he still refused to enter the conversation.
Coward, she thought.
“Unbelievable,” she said out loud. “How long as this been going on?”
How long had her life been a lie? How long had they been going around behind her back without Gayle have any idea about it?
How long was I blind? she asked herself dejectedly. How had she managed to miss spotting the clues, the signs, that the two of them were preparing to go off together, leaving her behind?
Karen sighed. “We wanted to tell you Gayle, we really did, but you have to understand, the moment just wasn’t right. It had to be right when we let this finally bloom, so we didn’t say anything until we were sure. But it’s not because of you! It’s because of us.”
“How. Long,” Gayle repeated in a harsher tone.
Frowning, her best friend—ex-best friend, she corrected angrily, still struggling to accept this new normal—thought it over. “Maybe six months?”
Gayle choked on her own breath. “Six months?” she gasped. “Six months and you couldn’t tell me?”
How many times, she wondered, had she kissed Mikey after Karen had? How many times had he been thinking of her while the two of them were in bed together? How many times—
It doesn’t matter, she thought to herself angrily. You don’t need to dwell on that.
“I know,” Karen said. “It’s a long time, but we had to make sure, like I said. The moment just wasn’t right for us to share this with anyone. That’s all it was, I swear! But the time is now, and we don’t want to hide our love anymore.”
Gayle wanted to vomit.
“We still love you,” Karen said, smiling brightly. “I want you to know that. We do, we really do, but this bond, these feelings, this connection Mikey and I share, it needs to be free now, to blossom and strengthen on its own.”
What about my feelings?
Neither of them gave a damn about her, that much was for sure. Oh sure, Karen was saying that she still loved Gayle, but the truth of it was, Karen didn’t love anyone but herself. Gayle could see that now.
Self-centered bitch.
Both of them. They were so wrapped up in themselves and one another, they had absolutely no idea what their actions had done to her. The damage and pain that they’d inflicted upon her. What was worse though, was that they didn’t seem to care. Gayle had become nothing to them, not a real person with real feelings and emotions. She was just a ‘thing’ that they thought they could manipulate with sweet words.
“Please leave,” she said tightly, keeping her emotions in check as best she could.
“Gayle…”
“Now,” she said more firmly. “Please just leave.”
Karen looked ready to come over and console her, and Gayle feared her reaction if the other woman tried that. Her arms were nearly shaking, and she wasn’t mad. Mad was a distant, vaguely remembered state that she’d gone through already in what felt like a different lifetime.
Gayle wasn’t mad. She was furious, and the anger was swiftly welling up even higher, building into a towering inferno that was threatening to bust loose, to sweep over the two of them, and all it would take to make her erupt was for Karen to try and hug her.
“Okay,” Karen said, biting her lip.
Don’t do it, Gayle urged inwardly, trying mentally to restrain Karen, even as she worked to restrain herself from lashing out.
She could take Karen. The other woman had two inches on her—everyone had height on her, it wasn’t hard when you’re only 5’1—but Gayle had a solid twenty or thirty pounds. If she lost control, the blonde bitch was going down.
For a moment, Gayle wanted it to come to that. After all, if ten years of friendship wasn’t enough to stop Karen from stealing her boyfriend, then why should it be enough to stop Gayle from teaching her a lesson she’d never forget?
Because that’s not who you are. It’s just spur of the moment anger.
Sometimes Gayle hated her rational, logical side. It abandoned her at some moments, and at others it intervened. Like right now.
She watched as Karen tugged on Mikey’s hand and propelled him back toward the door, while Karen paused, and Gayle knew she was about to say something ridiculous.
When Karen spoke, her tone was soft, almost pleading. “We’re still friends, right? I don’t want this to come between us, Gayle.”
The question was so outlandish, so preposterous, that Gayle couldn’t formulate a true angry response, so dumbfounded was she by her ex-best friend’s lack