“I can’t tell you over the phone. I need to see you.”
“Okay. I finish my shift in an hour, can I come see you then?”
“She lied to me, Lo. She’s been lying this whole fucking time.”
“Who lied to you?”
“Annie. The baby is not real. She made it all up.”
“Oh my god.” There’s a long pause, but I can hear her breathing shaky and elevated. “Okay. Just give me ten minutes. I’ll see if I can’t get off work early. Where are you?”
“At the beach. South end.”
“I’m coming. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I’m so sorry, Freckles.”
“Just stay there, okay?”
I hang up and fall back on the sand. Saltwater leaks from the corners of my eyes and I wipe them with the backs of my hands. I can’t believe she fucking lied to me. She lied to me. She made me want something I never thought I would. She made me think that I might be happy, even with her, even having to spend my life with a woman who wasn’t Lo.Fuck.
I don’t know how long I lie on the empty beach, staring at the stars above but before long Lo calls to me from the path and I stagger to my feet. She hurries across the sand toward me, a bottle in a brown paper bag held tightly in her hand.
“Gabe, are you okay?”
I shake my head and eliminate the distance between us. I pull her into a huge hug, and I squeeze her so tight I hear her spine crack.
We stay like that for a long time, her squished so tightly against me and me just holding on for dear life.
“What the hell happened?” Lo says as she pulls away.
“She lied. She didn’t want you in my life. She thought a baby would keep me. I walked in on her taking a pregnancy test.”
“What?”
“She’s committed, I’ll give her that.”
“Or she needs to be.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t she get her period? That whole time, if she wasn’t pregnant?”
“Was Annie ever on birth control?”
“Yeah, when we first started dating.”
“Well, if you don’t take those little red pills, you can skip.”
“Seriously?”
I shrug. “I did that weekend in Tahoe.”
“Jesus, Lo, what you must think of me.” I can’t look at her. I don’t deserve to look at her.Fuck. I pushed her away. I tried to drive a wedge between her and Mace because I couldn’t have her. I guess Karma really is a bitch, because all the while I was unhappy with Annie, I was being played.
Lo scooches closer on the sand and wraps an arm around my shoulder. “You wanna know what I think?”
I nod, though I’m not sure I really want the answer to that question. She has every right to call me a dumbass who wasted five years of her life.
“I think you’re still my favorite person. I think that no matter how many crazy bitches or cute guys come between us, we’re always going to be Gabe and Lo.”