The Friend

Alicia

Alicia looked up from her phone after texting Rodney back. Her fingers were restless. She was sitting in the passenger's seat as Nathan drove them home, but her mind was still on Rodney. She tried to still her nerves, but her mind kept racing. When she attended the wedding today, she hoped that she would get a glimpse of him, but they had done more than that. They had plans to hang out for the next day! She smiled to herself, feeling giddy.

When he ignored her at first, she knew he was hurt. She understood where he was coming from and didn't blame him either. After the ceremony was over, she thought about declining Ramona's offer to come to the after-party, but couldn't bring herself to leave. She wanted to see more of Rodney, even if he was upset with her.

She couldn't believe they were actually talking out there on the balcony. Though at first it was a little awkward, she felt so light and free around him. The weight that had been pressing down on her chest for years was gone. She was glad too that Rodney didn't seem that much affected when Nathan joined them, but did that mean he was seeing someone back in Los Angeles?

Worriedly, she looked at her phone as if she could muster up the courage and ask him right now, but then she stopped herself. She had no right to ask him that when she was in a relationship.

"Is something wrong?" Nathan asked.

"No," she said.

He side-glanced her so she busied herself with putting her phone back in her purse.

"Who was that man that I just met?" he asked.

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't know," Nathan said. "It just seems like there's something going on between the two of you."

"And if there is?" she asked.

Nathan chuckled at her response and discreetly Alicia rolled her eyes, scowling at the window.

"Tell me the truth," he said.

"When I asked you to tell me the truth last month about what happened at that work happy hour, did you? You didn't come home that night. You came home the next day smelling like another woman's perfume—" she said.

"Alicia, you already accepted my apology about that. You know nothing happened," he said.

She scoffed at that, "Whatever. I don't even care."

And she didn't. This wasn't the first time she suspected him of cheating. Whenever he apologized, she tried to move past those incidents, but he never made her feel loved or seen so it was hard. She always thought that there was someone else in the picture.

"So who is he?" Nathan pestered.

"My ex," she said.

"Huh?" Nathan's said, surprised.

"We were together a long time ago before I moved to California and—"

Nathan's cellphone started to ring.

"Hold on, hold on," he said to her, answering it, "Yeah, hello? Yeah, Bill..."

Alicia sucked her teeth so Nathan told her to shush. She glowered at him, imagining kicking him in the face with her heels.

For the rest of the ride home, he remained on the phone. It only ended as he pulled up to their apartment.

"So, what were we talking about?" he asked her.

She ignored him, grabbing her things. When she had everything, she opened the car door and slammed it shut, leaving him behind.

***