Page 9 of Waste Some Time
“Hey, doll!”
Sydney held the door open as she leaned in for air kisses with her oldest and dearest friend. “Thanks for stopping by. I know it’s early.”
“Nonsense,” Amelia said, waving away Sydney’s concern. The ends of her leather and silver bracelets dangled from her light brown skin with the motion. “Of course, I want any excuse to see my best friend for the little while she’s in town.”
Sydney tried to hide the slight flinch her face made at the mention of the amount of time she’d be there.
She and Amelia had been friends since Amelia’s family moved to New Orleans from London in the middle of fourth grade. Their teacher sat Amelia beside Sydney with encouragement to make her feel welcome and help her with procedures and such.
Sydney immediately adored the girl’s British accent and her knack for mischief. Sydney had never been one for mischief, and she discovered she liked it.
As they grew older, they were inseparable, always making sure they had matching required college courses and matching accessories. Subtle, so no one would notice. They even got matching nose rings, which Sydney had let close up once she was hired at the accounting firm in San Diego. They hadn’t asked her to remove it, but she got the impression from her coworkers that it was not appropriate to look such a way when dealing with clients.
It wasn’t just the nose ring, looking back. She’d changed so much of herself, made herself so small in San Diego. No one had directly asked it of her. Not her boss or Doug or anyone else. But she’d changed all the same.
Sydney closed the door behind her and gestured at the deep red vintage couch, her favorite piece of furniture in her parents’ home ever since she was a child. “I know I stayed at your house Christmas Eve, but I wanted to see you again. You know, soak up as much time as I can without everyone else around.”
Her parents were at work, and Stephen would soon be there to whisk her away for lunch or shopping or whatever he had planned for her while he was off work. Her other brother and sister also had plans for her that week, so Sydney was trying to steal any moments of quiet she could get.
Amelia plopped onto the plush gray couch and smiled at Sydney. “So… before you steer this conversation anywhere else, I just have to know. Have you been in touch with that woman from the party?”
From the side, Sydney saw her friend had gotten a new tattoo behind her ear. A music note. Amelia was a drummer for a local pop-punk band, so it made perfect sense. The tattoo was placed on the opposite side of the one with a string of piercings and delicate jewelry tracing the curve of her ear.
Part of Sydney ached that she hadn’t been around or felt free enough to match Amelia’s body adornments. It was indicative of how much they’d grown apart. But being with her this week made Sydney certain that it was only the distance that had separated them. They could still pick right up with their conversations as if no time had passed.
“I told you, I didn’t get her number.” Sydney had said this many times after she and Amelia left the party together. “And I didn’t give her mine. It was just… a thing.”
Amelia let out a small sigh as she tilted her nearly shaved head. “I was hoping that was just a cover or something. You know, like when you want something but don’t want to want something, so you downplay what actually happened.”
“I don’t do that.”
“Oh, yes, you do,” Amelia said. “You always do. Always have.”
“Well, either way, there were no numbers.”
That was the truth. She wasn’t lying to her best friend. She just wasn’t telling the rest of the story.
Amelia narrowed her bright brown eyes as her full, dark lips formed a pout. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Why would you think I’m hiding something?”
The question was now more a matter of how Amelia could know that rather than any sincere attempt to control the situation. She wanted to know her tell.
“I just know,” Amelia said. “I knowyou. How could I not know there’s more to this?”
Realizing she wouldn’t get the answer she wanted—although she appreciated that their connection was still so strong to give her away—she launched into the rest of the story.
“She’s Stephen’s friend. The one he works with at the aquarium.”
Amelia’s eyes opened and grew owlishly big. “Shut. Up.”
“Yup,” Sydney said with a nod. “I went to meet him yesterday after work, and she came out of the building with him.”
“No. Way.” Amelia shook her head as if she could shake the shock away. “What did you do? What did you say? How did Stephen react? I bet he was absolutely over the fucking moon about it all.”
“I didn’t tell him.”
Amelia blinked hard at her. “What?”
