Chapter 7
?Some think that to be friends it is enough to want to be, as if to be healthy it were enough to have health?
—Aristotle
At lunchtime I called Sol, knowing that was when she usually took a break to eat.
Once again, the phone rang until I heard her voicemail.
A deep sadness came over me at the evidence of my friend’s distance.
I closed my eyes thinking about the best way to approach her.
I was convinced the problem was that Sol was jealous because she had never behaved this way before, and I attributed it to the fact that I’d never had a boyfriend.
But these jealousies were threatening our friendship and driving us apart.
I couldn’t allow it. Sol was my friend and I loved her dearly; we needed to find a way to communicate and express what we were feeling. I sent her a message:
?Sol, I miss you.
Why aren’t you answering my calls?
I need to talk to you, please.
Tell me when we can meet.
?
I waited a bit, but when I saw she wasn’t connecting, I left WhatsApp and called Niky. Perhaps she had been in contact with Sol and could tell me something.
“Hi, Niky.”
“Dali, I’m so happy you called. How are you?” she responded enthusiastically.
“All good. And you?”
“Fortunately very busy with work. But I’m glad you called, not just to hear from you, but also because I wanted to talk to you. Can we meet?”
“Of course. Is something wrong?” I asked, because I thought I detected some concern in her tone.
“Nothing important, just something I need to tell you about.”
“Alright. Do you want to come to the hotel or meet somewhere else?”
“I’ll come to the hotel. I can be there at seven,” she confirmed.
“Before you hang up, I wanted to ask if you’ve heard from Sol these days.”
She was silent for a few seconds, and then I heard her sigh loudly before answering.
“Actually, that’s what I want to talk to you about. She’s been in touch with me almost daily these days, and I find her strange, to put it one way. I know you two are very close friends and the last thing I want is to cause problems between you, but I assure you that girl has some issue with you.”
“I’ve been trying to reach her, but she doesn’t answer my calls or respond to my messages. What do you mean when you say she has some issue with me?”
“I don’t know, I got the feeling that she envies you a lot and wants to hurt you,” she paused while I was in shock, then quickly added, “Don’t listen to me, we’d better talk about this in person.”
“You’re making me worried, Niky. What happened?” I asked, completely confused.
“Let’s do this: as soon as I finish with a client who’s coming in fifteen minutes, I’ll head over. I can probably be at your office around four, is that okay with you?”
“No problem at all. Come as soon as you can,” I replied, anxious to hear everything she had to tell me.
We said goodbye and uneasiness took hold of me.
I had no idea what she might have noticed about Sol to make such a comment.
I tried to keep working, but I had to make a great effort to concentrate because my mind kept going back to my conversation with Niky.
Every so often I checked my phone to make sure I hadn’t missed a response from Sol, and I always confirmed that I hadn’t.
Around four in the afternoon, Cameron informed me through the intercom that Niky Woollardy wanted to see me.
As soon as she entered my office, we gave each other a big hug.
“I’ve been so wanting to see you!” she exclaimed.
“Me too.”
When she pulled away from me, she looked at me and a big smile lit up her face.
“How are things going with my brother?”
“We’re spending time together to get to know each other,” I replied, also smiling.
“These past few days I’ve been dying to call you, but I didn’t want you to think I was being nosy. The last thing I want is to interfere in your relationship. One day you’ll have to tell me how you two met.”
“Of course. But now come and let’s talk about Sol because you left me very worried.”
We sat at the conference table and I asked for coffee to be brought to us.
“I don’t even know where to start,” she said, and I noticed she was a bit nervous.
“Tell me everything you think I should know,” I requested, ready to listen without interrupting.
“Alright.” She sighed. “I’ll start with the day you left the pub with Henry. When I told her, I swear I’d never seen a person get so furious and try to hide it, but without success. It even scared me a little because her face looked like someone who was out of control.”
“I could tell she was making an effort to control herself, but she couldn’t.
At that moment, the guy who had been dancing with her came over and said something to her, and she yelled at him to leave her alone.
The poor guy looked at her bewildered and took off, and we didn’t see him again, neither him nor his friends.
I, thinking she was worried about you, told her to calm down, that you were fine because you were with my brother, and she looked at me like she wanted to kill me, but then I think she noticed the horror on my face and smiled and said she needed to go to the bathroom.
I waited for her for a while, and when she didn’t come back, I gathered my things and left. ”
?The next day she called me about ten times, but with a different attitude. That day she was sweet and affectionate. She kept asking me how I was doing and if I had heard from you. At that point, I started thinking something wasn't right, and I didn't answer her last few calls.
?On Monday the calls continued, but this time they worried me more because she started speaking badly about you,” she confessed, looking at me sadly, but I was so shocked I couldn't say anything.
“She kept insisting that you were a bad friend because you had hidden from me that you knew Henry, and she tried to imply that you had befriended me just to get close to my brother.
What's more, I think she said something like your weekend at our house was probably planned by you to corner Henry, which I denied completely because I was the one who invited you.
“That's absurd!” I exclaimed, unable to contain myself. “I swear I had no idea you were siblings. Besides, at that point I had nothing going on with him; we had only crossed paths a couple of times. I can't believe...” I said, distressed and holding my head in my hands.
“Dali, I never thought that. I swear it never crossed my mind. But you need to know everything because I think Sol isn't well, and the anger she feels toward you is concerning.”
“This can't be right. There must be something we're missing because she's never acted like this before.”
“I have no idea because I barely know her. At first, I thought it was just friend jealousy, but this is more than that. If you had seen and heard her talk, you'd think she hates you.”
“Please, continue telling me,” I asked, with an anguish that was tightening my chest.
“The next day she showed up at my atelier.
I don't know how she found the address because, as far as I remember, I had never given it to her.
I was very surprised, but I tried to act normally so as not to alert her to my concern.
On that occasion, she came to tell me that she had found out that you and my brother were sleeping together, and she wanted me to warn Henry that you weren't a trustworthy woman.”
?At that point, I couldn't take it anymore.
I told her that I trusted you completely and that I didn't agree with her behavior, that what she was doing was being a bad friend and that you didn't deserve it. As I was telling her this, I watched her face transform from that sweet, concerned girl to an enraged witch.”
“I swear it's hard for me to believe everything you're saying. It's not that I don't trust you—I believe every word you're saying—but I just don't recognize Sol in these behaviors you're describing. I don't understand what's happening.”
“Did you ever notice her being jealous of you?”
“At one point she was jealous of our friend Sean because she said he was more of a buddy with me than with her, but she never acted the way you're describing. This Sol is not the friend I know.”
“Let me continue. That day in my office, when I said that, she stood up and told me she wanted to warn me because my brother was involved. She got up to leave, but before she turned and told me not to get my hopes up about you because you wouldn't be part of my family.”
“What?”
“Exactly. I think she's not well; she needs professional help. You know her better, but I assure you that girl's head isn't working right, or she's truly just a bad person. I don't want anything more to do with her, I'm sorry, but I don't want to see her again.”
At that moment her phone rang, and Niky took it out of her purse. When she looked at it, she gave me a serious look and showed me the screen.
“It's her. I thought she wouldn't call me anymore. I'm going to answer so you can hear whatever she has to say,” she stated, putting the call on speaker and placing the phone on the table.
I didn't feel good about what she was proposing, but it was what I needed to finally convince myself that Sol wasn't the friend I thought she was.
?“Hello,” Niky said.
?“Hi, Niky, how are you?” Sol greeted.
?“Good, and you?”
?“Still worried. Did you talk to your brother? Did you tell him that Dalina isn't right for him? He needs to know that she's not for him because...”
?“Let me ask you something,” she interrupted. “How do you know my brother well enough to know what's right for him?”
?“The one I know is Dalina, and I assure you she's not the right woman for a respectable businessman like him.”
I listened to her statements and, without realizing it, tears were streaming down my face, and there was nothing I could do about it. Sol was betraying and defaming me. I didn't know her motives, but there was no way to justify what she was doing. My friendship with her had come to an end.