Her Name Was Summer

That Girl

"For god sakes Alex, do you have any control?! How could you? I thought you were supposed to be my best friend!" Jack yelled. And continued on and on until he ran out of breath.

I picked the book back up and started to read once again.

I woke up the next morning naked under my sheets with my now ex boyfriend's best friend asleep right next to me. My head was pounding especially with the light peering in through the small window. I grabbed my robe and wrapped it around my body before rushing off to the bathroom to vomit. I brushed my teeth and wiped off my smeared makeup. I tipped toed back into the bed, but not before closing the shade so I could fall back asleep. When I got back underneath the covers, his arms wrapped around me, keeping me warm. He kissed my neck until I turned around to face him.

"Good morning." He whispered and kissed my forehead.

"Listen Alex, about last night..." my words drifted as he shook his head.

"I get it, you want to forget this ever happened." Which made me shake my head.

"No, not at all. I'm just saying we shouldn't tell anyone. Jack's your best friend and I just broke up with him in my latest drunk episode."

"Okay good, because I don't want to forget anything of last night."

"Neither do I. But can I go back to sleep? My head is killing me." I asked.

He chuckled and kissed my forehead before getting out of bed. "I'm gonna go get something for that, but you rest."

"So how long did this go on for?" Jack asked. I closed the book and set it aside.

"It went on until May, when you two started talking again and eventually decided to get back together. She told me she loved me, but that was never true, was it?.. Mel was right, I've gotta stop this." I ran into my bedroom and started looking through my closet for some nice clothes to put on.

"What exactly did Mel say to you earlier?" Jack asked, following me.

"Jack, she's in love with you. You need to get her back."

"Mel or Summer?" He laid down on my bed.

"Both, but Summer. Think about everything we've read so far."

"You mean the whole sneaking around with you thing?"

"No matter what happens, she always comes running back to you. And you love her right?" I asked, almost tripping while throwing on a pair of jeans.

"Yes, or at least I think I still do." He passed me a nice black dress shirt.

"Then that's our new mission, getting her back to you."

"But Alex, I need to know what happened the week before your wedding. Everything."

"Of course." I said as I put on my fedora.

Jack hit the hat off my head, "No fedora." I nodded and began to tell him the night I haven't spoken about with anyone.

I'm getting married in three days to a beautiful woman, a woman I've been with since high school and fallen in love with. Lisa decided that starting a month before our wedding we should be sleeping alone to make our connection even stronger. At first I didn't get it, but I miss holding her in my arms at night. The lads had left my hotel room after a few games of poker and I was just about ready for bed, that was before I heard a soft knock on the door. I wrapped the hotel robe around myself and opened the door. There, my best friend's longtime girlfriend stood.

"Hi Alex, may I come in?" She asked.

I opened the door wider, "Of course." I said as I closed the door behind her. "If you're looking for Jack, he left a half an hour ago."

"Alex, I'm scared." She spoke and sat down on the edge of my bed. "Last night... Jack proposed."

"Well that's amazing, congrats! Why didn't he mention it?" I asked.

"I told him I had to think about it." I sat down beside her.

"What's there to think about? You've been together forever."

"Exactly!" She said louder than I thought she was going to. She began pacing the room. "What if I don't really love him? Is it possible that I've just been with him for so long that I've mistaken love with familiarity? And you..."

"What about me?"

"What if I didn't give us a real chance?" She asked and I went quiet. "... sorry, you're getting married. I shouldn't be saying things like this." She sat back down.

"I think the same thing all the time. I've had feelings for you for so long, and I wonder if we ever gave us a real chance." I stated.

"Have dinner with me tomorrow night. Just dinner." She requested and I nodded. "Thank you."

"Come by tomorrow at seven." I said and she nodded.

She walked over to the door and looked back once, "Goodnight Alex." And she was gone.

"Goodnight Summer."

The next night, Summer showed up at my hotel room a little after seven. I took her down to the hotel's restaurant so that no one would suspect anything, and why would they? Summer has been apart of my life for over a decade, and a great friend at that. I love Lisa, but I also once loved Summer. She's with Jack and I refuse to betray him. So this dinner will remain just dinner.

Dinner was amazing. We sat and talked about everything that we've been holding back on for years. The food was mediocre but that just gave us more to laugh about. Having dinner with Summer brought back old feelings. Is there a chance that I'm still in love with Summer? We went back up to my hotel room to chat for a bit more.

"Alex, tonight was amazing, thank you." She started.

"I agree, and I think that-" but before I could say anymore, she cut me off.

"That we should remain friends. We were always better off this way. I'm just glad that we took a second to really consider things before anything got serious."

I was going to ask her to runaway with me, I felt sick. "I completely agree." I lied. But what was I really going to do? She's my best friend's girl.

"Thanks again, I've gotta tell Jack that I wanna marry him." She said.

"Are you sure?" I asked, making her frown. "You came in here last night completely unsure if you even loved him. What changed?"

"I've only ever had feelings for three guys: Jack, you, and someone who will remain unnamed. But I've only ever loved two people: Jack and you. The only way I could make sure of my feelings for Jack was to go out one last time with another person I've loved. And I love Jack, so I'm going to say yes."

"Good." Bad.

"Goodnight Alex." She said and left.

"So you see, you've gotta go after her!" I said a little too loud.

"So let me get this straight, nothing actually happened between you two since high school?" Jack asked and I nodded. "She didn't tell me yes, I guess she was waiting until the wedding. And I guess Mel saw Summer entering your hotel room and took it the wrong way... okay, what are we going to do?"

"We're going to find Summer."