On Sunday afternoon, I was laying out tanning in the backyard when dinah arrived and plopped down in a chair at the patio table.
"Liam's been cheating on me," she cried. Her head was in her hands as she sniffled.
"What?" A shriek sprang out of my throat as I popped my head up. I pushed myself up off my stomach and walked over to sit next to her.
"I saw him last night wrapped around another girl. Apparently, he's been double dipping for a while! Can you believe it?" She wiped away tears but more fell. Her long, dark hair looked as if she hadn't brushed it today. Dinah was always dressed to impress and never left the house without hair and makeup done. Red splotches covered her face, so I knew she'd been crying for a while. Probably all night.
"What did you see exactly?" I asked, rubbing circles on her back.
"Well," she said, wiping her tears and taking a breath, "I was at the Loop, and he was there. Lauren said she was racing last night, so I showed up to surprise . . ."
"Wait, what? Lauren?" Confused, I interrupted her. "What are you talking about? You've talked to her?" I hadn't seen Lauren for two days. He and dinah were hardly chummy. What the hell?
"Yeah . . . no," she answered vaguely. "I just ran into her at work yesterday. I was at the theater, and she came in to see a movie. She mentioned that Liam was getting a shot at racing last night and that she'd be happy to give me a ride to surprise him."
Ugh! Was she seriously that stupid? "That didn't seem a little convenient to you?"
"Camila, what do you mean?" Dinah looked confused as she blew her nose with a tissue from her bag. I instantly felt guilty for taking the focus of the conversation off Liam and turning it to Lauren. But I couldn't let it go.
"Lauren, selfless girl that she is, offers you a ride to surprise your boyfriend who you conveniently discover has been cheating on you. Dinah , Lauren knew what Liam was up to." I'm sure it's some code with guys that you don't get them in trouble with their girlfriends. So why would Lauren do that?
Looking puzzled and flustered, dinah threw her tissue on the table. "Okay, but it doesn't change the fact that Liam was being unfaithful. I mean honestly, Lauren seemed just as shocked as me. She was really nice about the whole thing."
Of course he was. Lauren broke up Liam and Dinah, which was a good thing considering, but her actions didn't spring from the goodness of her heart. She definitely wasn't protecting Dinah So what was her angle?
"Alright," I offered, "so how do you know for sure that Liam was cheating regularly? Did you talk to him?"
"Yeah," she almost whispered. "I had gotten out of Lauren's car. She picked me up since you can only enter by invitation, and we circulated, looking for Liam. I saw him leaning against his car with a really sexy looking girl in super- slutty clothes. They were kissing, and he had his hands all over her. There was no mistake." Her chin started wobbling, and her eyes filled with tears again, so I dug in her bag for more tissues.
She continued, "We got into it, and that girl rubbed it in that they'd been hooking up for months! Months! I'm sick to my stomach. I gave that guy my virginity, and now I have to go get checked for STDs." She continued to cry, and I held her hand while she let it out.
Liam had always treated me respectfully, and I was a little heartbroken for dinah. What an ass! We'd all hung out for years, and there were few people in this town I could call a friend. Now he was just one more person that couldn't be trusted. I was jaded when it came to people, but dinah wasn't, and I hated that she was being hurt. She was completely blindsided.
Two things could be safely assumed, though: Lauren probably knew Liam was cheating for a while but didn't interfere until now and dinahs breakup with Liam served a purpose in her trying to antagonize me.
