“Oh. So he’s not, like, in prison. He’s just being held,” I said.
“Until a couple of days ago, yeah.”
“Okay, so fast forward a bit. When did you get this phone call?” I asked.
“I was his one phone call you get while you’re in holding.”
“He didn’t call his parents or something?” I asked.
“I guess not,” she said, shrugging. “Anyway, he was giving me the details of what happened, and I told him to stay there. That I was coming down to the station to bail him out or whatever I had to do to get him.”
“So, you went to the station?”
“And there was some bitch there who had already bailed him out. I walked into the station and saw them coming out, hand in hand with her lips attached to his damn neck.”
“But you were the only phone call he made?” I asked. “How did that other girl know he was in there?”
“It was the pregnant girl,” Sarah said flatly.
I had to take a second to wrap my mind around that fact before I drew in a deep breath.
“So… let me get this straight. Blake got into a fight with a man in the gas station who was yelling at a pregnant chick. We assume it’s the man’s girlfriend, but really it’s a girl Blake knocked up?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“And she went to the station to bail him out.”
“Yes.”
“After he called you to tell you what was going on,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Have I told you this asshole’s an idiot?” I asked.
“Why the hell do I get tangled up in men like this?” she asked.
“Because you don’t listen to a damn thing I tell you. I told you he was no good from the start.”
“My heart hurts, Amanda.”
I got up from the coffee table and pulled Sarah into my arms. No matter how happy I was that she was away from that man, it didn’t discount how much she was hurting. I held her close as she sniffled into my neck, her hands gripping my body tightly.
“It’s going to be okay, Sarah. It’s gonna be okay. When did all this happen?”
“Two days ago,” she said.
“Before or after we talked about the contractor shit?” I asked.
“After.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Things got busy, and when I saw him with that pregnant woman I didn’t want to stay in the city. I couldn’t. I needed to get out.”
“I understand that feeling,” I said.
“Can you stay with me tonight?” she asked.
“I can, but I’ve got somewhere to be in the morning.”
“Oh? Did I come in at a bad time?” she asked.
“Not at all,” I said as I pulled her away from me. “I told Brian I would watch Lanie.”
“Ah, the sexy neighbor,” she said, grinning. “How’s all that going? I need a nice, juicy distraction.”
“How about we save those stories for when we get to your hotel room?” I asked.
“Oh, my gosh. You didn’t. You slept with him?”
“Keep your voice down, would you? Let’s take this stuff back to your hotel,” I said.
“I cannot wait to hear this.”
I followed Sarah back to the hotel she was staying at, and we scurried up to her room. Sarah threw the door open, and we piled onto the bed before I turned on the television. I flipped through the channels until I landed on a Patrick Swayze movie, then the two of us began to gossip. I told her about my steamy encounter with Brian and how waking up in his arms felt like heaven, and Sarah gushed about how she wanted to see a picture or something of him before she left.
“If you come up the mountain, you could see him in person,” I said.
“You don’t want that, trust me. I’m all about manly men, and once he saw me, you’d be shit out of luck.”
“Are you saying you’d steal him away from me?” I asked.
“In a fucking heartbeat, especially if he’s got the kind of muscles you’re talking about.”
“Oh, oh, oh! Roadhouse is coming on next!”
“We haven’t watched Roadhouse in years,” Sarah said.
“We haven’t done anything like this in years,” I said.
“Why not?” she asked.
I took a long drink of my coffee as I thought on that question. Why hadn’t we done this in so long?
“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “I guess life got in the way. We became serious about college, and I was trying to do stuff with my art. We joined that honors fraternity, which basically took up the bulk of our spare time. Then came being preoccupied with boys.”
“We grew up too quickly, Amanda.”
“Life has a weird way of doing that to people,” I said.
“Well, here’s what I say. I say we should order way too much pizza, watch movies all night long, and stay up talking. Then, you can get loads of coffee before you have to venture back up the mountain to see your hunk of burning love.”