Sarah was taken aback. “I have. Of course, I have.”
“You haven’t. You’ve been curiously devoid of information about her—whereas all your other dates are the complete opposite. You can’t wait to tell me every little detail, and I mean,everydetail, Sarah. But this time...I don’t know. It’s so different. You’re different.”
“I’m different? What do you mean?”
Their food was set in front of them before Kara continued. “Like I said before. Normally you share everything, but this time you haven’t. This time you’re moping like you went through the world’s worst break up, yet you sit here and tell me you weren’t even dating. And that song.”
“What song?”
“You know what song.” Kara’s gaze narrowed. “That song is not about a cow. You can try to believe that all you want, but it is not about a cow.”
Sarah tensed. She had no idea what to say to Kara. She loved her friend dearly, but she’d never been so blunt in calling her out before.
“You need to call her.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
“Call her, Sarah. You’re miserable, and I’m tired of seeing you this miserable. Just give her a call and see where it goes from there.”
“She lives states away.”
“Yeah, and you travel all the time. How would this be any different?” Kara took a bite of her sandwich.
She did have a point, as much as Sarah didn’t necessarily want to admit it. But what would it be like to add in one more travel stop—more often than she came home for sure, because if she set it up only as often as she came home, it was never going to work. Sarah finally grabbed hold of the spoon for her soup and started in on her lunch, still mulling over everything Kara had said. Kara might have been young, but she was wise, which had been one of the reasons Sarah loved hanging out with her.
Drawing in a deep breath, Sarah let it out and tried to think of something to change subject to. Luckily, Kara must have sensed her need for something else because the conversation turned to Kara’s own photography business. That had been how they’d met, surprisingly. Kara had worked on the photos for one of Sarah’s albums before she’d gone off and started her own business, which had taken awhile to flourish but it was finally doing well. They’d known each other for years at this point, and even if she was being blunt, Sarah did appreciate Kara’s advice.
As they were getting ready to leave and Sarah’s rideshare was coming, Kara grabbed her elbow to get her attention. Sarah turned and stared down at her much shorter friend.
“I want to say this, and I want to be clear when I say it.”
“Okay?” Curious, Sarah turned to face her completely and raised an eyebrow, indicating Kara had her full attention.
“Good. Now um...don’t take this the wrong way, Sarah, because I love you, and I want to see you as much as I can, and I’m really going to hate myself for this, but first I think you need to call Eli. You two need to talk and figure out whatever this is between you because I have a sinking suspicion it’s not one-sided.”
Sarah was about to reject the notion when Kara held her hand up to stop her.
“I’m not finished. If when you do call her, she is interested in something beyond whatever the other week was, I need you to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to not fuck it up. Don’t pull the shit you normally do. Don’t run away. You give her every moment—all the time and effort you can—to make it work.”
“I don’t fuck up relationships, Kara.” One glare shut her up again. “Fine, I do mess some of them up.”
“Right, so don’t do that to this one.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m pretty sure this one is different, and I don’t want you falling back into old ways that are just going to mess everything up. And this is hard, because if this really is how it’s going to be, I know I’m not going to see you as much.”
Sarah dropped her gaze to the ground. “Yeah, and my family already complains about not seeing me. Imagine if I lived across the country from them.”
The look in Kara’s eyes had Sarah’s heart thumping.
“I’m not moving.”
“You just—”