthere.
I raced out the door as soon as she sent the last text. I wanted to beat her there and not keep her waiting. Not when I had so much explaining to do. Not when I was afraid she might show up and decide it wasn’t worth her timetostay.
Armed with a large mocha and a chocolate ganache cupcake, because Gwen had a serious love affair with chocolate, I sat waiting for the bell to ring on the door ofBeans andThings.
When it finally did, I let out a sigh ofrelief.
“Hey,” I said, as Gwen sat down at the bistro style table and put both of her hands around the drink in front of her. It was cold outside. The fifties were essentially below the freezing point as far as I was concerned. I half expected her to start drinking her latte as soon as she got her hands on it in an effort to warm herself up. But instead she just sat there lookingatit.
“Gwen, I’m sorry I didn’t callortext.”
“Why did you leave like that?” she asked, sounding more hurt thanaccusatory.
“I don’t know. I was scared. I was overwhelmed. I didn’tcopewell.”
“That’s the understatement of the year. You flew across the freaking country to Florida because Julian got in a fight with hisbrother?”
“When you say it like that,” I said, letting out a puff of air. “But there was more to it than just thefight.”
“Well, it’s hard to figure out what’s going on when you won’t respond to me at all. Not even to say youwereokay.”
“I know. I had a bit of a nervous breakdown, I think. I really don’t know what to say, Gwen, except I am so sorry and I really want to make it uptoyou.”
“Well, this is a start,” she said, nodding her head toward the mocha and finally taking a sip. “But Katie, you can’t do thatagain.”
“Iknow.”
“No, I don’t think you do,” she argued. “I don’t open up to a lot of people. I’m the girl who is nice and weird, but I’m mostly a loner these days. It’s you, Mitch and Julian.” My heart gave an involuntary jump at the last name in her list. “When you left? It was like losing two friendsatonce.”
“What do you mean, two friends?” I asked, knowing what she was about to say and hating myself for being the reason itwastrue.
“You abandoned him. Julian was not in a great place. He had a lot of crap going on too. After that fight, he was fired, arrested, and the girl he loved left him.Left the state, left him. That wasn’t fair. He’s doing okay, but he’s notthesame.”
I wanted to argue, but my mind couldn’t move past the part where she said he loved me. “What do you mean helovedme?”
“Fine, loves you. I doubt he stopped, even though you broke hisheart.”
“Julian doesn’t loveme,Gwen.”
At this, she rolled her eyes. “Oh, my goodness. You guys are seriously the densest people I have ever met, right afterMitch.”
“You just said we’re the only people you hang out with,” I reminded her of what she had justconfessed.
“Yeah, well apparently I have a thing forcharity.”
“It looks that way. I’mamess.”
“Yes, you are. But you’re my mess.” She took another sip of her mocha and leaned back in her chair, looking at me. “Katie, I forgive you for acting the way you did. I’ll allow a plea of temporaryinsanity.”
