Page 19 of Diluted Truths
I sat in this same booth with Sarah as she cried over her first final and when she worried about supporting Fai as he began his journey to sobriety. She held my hand and offered words of comfort when my sister got sick and whenever I had to deal with my father’s outbursts. This bar had become a second home to me.
“I know, okay, I know,” I sighed. She was right. It was not the best time to take off of work. We were approaching midterms. “I already talked to my TA. He’s going to cover for me when I can’t go in. The course is well planned out and it’ll be fine.”
I could feel Sarah’s stare as I stared at my drink. “Why?”
I looked up to my friend. “What do you mean?”
“I have known you for what, twelve years, right?” I nodded as she continued. “Your main priority has always been work. Always. Hell, you were a shitty friend and almost missed my wedding because of work.”
“That was partially Fai’s fault. He purposely didn’t give me my invitation and I didn’t know what time it was at,” I interrupted.
“Still, work has always gone first. Why is this suddenly different?” Sarah stated.
I sighed, knowing she wouldn’t like the whole truth, which was Jackie.Shemade me want to do it. Everytime I looked into her brown eyes and watched them light up when she talked about work, it made me want to do anything for her. It made no sense, I barely knew her. Sarah wouldn’t want to hear that after banning me from her.
Thus, I chose to give her a modified version of the truth.
“Jackie’s case is good, and I’m genuinely interested in where it goes. I haven’t had something that interests me in the way this does in years. It makes me feel excited about what the outcome could be.”
Sarah eyed me skeptically as she sipped her way through her matching beer. If she could see I was lying, she didn’t voice it.
“Well, don’t fuck it up and don’t fuck her up, William.”
“I am not going to do either. I also don’t think she will allow me to.”
“I love Ophelia. She is a powerful young woman. I don’t think she even sees it. But…” Sarah sighed as she rested her hand on my forearm that was on the table. “She isn’t as strong as she makes people think. She hasn’t had an easy life.”
“I know, Sarah. She told me about how she met Fai and her alcoholism,” I responded.
“It’s not just that. Truthfully that is barely the tip of the iceberg of the fucked-up nature that is Ophelia’s past,” Sarah responded. I knew that would be all she would tell me. One of the best parts about Sarah wasthat she was a vault. She had to be with her work as a therapist, and her consulting as a criminal psychologist.
“I won’t hurt her, Sarah,” I stated, knowing it was the truth. For some reason the idea of causing her pain made me hurt. “I promise. Now enough with the heavy. How’s work? How’s the husband who hates me?”
Sarah laughed at my usual title for Fai that I used with her. “Faizal is good. He’s busy with work, busy with life. Something has been going on lately but I’m sure it’s fine and he’ll tell me when he’s ready.” She began to blush as she continued talking about her husband. “He makes me so happy, William. I sometimes didn’t know it was possible to be this happy.”
Listening to her talk about Fai always brought me joy for my friend’s happiness but there was a bit of jealousy knowing the love they share is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.
“I’m so happy for you, Sarah. You two are definitely soul mates,” I responded, but quickly changed the subject because conversations about Fai made me think about Jackie and I couldn’t let Sarah know how much I was thinking about her. “What about work, anything cool?”
“Cool? Not really. You know most things I can’t talk about,” Sarah responded rather calmly, but quickly changed her tune. “Wait! I just got called to work on a case I can actually tell you about!”
“Really? What are the details?” Sarah often shared with me about her consulting jobs with the US government since I had the proper security clearance and could know about them.
“Remember the story of Griffin Whitley?” she began as she leaned towards me.
I nodded my head in response. I did know that story. A young man murdered six people total, in sets of two. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The details were never released to the public.
Sarah continued on, “I am flying out in a little while to meet with him. They want me to try and get as much information about the murders as I can. Apparently he’s been really hush hush about it all.”
“That’s incredible, Sarah!” I responded, feeling truly proud of her work. “Be careful around him. Didn’t he only kill women who were around twenty-five to thirty?” I asked, suddenly feeling concerned for my friend.
Sarah sighed. “Don’t be worried about me, William. I’ll be very protected. Plus I will be given the rights to publish an article based on the conversation. They even stated I could pick the journal, which means Fibonacci Files will have the exclusive. It’s going to be great for the company.”
“You’re truly the most selfless individual I have met,” I laughed as I finished my beer. “You’re given this incredible opportunity and immediately think about how it will positively impact your friends.”
Sarah looked at me with what I think was pity. “That’s love. You want the best for the people you love. You’ll give up your own happiness for them any day of the week.”
“Oh, well I don’t have a lot of experience with that,” I responded dismissively.
