Chapter 19 Kimberly
Kimberly
“You’ve been busy. I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Work has been busy,” I said, giving Tammy a remorseful look. “Sorry it’s taken so long for us to get together.”
My friend and I had been trying to find a time for dinner for three weeks now.
Between my job and her work schedule and some other personal commitments, things just hadn’t lined up until tonight.
Still, it was unusual for Tammy to comment on scheduling difficulties.
We’d been friends since college, and this certainly wasn’t the first time we’d struggled to find a time to hang out.
“Oh, I figured you were busy with Gina. You’re still seeing her, right?” she asked with forced casualness.
Ah, that was why she was being weird. She thought I was blowing her off for Gina. Not that I blamed her, I’d done it before, back when we were first dating and I felt guilty every night I didn’t spend with my girlfriend.
“We’re still dating yes, but that didn’t impact you and I getting together,” I explained. “I only see her two or three times a week.”
“Really?” Tammy seemed skeptical.
I nodded. “Yeah. Things are different this time around. She has her own friends and her own life and understands that I have mine as well.”
“When are you moving in with her?” Tammy’s voice was more teasing now.
“I’m not. At least not anytime soon. We promised not to talk about it until we’d been dating for at least a year.”
“Wow, you guys really have changed.”
I nodded, taking a sip of my drink.
“I’m happy, Tammy. I know you’re still angry about what happened between us three years ago, but I’ve gotten over it. I’ve forgiven Gina and I’ve also forgiven myself for the ways that my own behavior contributed to our relationship issues. I hope you can be happy for me eventually.”
Tammy reached over to squeeze my hand. “If she is treating you right and you’re happy, that’s all I can ask for.”
Our conversation moved on to other topics as we finished our dinner.
“How would you feel about getting some ice cream for dessert?” Tammy asked. “I’m having terrible PMS and I really need sugar.”
“When have I ever said no to ice cream?” I scoffed.
When Tammy and I were in college, we loved ice cream so much we’d study at a local ice cream shop, slowly making our way through gigantic banana splits.
We had a little more self-control now that we were both in our thirties and more careful about our health, but we still liked to indulge from time to time.
“Let’s walk so I can get extra chocolate sauce,” Tammy said.
“Sounds good. I’ve been cooped up in a conference room all day and I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs.”
The ice cream shop we favored was about half a mile away. We walked slowly, talking and looking in windows as we enjoyed what had become a lovely night. We’d just rounded the corner where the shop was when Tammy paused.
“Isn’t that Gina?”
I followed her gaze through the window of the shop where Gina was heading towards a table with an ice cream sundae in her hand.
“Yeah. That’s a weird coincidence. This isn’t even her neighborhood.”
I took a few steps then stopped as Gina set her sundae down on a table near the window.
A large, very fit man jumped up, pulling her into his arms for a hug.
Then, to my shock, he pressed his lips against hers.
After a brief kiss, they pulled away a bit, keeping their arms around each other as the shared a secret smile.
Then Gina leaned forward and cupped his cheek with her hand, the look intimate.
The man gave her another brief kiss, this one on the forehead, then gestured for her to join him at the table.
I stared at my girlfriend, noting the air of intimacy she had with this man I’d never seen before. Not that I’d met any of her friends – it seemed too soon for that.
“Who is she with?” Tammy asked.
“I don’t know.”
My mind was racing. Who was this guy? Gina didn’t have any siblings, and she’d never mentioned any cousins. He couldn’t possibly be her coworker, not with the way he’d squeezed her into his chest and kissed her. Sure, it had been a closed-mouth kiss, but it was definitely a kiss.
My stomach roiled as I asked myself the question I never wanted to ask – was Gina cheating on me?
Then I reminded myself about how Gina had gone off the handle and accused me of cheating when she saw me with someone she didn’t know.
It had felt shitty. More than that, the cheating accusations that led to our break-up almost killed me.
Besides, she wouldn’t cheat on me. I knew it in my bones.
There had to be another explanation. I pulled out my phone and texted her.
Kim: Hey, what are you up to tonight?
I watched as Gina looked down at her phone. She held up one finger to stop the person she was with from talking, then tapped out a quick reply before turning her attention back to the man she was with.
Gina: I’m at a work meeting. I’ll text you later.
“What did she say?” Tammy asked.
I turned my phone so she could read the screen.
“That lying bitch! That is no work meeting. I should go in there and give her a piece of my mind,” she said hotly.
I grabbed her arm. “Please don’t make a scene. There’s probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.”
Tammy’s eyebrows rose almost to her hairline, telling me she didn’t believe that at all.
“An explanation for why she kissed and hugged a good looking guy in an ice cream shop, then told you it was a work meeting?” she asked incredulously. “I’ve had a lot of jobs, and none of my coworkers ever slipped me the tongue.”
“It was a closed mouth kiss,” I reminded her. “And brief. It’s not like they were making out.”
“Yeah, well explain why they’re holding hands now then,” Tammy demanded.
Gina was leaning across the table, her hand wrapped in the man’s as they seemed to talk about something serious.
Suddenly, I’d had enough spying on my girlfriend. It didn’t feel right.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’m not hungry for ice cream anymore.”
“Well I am.”
When she started walking towards the shop I tugged her arm to stop her.
“Please Tammy, let me handle this myself.”
“What are you going to do?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ll figure out what’s going on, then deal with it.”
I didn’t hear from Gina that night, which was weird.
We almost always texted each other in the evening to check in on our days or wish each other good night.
I sat on my couch with Vader in my lap, staring sightlessly at the TV while I tried to figure out what was going on.
What happened was so out of character for Gina that it didn’t compute.
“I need to talk to her, right?” I asked Vader. “Act like an adult?”
My cat yawned but didn’t respond.
“Maybe it wasn’t what it looked like. In fact, it probably wasn’t. First of all, Gina told me she hasn’t been with a guy since college. And secondly, she wouldn’t do something like that to me. She’s not a cheater. Tammy’s wrong.”
I knew that in my heart, but my brain kept replaying how cozy she’d seemed to be with the mystery guy. Vader stood up, pawed my legs a few times, then turned once before settling back in my lap.
“But she lied to me. I saw it with my own eyes. That was no work thing. It was clearly personal. Why would she lie? Lying’s almost as bad as cheating.”
I shook my head, no ideas coming to me, but when I didn’t hear from Gina until the next morning, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going on with her. Something bad.