“Yeah, because that worked out so great for you last time. He didn’t put up more of a fight?”
“He was angry… but no.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Face carefully blank, I said, “We’ve both hurt each other. Maybe he gets that we don’t work.”
I received a grunt in response.
“So that ass**le thing? What did Beck say?”
She started fuming again. “It’s like he just assumed I was going to fall all over him.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, and I quote, ‘This ignoring me shit? I’m done with it. You made your point but life is short, babe, and I want to spend what time I’ve got with you. I missed you like crazy this summer.’”
I knew it would be wrong of me to say I actually thought that was kind of sweet so I kept my trap shut and listened to her tirade continue.
“And I said ‘until you get bored with me and end up nailing your groupies again.’ And he said, ‘I’m never going to get bored of you.’ Pfft!” she made a face. “So I said ‘Yeah, well, I’m bored of this conversation.’ I told him I didn’t trust him. I told him I want a guy who loves me enough to put his own bullshit aside. I said he blew it.”
“What did he say?” I was almost too afraid to ask. This confrontation between Beck and Claudia had been a long time coming. It didn’t surprise me that it had ended the way it had.
Claudia’s face fell, and her voice lowered as she replied, “He said that he was sorry and he wanted a second chance… a second chance to prove how he felt about me. A second chance to make me feel as special as I am.”
“That all sounds… good?”
“I told him it was all just bullshit words, and I know how good he is at lying to get what he wants.”
“And…?”
“Oh, he was pissed. He said he’d always tried to treat me with care and that I should trust him. I said I didn’t. He said I was being impossible. I said, ‘Screw you, I’m moving on,’ to which he replied, ‘If you actually took a chance and screwed me, babe, the only moving on you’d be doing is with me. Forever.’ So I called him an ass**le and got out of there.”
I was silent a moment before peeking at my friend out of the corner of my eye. “You were equally turned on as you were pissed, though, right?”
“So turned on I could kill him,” she snapped. “Arrogant ass**le.”
We didn’t say anything else on the subject and two weeks later we still hadn’t discussed it further. We hadn’t talked about any part of that night. I hadn’t heard from Jake and I was trying not to think about that. I threw myself into my work and sometimes it helped. That’s why, while I laid on my stomach in our living room, surrounded by papers and textbooks, I nearly came out of my skin when my phone rang and it was Jake calling.
I could’ve ignored it but without really thinking about it, I answered and closed my eyes at the sound of his deep, rich voice on the other end of the line. He asked me how I was. I said I was fine. Studying a lot. And also that the apartment smelled of homemade soup all the time because Claudia was experimenting in the kitchen.
It was awkward and stilted… and painful… and I was thankful when Claudia got home because I had an excuse to get off the phone.
“I’ve got a date with the TA!” Claudia yelled as she stepped into the apartment.
I heard Jake groan on the other end of the line.
“Claudia’s home,” I said dryly.
“What she said… is that the kind of thing I have to tell Beck?”
“I don’t know. I’m not privy to the bro code.”
“Shit,” Jake muttered and I took that to mean under the bro code, he was obligated to tell Beck what he’d heard.
Claudia appeared in the doorway grinning, her eyes widening at the sight of me. “Oops, sorry, you’re on the phone.”
I smiled at her and said to Jake, “That’s my cue to go, I guess.”