Page 10 of Green
“Yeah you do.” His tone of voice changed. Like he was reprimanding me.
“I don’t—Andrew—we’ve never.”
“I meant as a friend, obviously,” he said, in a way that meant he obviously didn’t. “To keep you company.”
“Oh. Yeah. As a friend.”
He glanced at me, his whole body tense all of a sudden. “I’m not an idiot, you know.” Such restrained anger in his voice.
What happened to the poignant break-up moment we were having?
“I know you guys aren’t just friends.”
“Yes we are.”
“No. You’re not.”
“I’m not the one who cheated, Andrew.”
“Whatever. Well, you’re all his now. Have fun in La-La Land with your fancy millionaire secret husband who didn’t stay in his hometown to be near his family and go to a second tier state college.”
“What?! Where is this coming from?”
His hands went up, surrendering. “Nothing’s coming from anywhere, forget it. I just couldn’t let you get away with thinking this was all on me. Nobody’s going to blame me for fooling around while you’re out in Los Angeles with your sweet little pretty boy husband.”
“You can’t tell anyone about our marriage.”
“I won’t. Don’t worry. I just mean your parents won’t be mad at me. If you do decide to tell them about what I was up to.”
“Andrew. Do not tell anyone. He could be deported and I could go to jail. I mean it! Don’t you dare.”
“I’m just saying. If you tell people around here that I cheated on you, I will tell people over there that you married him so he could get a green card.”
He looked fifty percent indignant, fifty percent filled with regret.
I one hundred percent wanted to shove him into a ditch. But I didn’t.Deep breath. He’s drunk. He’s hurting.“Okay then. Thanks for making this goodbye a little easier for us both. Well done.”
He made a little obnoxious noise that might have been laughter. “It’s just—Gemma. Do you see yourself?” He waved his hand up and down in my direction. “You just got so much more upset about me blowing the lid off your marriage to him than you did about me getting blown by other girls.” He made that alien laughter noise again, because he thought he just said something really clever.
I shuddered. There is nothing more chilling than seeing someone you’ve known all your life become someone you don’t recognize, someone you don’t even want to see. “Right. Bye, Andrew.”
I went inside, didn’t watch him get into the cab. A minute later I received an apology text, citing alcohol and overwhelming unfamiliar emotions as valid excuses for his behavior. He will make a decent lawyer one day, and a moderately reliable husband to someone other than me.
I don’t regret my relationship with Andrew. I really don’t. I knew that we’d text each other on birthdays and at Christmas and New Years. It would mean nothing and everything. I would miss him. He’s as much a part of who I am as Lake Erie, my mom’s apple crumble, and my need to make the rooms I’m in look pretty so I can feel like I’m in control of my life.
* * *
The next day, at lunch, when I carefully informed my parents that Andrew and I had broken up because we had grown apart, neither of them reacted in the way I had expected them to. They nodded slowly, glanced at each other, gave me a hug, asked me if I was okay, and then gently asked if it was because I was in love with Theo.
Whuck?
“Why would you even ask me that?”
“Well darling,” said my Mom, in her calm-down voice. “No need to get upset. You do remember your father and I were there at yourwedding.”
“Marriage ceremony.”
“Yes, and we saw the way you looked at him and heard what you said in your vows and the way you were together—it was so cute and wonderful. And that kiss! My goodness. I mean. I know it was all for show, but I get all flushed just thinking about it, even now!” She fanned herself with her paper napkin.
