"Oh come on, Cam. We both know that's not true. Listen, I know I've said it already, but I reallyamsorry."
"Oh, stop it," she said with a weak laugh. "I meant what I said. I actually had a pretty good time."
Funny, she sounded like she actually meant it.And yet, I was finding her words a little hard to believe. "But you couldn’t have," I protested. "Not really."
"Why not?" she said. "You and I got to hang out. And I finally got to see the house. I've been wanting to see it forever, you know."
Shehadsaid as much. And, with the help of my own key, I'd been thrilled to give her the grand tour – minus the attic, of course.
I'd gotten the key from Brody not too long after he'd changed the locks.Would he be wanting the key back, now that we weren't together?
Probably.
Like everything else today, the thoughtwasn'ta cheery one.
Next to me, Cami was saying, "And we went to the beach nearly every day. That sounds like a vacation tome."
She was being way too generous. It was true that we'd spent lots of time at the beach. But mostly this involved walking along the shoreline while I whined about Brody.
But today, the topic of Brody was firmly off-limits. I'd made that promise – if only to myself – and I fully intended to keep it.
I said, "Well, it was no spa vacation, that's for sure."
"Forget the spa," she said. "I already told you, that's not why I came."
I believed her. Really, I did.And yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was truly bothering her.
Hesitantly, I said, "Is anything else on your mind?"
"Eh, nothing big."
I stopped walking. "Wait. So somethingiswrong? What is it?"
She stopped walking, too. "Don't worry. It's nothing important."
I studied her face.Oh yeah. She was definitely hiding something."Then tell me," I urged. "What's wrong?"
"Alright. The thing is…" Her shoulders slumped. "I sort of lost my job."
My stomach sank. "What?" In the back of my mind, I had visions of Cami getting fired for taking the week off to spend time listening to me complain. "Oh, my God. I didn’t realize youhada job."
"I don't," she said. "I mean, yeah, I've been doing some tutoring on the side. But I meant the job I'm supposed to be starting in the fall."
My heart went out to her. "Oh, no. Not your teaching job?" In September, Cami was supposed to begin teaching second grade at a wonderful little school not too far from Michigan State.
Cami blew out a long, shaky breath. "Yup. That's the one."
"What happened?"
"She decided not to retire."
"Who? The teacher you were replacing?"
Cami nodded. "That's the one."
"Oh, gosh. I'm really sorry. When did you find out?"
"Just yesterday."
