“Alright?” he asked.
Joel didn’t say anything. He simply took a seat, on the grass, next to Joel.
“Sorry if I’ve been a prick today,” said Joel.
“You’re apologising today? What about all the other days you’re a prick?” asked Michael, a smile on his face.
“Just feel on edge… It’s strange being around Lara again,” Joel continued, ignoring Michael’s attempt at humour.
“Saw you two talking in the van and thought I’d leave you to it. What’s the story with you guys anyway?”
“I’m not sure. I think I still love her?”
“You think?”
“I do.”
“You dumped her, man,” Michael reminded him.
“Yeah, I know. Regretted it ever since.”
“You never said anything. Not to me or the other women you fucked since leaving Lara…”
“Yeah well that’ll be our secret. She doesn’t need to know about them. They didn’t mean anything,” Joel whispered. “Besides — what good would it have done talking about it? I only went with the other girls to try and get Lara out of my mind.”
“And how’d that work for you?”
“Whilst I fucked the other girls… It’s Lara’s face I was picturing,” said Joel.
Michael looked at him, unsure whether or not he was being serious. “Really? Because… The blonde you shacked up with on the first weekend of being single… She was hot. If I’d known you were going to waste her like that by picturing your ex… I’d have never let you go off with her.”
Joel laughed, “You let me?”
“Sure. I was toying with the idea of having her for myself but figured you could do with the pick me up.”
“Too generous.”
“What are friends for? Man, I can’t believe you were thinking about your ex the whole time. What a waste of that girl’s good looks.”
“Me and Lara — we had a connection,” said Joel. His eyes were fixed firmly on Lara, still in the van. She was looking out of the van so Joel only had a view of the back of her head but he didn’t care. He hoped she’d turn around and catch him looking. He hoped.
“You had a connection so you dumped her?” asked Michael.
“Well I didn’t know about the connection until after I didn’t have her.”
“So you should have called her.”
“And said what? She just said the same thing but what the fuck was I going to say to her? Sorry I dumped you via text but I’m a twat, fancy going back out again?”
“She said the same thing? You told her how you’re feeling?” asked Michael.
“That’s what we were talking about.”
“And how’d she take it?”
“Really well. We made up. Had a kiss. She rubbed my cock and told me she can’t wait to be alone with me as there’s a lot of angry make-up sex to be had.”
“Dude, score!” Michael offered up his hand for a childish ‘high-five’ moment.
“Mate, I’m taking the piss. How do you think she took it?”
“Not good then?”
“I’m sitting on a damp grass verge with you…”
“Point taken. So what did she say?”
“She needs to think?”
“Ooh,” Michael scrunched his face up — not a good sign.
“Ooh?”
“If a woman says she needs time to think or asks for space… It’s because she wants… Well…” Michael tried to explain.
“Time to think or some space?”
“Or cock. More precisely… The cocks of other men….”
“Lara isn’t like that.”
“Push comes to shove all women are like that.”
“Even Charlotte?”
Michael didn’t say anything. He liked to believe Charlotte was different from the other women and, in his mind, she was; something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. In the early days of their friendship, he thought she gave off a different vibe because she was a lesbian. As time went on, he realised this wasn’t the case.
“I just think,” Joel continued, “she needs space because I let her down so badly. That won’t be hard to forget. Or forgive. And I don’t expect her to make it easy for me but… Hopefully, in time, we can get back to what we had.”
Michael didn’t say anything. He took another drag on his cigarette. As he exhaled the smoke, he threw the butt across the road.
“Nothing to say?” asked Joel.
“Me? Like what?”
“We’ve been friends for years. Just thought… Just thought you might have something to say or some advice or something…”
Michael shook his head, “I just hope it all works out for you,” he said. “You talk about anything else?”
Joel shook his head.
“Where the hell are they?” Michael asked. He looked past Joel, down the road in the direction he expected the tow-truck to appear.
“What are you not telling me?” Joel asked Michael. The sheepish look, Michael was desperately trying to hide, was too obvious for even a blind person to miss. “What is it?”
“What? Nothing,” said Michael doing his best to avoid eye contact.
“You’re lying. What is it? What? Tell me.”
“Nothing…”
“There’s nothing? We’ve been friends for years, more than I can remember, God only knows why. I know when you’re hiding something. It’s written all over your face!”
“I’m just tired… Like you were crabby because you’re tired… I guess I look… Look like I’m hiding something when I’m tired?”
“That’s bullshit! What is it?” Joel persisted.
“Nothing. Come on, if there was something, I’d tell you.”
“We were talking about Lara and you started to… That’s it!”
“What?” asked Michael, a flash of panic on his face.
“You don’t want me going back out with her,” said Joel, with a smug look on his face.
“Yes, yes… That’s it.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why don’t you want me going back out with her? You think it’s a mistake? You think I shouldn’t?” Joel continued.
“What? No. No, it’s not that at all…”
“It’s because he hit on me,” said Lara. Joel and Michael both jumped at the sound of her voice; neither of them had heard Lara approach them as they were so engrossed in their conversation — as well as keeping an eye out for the tow-truck.
“He… He what?” asked Joel.
“He hit on me,” Lara repeated. “The day you sent me that text message…”
“This true?” Joel turned to Michael with a look of disgust on his face.
“Well… I wouldn’t say it happened like that…” Michael knew, out of everything he had ever annoyed Joel with, this would be the thing that killed their friendship — something he wanted to avoid.
“You hit on her?”
“He did,” Lara confirmed.
“What did you say to her?” asked Joel.
“I just thought,” Michael thought on his feet to find the perfect excuse, “I just thought she might have been suicidal… She loved you, man. She loved you.”
“Suicidal?” asked Lara — almost offended. “You think I’d kill myself over him? I’m that weak? Fuck you…”
“I thought you might have wanted to go out and have a laugh… Take your mind off things,” Michael butted in, trying his best at doing all round damage control. “I was trying to be a friend!”
Lara reached into her pocket and pulled out her mobile phone. “Trying to be a friend?” she asked. She started to flick through her messages.
Michael remembered the message he sent her. Another flash of panic across his face. “Well, obviously… If you were feeling low… I mean you could have read more into it.”