Page 26 of Open for Negotiation
“Because I am and you love me for it.” I can hear her shuffling around briefly.
“Are you settling in like I’m about to tell you a campfire story?”
“Because you basically are. This is as exciting as my life gets lately. I need to live vicariously through you.”
I’m glad she can’t see my face right now, because I know she hates it when people feel bad for her, but I’m her best friend. I can’t help it.
Eden has always had huge goals in her life. She wanted to be a writer so badly. She wanted to publish novels and change the world with her words.
And she was well on her way, but then her dad got sick.
Dementia is a nasty disease that slowly eats its way through families. Eden put her dreams on the back burner to move back home and care for her father since her mother has been gone since she was a child. She works nights as a server in a restaurant and spends her days as a caretaker for her father.
She and her dad have always had each other. She won’t change that now.
“How’s your dad today?” I ask.
She releases a harsh sigh. If this were anyone else, I’d assume I’d pissed them off by asking, but with Eden, I know that sound. It means she is exhausted.
“Today has been one of the better days. He’s more himself than he’s been in a while. He’s downstairs watching some old, black-and-white Western as we speak.”
“I’m happy to hear that. Embrace and enjoy the good days. Use them as a chance to relax, even if just for a moment.” I’d give anything to hug her right now.
“Don’t think I’m going to let you use that sidetrack to distract me from the task at hand here. I want to know everything about this date. Spill it.”
I scoff and laugh, “You’re relentless.” I roll to my back and place my phone on my chest, “It wasn’t a normal date. Not at all. I think you’re going to be disappointed.”
“Not possible.”
“Well, the highlights are… we started late because of work, we rescued a very injured basset hound, who is going to be fine by the way, and then we had dinner at a greasy spoon downtown. Then we kissed and he went home. The end.”
“Don’t fuck with me. I really, as your friend, want to know about your date,” she whines.
“I’m telling you the truth. That’s exactly what happened. I swear.”
We spend the next hour going over everything. She asks so many questions, but that’s just Eden.
“Are you going to see him again?”
I finally push myself to sit up and rest my arms on top of my knees, cell phone now tucked into my sports bra.
“I hope so. I texted him a little after I got home and told him I’d like to go out again. I mean, I see him every day at the office, but that’s different.”
“I don’t know. The longing looks from across the boardroom, dirty interoffice memos, and trysts in the office bathroom have romance novels written all over them. It could be incredible.” I can picture her now, taking notes and fanning herself, like she’s plotting out her next project.
God, I really wish she’d start writing again.
“Yes, it has that potential, but then it also has the potential to paint me as the bitch who fucks her boss, a newly divorced man who is older than her and an authority figure. History would then repeat itself and that’s not something I’ve got a hankering for, Eden.”
“Why do you think that will ultimately be the outcome? Not everything is going to circle back to that trauma, babe. You know that, deep down. I know you do. You’re just scared and using it as an excuse to keep your walls up.”
She has clocked me instantly. She knows me better than anyone. Her jab right into a nerve makes me unnecessarily defensive.
“I don’t have walls up. I’m just trying to be smart about all of this.”
“You have walls so high that Jon Snow is guarding them.”
I don’t want to laugh. I’m trying to be moody and annoyed, but I can’t help it. “You’re such a nerd.”
