It had been an insane Saturday.
She spent a fair amount of time in bed that morning, continuing to fall asleep until she had to get up to go to Banana's play. She was running later than she felt comfortable, but as it turned out there were people still buying tickets when she arrived.
She walked into the theatre and the volunteer asked if she knew where she was sitting. She started to say that she thought so but would like a little help.
No more than a couple of sentences into her explanation she glanced up to see JJ. He grinned and slowly reached over and patted the seat next to his.
She returned his smile and told the volunteer that her seating arrangement had suddenly changed.
"I'm so hungover. We kept drinking and walked a mile to the bar that MG had driven to after dropping you off."
"Ya'll are crazy. I don't know how you put up with 21 that long. He's a handful."
JJ shrugged. "I like people who talk."
"Then why do you like me?" She laughed at him.
"Well I don't only like them."
He bought her chips for "their" hangover during intermission, then had to sneak out afterward because he had another social commitment.
She hugged Banana and congratulated her on her role of the lifetime, then had to move onto her next social commitment.
Her co-workers were waiting for her at the restaurant. She declined a cocktail at dinner, and they went on to see KSL's show. It hit her a little hard again as she watched, and there was a song about how his character had never been alone before, and it obviously struck a nerve. She was afraid of when the paperwork went through and she'd be all alone, for the first time in her life.
She left her co-workers and went downstairs to say hi to the cast. KSL gave her a warm hug, and it was the first time in a long time they had hugged. She buried her face in his chest and breathed in. His smell hit her with a powerful nostalgia. He commented on how good the hug had been, and they went in for another.
"You okay?" He asked her. She shook her head no. All the sensations from the papers filed weighed down on her. It was as if all the sentiments from the last year were concentrated in this moment.
"You need to talk?" He asked, already on high alert. She wanted to say no but ended up nodding her head. He said he needed to speak with some people first and then they could head out. She ended up talking to the musical director about the show, and she shared that it was hitting her harder because of the divorce. The musical director was shocked that they had been separated at all, so it was extra difficult to talk about. Eventually, the director left and she was chatting it up for awhile with the bartenders.
She heard KSL laugh over where he was surrounded by people, and her heart sank. She didn't want to do this to him anymore. He was having fun and she was being a burden. She said goodbye to the bartenders and left.
Halfway home she felt guilty that she'd left without a word, and texted him that she was going home. He texted a few minutes later that he was done, and came up for a drink. They talked and watched fireworks from her balcony, and she shared the feelings she was grappling with in regards to the divorce.
She joked about having celebration sex because she just got her results back and she was std free. He said he knew she was kidding, and she kept quiet because she didn't want to start anything or have any sex bruises before the sex with Nameless next week. She needed that to happen to take her mind off everything, and she was really starting to miss him.
She and KSL went to Wal-mart for thank you notes for him and milk for her, and on the way he mentioned the Memorial Day trip she didn't write about. He wanted to know if it was because she was angry about it when in reality nothing had really happened. They had gone to the lesser known lake to hang and found it crazy busy, so they kept driving and went to Ikea and to sushi, where he claimed to have gotten violently ill even though they ate all the same things and she felt fine.
Looking back she realized maybe that was why she'd forgotten to write about it. He'd managed to make her feel bad about the entire trip so she put the whole day out of her mind. It was crazy how good they had gotten at their friendship, but there were still an insane amount of land mines to avoid.
