Sam cleared his throat. Getting my message. “Sure. Take another day off if you need to.”
“No, I’ll be in. I’ll see you. Goodbye, Sam.”
And I ended the call without waiting for his reply.
* * *
As I sat in the passenger seat of Joe’s car, staring out of the window, the light droplets of rain reminded me of the day when I first met Joe.
Back then was the busiest my life had ever been. Had a full-time job as a junior designer and was a part-time student. I was barely sleeping six full hours a day.
One day, on a freezing and rainy February day, I missed the bus after work and arrived late for an afternoon seminar. As I got into the venue, I managed to capture everyone’s attention when in all my rush, I got stuck at the door with my open umbrella. I spent the whole session in the back corner cowering in shame. Until it was Q&A time and this one man from the front row kept asking all the right questions to the speaker. His tone and words were intelligent and I was intrigued. I tried peeking at who this person was, but with my short height, I couldn’t see past the two rows before me. So I stood up, hand raised with a question to his question. Trumping his clever words was the perfect chance to prove I was brighter than my earlier humiliating incident. And it worked. My confidence was boosted again and I received a well-done compliment from the main speaker plus a pleasant nod from the smart man with the most golden hair I’d ever seen.
After the session was over, I was at the bus stop, doing my best to shield from the pouring rain beneath my now-busted umbrella. A car pulled over to the curb before me. It was the blonde man offering me a ride. I didn’t usually accept any rides from strangers, but his smile before had convinced me that he wasn’t harmful. The half-hour ride to my house was enough to realize that Joe Parker and I shared the same passion for our work, even if he was the owner of his own company and I was just starting out my career. We had instantly clicked. Became the best of friends. And since then, we came to that night in his childhood bedroom, and then to this very moment, right now.
In complete silence, Joe was driving me to recover my car from where I left it parked last night.
I had called him earlier, asking him if he could drive me there. He was busy, of course, but said he’d do his best to come home soon. At past eight, I stopped relying on him coming and was debating whether I should call a taxi. Lately, Joe had been staying at the office till late. Sometimes, he even slept on the pull-out couch there and showered at the gym below his office. Or so he always said. But before I could hit the book taxi button, I received a call from him to let me know he was waiting outside for me.
“Are you hungry?” I asked him. My stomach was growling after a whole day of fasting, thanks to my recent wine binge.
“Starving.” Joe answered, his eyes unwavering from the road.
“How about we go have dinner somewhere?” I attempted.
“Actually, I was thinking of stopping by that pizza place on the way back. Get a takeaway.”
“Okay.”
Joe looked at me quizzically then. He caught my dry answer and his eyes were questioning it.
So I gave him my answer. “It’s just that we rarely go out of our apartment together these days. I can’t even remember the last time I sat in the car with you. We don’t even have breakfast together anymore. It used to be our favourite time of day.”
Due to our busy schedules, we used to wake up at five in the morning to have breakfast together and made time to chat about recent updates on each other’s lives. Nowadays, Joe woke up earlier than me and was gone before my alarm went off. If the reason for that was to get an early headstart on work or if it was to evade me, I wouldn’t know for sure.
What I did know was that we needed to talk. About us. About our seven-year friendship coming to this catastrophe. Was it too much to ask? Was it wrong of me to want to spend time with the one person I consider the closest of a family?
“Lucy, I’m busier these days. I’m doing more than twelve hours a day at the office andifI’m home early, I’ll be too tired to do anything else.” He moved his hand from the shifter to my knee. “You understand, Luc. You know I can’t just leave the office as I please. I have a company to run.”
“I know. But we barely hang out together anymore. You come home late, we eat takeaway and go straight to bed. Sometimes by the time I shower, you’d be already asleep. The last conversation we had was about which movie to see and then you slept within the first five minutes from hitting the play button.”
Joe removed his hand away from me. His fingers pressed at his temples while returning his concentration to the road ahead. The loud sigh was his signal to cut off this conversation.
Our friendship used to be near perfect. While not being the most vocal person, Joe gave the best support, motivation and encouragement throughout my years of studies and all my career. And not just that. Joe was the kind of male friend any woman would want. The one that told me if I looked good or trashy in a dress, who let me know if my shade of lipstick was too much. He was even the one who convinced me to change my hair to a lighter brown shade after years with the same bland dark chocolate shade. He was the one who would wait for me outside for two hours while I sat for an exam and then took me to celebrate every single time I received an exam result. He was also the one who consoled me on the anniversary of my father’s death and the one who stayed up with me all night to hold me as I cried after every failed relationship I had.
How the hell did we let it get to this? How did all those long, blissful hours we used to spend together switch into this monotony? It felt like whatever was between us was fading into nothing. Maybe it was time to resign that no amount of effort to save our relationship was enough.
“How about tomorrow?” Joe offered with a small smile. “Dinner. Pick anywhere and we’ll go.”
“Tomorrow’s Tuesday. It’s a school night.”
“And the closest day I know that I have lesser meetings. I can probably make it home before seven.”
And there it was. A new hope to save us.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, tomorrow. You promise?”
“I promise.”