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We’re both quiet for a moment, unmoving. But when the bags of clothes and materials start to tire my arms, I break the silence.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
Molly winces, but I feel like it’s a fair question to ask. It’s been well over a month since we last spoke, and I haven’t received so much as a single text. Not even after I was fired for my association to that psycho, Lena.
“I—I just want to talk. To apologize. To figure out what went wrong and how we can fix it.”
My breath hitches, my eyes suddenly stinging with the possibility of more tears—they already ache from this morning’s cry fest in the shower.
Molly sounds sincere, but I’ve been burned before.
“I mean,Iknow what went wrong. You weren’t a good friend.”
It’s a low blow, but not untrue.
“That’s fair. I deserved that.” She nods solemnly. “Can we go up to your place? To talk?”
I look down at my feet, processing. Because a break-up with a significant other always hurts, it’s true. But you never expect a friend break-up to cut just as deep. Sometimes it makes you question things about yourself maybe even losing a significant other would never make you question about yourself. The grief of it all can be just as bad or worse.
Maybe that’s why losing Will has been especially difficult. Because he wasn’t just some guy I’d been dating. He’d become my best friend. The person I’d grown closest to.
“Please, Bridge.” Molly takes a deep breath and pulls out a bottle of champagne, a small bottle of orange juice, and a paper bag from my favorite deli from her enormous purse. “Brunch?”
That finally breaks me, a dam of tears immediately spilling. It might seem like such a silly thing, but it speaks mountains to me. Because what’s better on a weekend than bottomless mimosas and brunch with your friend for a full life catch-up? And I haven’t had that in forever.
I drop my bags on the sidewalk and my face in my hands, breaking out into sobs. Not more than a second later, Molly’s arms are around me, holding me to her.
“Bridge, I’m so sorry.”
I nod against her neck because I know. I know Molly isn’t a bad person deep down. If she were a bad person, we never would’ve become friends in the first place. And I need this. Need her. Need a friend.
It’s been weeks of loneliness and heartache and a solitude so sharp and deep I feel like it’s hard to breathe sometimes. Like my lungs have frozen and refuse to stretch to make room for air. Like every single person who’s ever left me or betrayed me is pressing down on my chest and windpipe.
Between sobs, Molly leads me to the building, carrying my stuff for me all the way to my apartment. Once we’re inside, Ginger shoots her an ugly look as if to say “I know how you treated my mother” and steers clear of her.
I take a seat on my bed, a blubbery mess, and tell her, “She’s here to apologize. Chill.”
Molly smiles fondly at me as she puts my bags and our coats away. “Ginger mad at me, too?”
I nod and wipe my nose with the back of my hand. “I don’t thinkI’mmad anymore, though.”At you or Will, I think. “Just sad. Sad at how things turned out.”
Molly frowns and takes my hand. “I want to talk. But I think we should do it over some glasses of mimosas and some food. Let me make the drinks and I’ll get us some plates.”
“We can eat in bed. Maybe turn on a TV show in the background?”
“Deal.”
We don’t really talk about anything until after our bellies are full, and we’re both a little buzzed. Instead, we watch episodes of The Bachelor and discuss how this season has been quite possibly the most boring and why. It isn’t until Molly mentions one of the girls at work is considering applying, that our conversation stalls.
“How is work, by the way?” My voice is small, cautious.
She throws back the rest of her drink, and sets the glass on my nightstand. “They asked me to come here, you know.”
I blanche. It takes a few moments to process this information. “What? I thought you… Oh. So you’re not here to apologize.” Another painful slash across the heart.
“No, I am,” she says quickly. “I definitely am. I’ve been wanting to forever. I just… haven’t had the courage to yet. Until today. I’ve been a coward.”
She pauses for a moment before continuing. “I don’t know what happened with the whole Lena drama—I mean, there are rumors, but no one really knows, and you don’t have to tell me—but the whole company was a mess for a while. I heard talk about a lawsuit and layoffs. Legal was interviewing every single person who had touched the Stevenson account.
