Life in the Friend Zone

Chapter 11-Happiness and Broken hearts

 Chapter 11

I sat out on my balcony reminiscing the last 6 months of my life. It had brought such drastic changes. Not only did I meet the perfect man for me, but I also got to meet his daughter-who even to this day calls me “mommy”.

Everything was so perfect, too perfect in fact. But I wasn’t a cynic; I didn’t believe that something bad would ensue the past 6 months of my life. Sort of the like the ‘calm before the storm’ saying; sometimes the storm doesn’t come.

Soon enough I had to leave for work. I felt so positive about my day; I was beaming at everyone who walked past me. My phone rang as I started my car. “Hey Babe!” Kim’s voice boomed throughout my car. I was tempted to take it off Bluetooth mode because she was so loud, but I was a safe driver.

“Hey,” I chuckled, “this has to be good; you never call me this early.”

I knew she rolled her eyes, “Yeah whatever, don’t kill my buzz.”

“Kill your buzz? Do people say that?” I laughed

“Focus Em! You can laugh at me some other time. I have a brilliant idea!” she squealed. Now from past experience, whenever Kim had a ‘brilliant idea’ we all made sure our lawyers were available and ready for a lawsuit.

“It better be good this time, Kim,” I warned. In all honesty, her crazy ideas were quite fun, but we weren’t exactly kids anymore.

“Two words. Couples retreat!”

“A couples retreat?”

“That’s what I said; pay attention!” she scolded. “Listen, we’ve all had quite a bumpy ride this year. So I was thinking; we go somewhere fun but relaxing, and since we all have partners, it can be a couples retreat, see?”

I thought about it. It seemed like a good idea. Well, it made sense at least. A vacation would not only be a great way to unwind from all the drama, but it would also bring us closer as friends and as couples.

“Sounds good, as long as you can get everyone else to agree too,” I told her.

She laughed and clapped her hands excitedly, proving my earlier suspicion that I was on loud speaker too, “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ve got everything under control. Love you!” and she ended the call before I could respond.

“Goodbye to you too,” I chuckled

**** 

A week later we were all packed and ready. The plan was to meet at the airport; then, and only then, Kim would tell us where exactly we were going. All Kimberly had told us about this mystery destination was that there was a lot of sun, which obviously meant swimsuits-sneaky Kim.

She had asked us all for our passports and a sum of money to cover our flights and accommodation, but I insisted on paying the entire bill. I knew we could all afford it, but I thought it would be a nice early-Christmas gift to them all.

I was in my apartment with my bags packed waiting for Alex. We had agreed earlier on that we would drive to the airport together.

I was very excited about spending some alone time with Alex. We hadn’t been seeing much of each other lately due to my busy schedule, so this was definitely something we needed. The only thing that made me nervous was the idea of sharing a room with him, I mean, I love the guy but our relationship had not advanced in that direction yet, so it was quite nerve-wrecking.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a knock on my door. My heart raced as I walked to the door; we had been together for six months now but just the thought of him made my heart beat like a bongo drum.