“Oh my word you guys,” I said laughing. “What does he look like?”
“Yes! Tell us what he looks like.” Alicia said, not even trying to hide the fact that she was laughing at me.
“Okay, fine. He’s gorgeous. He’s tall, tan, has shaggy blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. He is beautiful.”
“I knew it!” Michelle said, squealing. “I knew it! I knew he had to be gorgeous, because I could see the way you were smiling when you talked about spending time with him.”
“No, honestly. It’s not like that!”
“But he’s gorgeous," Alicia said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Do you have any pictures of him?” Michelle asked.
I took a deep breath, carefully considering what I should say next.
“Why are you hesitating?”
Michelle had always been able to read me very well.
“Okay fine,” I said. “I don’t have any pictures of him, but he is a pretty successful developer. If I tell you his name, you can look him up online and see pictures for yourself.”
“Oh my goodness! Tell us! Tell us, tell us, tell us!” Alicia said, holding up her phone. “I’ll look him up since we called you on Michelle’s phone.”
I told them his full name, and five seconds later they both screamed again, and then looked at me.
“You downplayed it!” Michelle said, accusingly.
I laughed. “What do you mean I downplayed it? What else can I say? He’s gorgeous.”
“Yes,” Alicia said. “He’s gorgeous. But if there is a word for even more than gorgeous, that’s him.”
“So this is who you’re spending your time with?” Michelle asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Well, to clarify, that is who I spent the first part of my day with today.”
“Then why on earth were you crying just now?” Alicia shouted.
I laughed harder than I had in weeks. It was not at all what I was expecting her to say, and that was one of the reasons why I loved Alicia. She always caught me by surprise.
“Have you thought about asking him for help?” Michelle asked.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“I guess I could,” I said. “I mean, I did talk to him about it when I came out here to visit.”
“I’m just going to let that go,” Michelle said. “I’m not even going to point out the fact that you spent time with him the last time you were there, and you didn’t even tell us about it. I’m not going to mention that at all. But there you go. You’ve already talked to him about it a bit. It’s what he does for a living, so he probably has some really good advice.”
“I’m sure he does,” I said. “But he is my friend. I don’t want him to think I’m using him.”
Michelle sighed, and I could see that she was choosing her words carefully.
“If you had a friend who had a child in fifth grade and that child needed help on homework, and he came to you for help, would you think that your friend was just using you?”
“No," I said, seeing what she was getting at.
“He probably feels the exact same way.”
