“Yeah, I don’t think I would’ve made it through my residency without you.” I could feel Julian smiling on the other end of the line. “You really stuck by my side…bringing me lunch every day.”
“Well, I was just being myself. I know you hate cafeteria food.” I winked at Tasha. “Any good friend would’ve tried to help you.”
“Friends…that’s actually why I’m calling.” Oh no, he was about to bring up the thing with Miata.
“Okay,” I said, ready to explain myself.
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“What?”
“Well, it’s really important, but I need to see you in person to talk about it,” Julian said. I heard the hospital page him over the loudspeaker in the background.
“When and where?” I asked. Tasha rolled her eyes. I was being too easy. “I mean, let me know as soon as possible when you’d like to meet because I’m very, very busy right now,” I added. Tasha smiled, giving her sign of approval.
“Troy, I just got paged to the ER,” Julian said quickly. “I’ll call you later to set things up.”
“Okay, bye,” I said and hung up the phone.
What the hell was going on? Had Miata told Julian or not? I wanted to turn the car around and head to the NYU Medical Center. I had a damn emergency! I wanted to know what he had to say. I threw the phone into the backseat.
“What?” From the corner of my eye, I saw Tasha looking at me. “He said he has something to say,” I said. I was confused. A million things were running through my mind. Did he want me back? Did he want to be friends? Was he marrying Miata? Did he need a damn kidney? What was it, dammit?
“Hmm…” Tasha let out in a knowing way.
“‘Hmm’? What does that mean?” I asked. “Is that a bad sign? Tell me, Tasha.” I made a sharp right and nearly ran over the curb.
“Damn, don’t kill me, girl,” Tasha said, putting her seat belt on. “It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just surprised.”
“Surprised?”
“Yeah, that he’s come to a conclusion so fast.” She pulled down the passenger mirror and smoothed her hair.
“What kind of conclusion?” I asked, slamming her mirror shut.
“It’s like this: Women think too much. We’re always worried about what men want or how they feel when they’re really quite simple. Men are just like black or white—one or the other.”
“So what’s your point?”
“Well, what I mean is this: Either Julian wants to be with you or he doesn’t. Case closed.” She opened the mirror again.
“But what about the thing with Miata?” I asked. “You think it’s about that? Damn, I made a fool out of myself.”
“Please, ain’t nobody tell you to roll up on a ghetto girl if you wasn’t ready to fight.” Tasha laughed at me. “But, to be honest, I don’t think she told him anything about what happened. If she did, he would’ve said something right away or not even have called you again. Men don’t like female drama. Tasha paused. “This bitch is slicker than I thought. She didn’t tell Julian.” Tasha laughed. “Whew…her ass is slick. Miata is a smart girl. She has her own little plan in effect with Julian. And if she knows men don’t like drama, she’s not going to bring any to him. She wants you to tell him about the fight so you sound dramatic and crazy to him. That’s why she said all that crazy shit to get you all riled up. She was playing you, Ms. Lovesong. She probably wanted you to hit her and get your dumb ass arrested.”
“So I could look like the crazy one,” I agreed.
“And then Julian would see it and then—”
“Dump me.”
“Exactly.” Tasha laughed. “I told you this bitch is smart. We have to really get on our game. Your next move has to be tighter than a virgin’s cootie cat.”
“You’re so nasty,” I said, laughing.
“I know, but you’re my friend, so that makes you nastier because you should know better.”
When I handed my keys to the valet at my parents’ apartment building, I realized that I had to talk to Tasha about how I felt she was handling her infertility before we went upstairs. I decided I wasn’t being a true friend if I didn’t tell her how I really felt about her actions. Though I was her friend and I would stand by her side no matter what, I couldn’t support her lying to her husband.