I walked around my desk to face her. “Fine. You want to know why I'm not speaking to Adelle? Here it is. The date she set me up with wasn't a date. She paid for me to get laid.”
I was satisfied to see Mindy's jaw drop. At least I didn't have to ask if she'd known. I continued, telling her all about how Cade was my mystery man and I'd gone through the entire date thinking he liked me for me. I forced myself to keep my head up and my eyes straight ahead. I hadn't done anything wrong. I didn't have anything to be ashamed of. Still, I couldn't stop the heat in my cheeks when I confessed to sleeping with Cade or the proposal he made. That was the only part of the story I wasn't entirely truthful about. By carefully choosing which piece of information I gave, I made it sound as if Cade's offer had come from wanting to help me 'get back on the horse' and not from any confessions of inadequacy on my part. I knew Mindy. If I questioned why I attracted men like that, she'd feel like she had to discuss it and try to make me feel better. I didn't want that right now. I wanted to get this done and over with so she could tell me it was okay for me to be mad at Adelle.
By the time I finished, Mindy's eyes were flashing. “I can't believe she did that!”
I went back around my desk and began setting out what I needed for my first period class. “Now you know why I'm not taking her calls.”
“And then this Cade offers what, to 'teach' you?” She shook her head. “Well, you were definitely right to turn him down. You don't need to have anything to do with that.”
“My thoughts exactly.” I pushed aside the fact that I hadn't been able to stop thinking about Cade since that night. Mindy didn't need to know those details.
“But...” She hesitated.
My eyes narrowed. “But what?”
“But you and Adelle have been friends for such a long time.” She held up her hand before I could argue with her. “I'm not saying she was right, and you have every right to be pissed at her. She deserves your anger, without a doubt.” Mindy pushed her hair back from her face and I could tell she was trying to word this right. “My only concern is, after everything you two have gone through, do you really want to ruin your friendship over something like this? You know Adelle. Her heart's in the right place. It's her head that doesn't think straight.”
I knew Mindy was right. I knew Adelle wouldn’t intentionally hurt me and I knew I would eventually forgive her but today was not that day. I was still too wounded and raw right now and I didn’t want to talk to the person who had done the cutting.
“I'm not saying you have to let it go and be all sweet to her,” Mindy continued. “But I think you should at least talk to her. Let her tell you her side of things and if she truly did have your best intentions at heart, at least make an effort to understand where she was coming from.”
I frowned but didn't say anything.
“I need to get back to my classroom,” she said. “But if you need to talk some more, you know where to find me.”
I nodded but knew I'd never take her up on her offer. A part of me was annoyed that she was trying to play peacemaker, but I could understand why. She and I worked together, so we had that, but she and Adelle had a lot in common too. If Adelle and I were fighting, Mindy would be caught in the middle. No matter how angry I was at Adelle, I wasn't going to force Mindy to choose.
Unfortunately, that meant I was probably going to have to see if I could at least be civil to Adelle. I glanced at the clock. The students would be arriving soon, so I couldn't do anything about it now. I'd call Adelle at lunch and see if we could salvage things between us. After more than twenty years of friendship, it was the least I could do.
I managed to focus enough on my morning classes that my students didn't notice anything was wrong. Then it was lunchtime and I knew I had to follow through with my decision to call Adelle.
She answered before the first ring had even completed. “Bree, oh, I'm so glad you called!” For the first time I could remember, there was a note of almost panic to her voice that competed with the hint of hope and relief. “I didn't think I'd get a chance to talk to you before Friday.”
Friday. Shit. I hadn’t even allowed myself to think about our Friday night dinners, or how much I would miss them. I closed my eyes. I didn't even want to think about having to be in the same building as her, much less at the same table.
Adelle kept talking, as if she was afraid I wouldn't let her get the whole story out if she paused even for a moment. “I know you're angry with me and you have every right to be. It was wrong of me to lie to you and trick you into thinking I was setting you up on a blind date. But I thought… no, I knew you and Cade would hit it off and it seemed like the only way I could get you guys to meet.”
“You didn't think we'd hit it off,” I interrupted. “You thought I needed to get laid and I'd think he was hot.”
There was a moment of awkward silence. “I thought you two would really like each other.”
“If you thought that, why didn't you ask him to go on a date with me? A real date. You know… boy meets girl; boy pays for dinner; boy and girl eat and decide if they like each other. Not boy gets paid to fuck girl because girl is too pitiful to get laid on her own.” I struggled to keep my voice down, all too aware that there could be students outside my door.
“Bree–”
I cut her off. “Look, Adelle, I know you thought you were doing something nice for me, but you should know me well enough to know I wouldn't...” I sighed. “It's going to take some time for me to get past this.”
“But you will, right?” Adelle actually sounded worried. “We're going to be okay?”
I honestly didn't know, but I couldn't tell her that, so I just ignored the questions. “I'll see you on Friday at L20.” I hung up before she could try to say anything else.
By Friday, I still wasn't sure if my friendship would ever be the same between Adelle and me again, but I was determined to at least try. I'd lost the small hope I'd had for renewing my faith in love when I found my mystery man. I didn't want to lose my best friend too. And despite what had happened, Adelle and I had been through a lot together. If there was any chance we could mend this, I had to try.
For the first few minutes, things were tense, but as Mindy steered the conversation to safe topics that got us laughing and reminiscing, I found myself relaxing. If neither one of us talked about it again, maybe we could pretend nothing had happened.
“Can I get you ladies refills?” Our handsome waiter smiled at us as he reached for our empty glasses.
We all nodded despite having already reached our usual three drink limit. Well, three for Adelle and Mindy. Two for me. Three probably wasn't a good idea after the last time I'd had too much to drink, but I needed to take the edge off. Mindy would make sure I got home safely.
Of course, that made me think about how I'd gotten home before and all of my good humor vanished. What would it have been like if I hadn't been so drunk the first time we'd met? Would I still have slept with Cade after our date if I hadn't had that prior connection to him? What if I had asked him to come upstairs that first night? Would he have refused, citing my inebriated state, but really refused because I couldn't afford him? Or would he have taken me to bed, made love to me...
I closed my eyes and pushed the thoughts out of my head. Cade had made it perfectly clear that he didn't believe in emotional connections or love. Sex was a purely physical act. Granted, it was one he was extremely good at, but there wasn't anything real there. The only way things would've turned out good would've been if I'd never agreed to let Mindy or Adelle set me up with anyone.
“The waiter's checking you out.” Mindy's voice cut into my thoughts.
I opened my eyes and looked over at her. “What?”