“You look like you need wine.” Mel pulled a bottle of white from the fridge and poured them both a drink. “What’s going on?” she asked as they moved to the living room.
“I had an argument with Noah.”
“Oh well.” She sipped her wine. “You can have fun making up with him at the weekend.”
“I’m not going at the weekend. That’s what we argued about.”
Mel set her glass down, her features turning serious. “Why aren’t you going?”
“I can’t afford the flight.”
“Do you want to borrow money? You should have said. You know I’ll lend it to you.”
“Noah offered as well,” she said, shaking her head. “I just don’t feel comfortable taking money from anyone. I’d rather wait until after I get paid.”
“Has this got anything to do with your dad?”
“Yes. But it’s irrelevant. I don’t want to borrow money, so I’ll wait to go over there.”
“This is so annoying,” Mel muttered under her breath.
“What’s annoying?”
“Never mind.”
Keira felt her heart rate increase. “You’ve obviously got something to say so you may as well say it …”
“I don’t have anything to say.” Mel pulled her leg under her as she turned to face Keira. “But I do want to ask your advice about something.”
“Go ahead …”
“Tiffany’s been messaging me since I saw her that night.”
Keira wasn’t discreet in rolling her eyes. “I thought you’d messaged and told her you weren’t interested in seeing her.”
“I did. But she’s being persistent. Maybe I should give her another chance. People can change, can’t they?”
“I suppose. Theoretically.” Keira didn’t believe for a second that Tiffany had changed, but she also knew to tread carefully to avoid falling out with Mel over it. “Do you really think it’s a good idea? Remember how much drama there was when you were with her.”
“It wasn’t that bad. And there were also a lot of good times.”
Keira wasn’t convinced there were but bit her tongue.
“I’m going to give you ten minutes,” Mel said, picking up her phone.
“Ten minutes for what? What are you doing?”
“Setting a timer. You have ten minutes to tell me how you really feel about Tiffany. I promise not to be offended by anything you say in the next ten minutes. Time starts now.”
“Wait. You’re really not going to be offended? I can say whatever I want?”
“Yes. That’s the rules of the game. Time’s ticking!”
Flustered, Keira wasn’t quite sure where to start, but after a few minutes she’d gathered momentum and didn’t have any problem explaining why Mel should stay away from Tiffany. She brought up old issues and mentioned specific incidents and arguments from their extremely rocky relationship.
When the timer ran into the final minute, she spoke faster. “To summarise, she treated you terribly, and she’s not a very nice person. You can do better for yourself. Way better.”
“What if I can’t though?” Mel leaned on the arm of the couch. “What if this is as good as it gets for me? And sometimes Tiffany’s really lovely.”