Meltdown Z

Kevin and I were en route to his place when I got a frantic phone call from Zoey. She was crying and the only thing I could make out was that she wanted me to come over to her place. I looked over at Kevin and sighed.

“It’s Zoey, she needs me. Can you drop me off at her place?”

“Sure.”

Kevin turned the car around and promised to take me to his place the next time we went out. I thanked him for dinner and the ride and got out of the car in front of Zoey’s. I waved good bye and he sped off.

When Zoey opened the door, she was a mess. She had just gotten back from her date with the power-line guy she’d met last week.

“I take it didn’t go well?” I said putting my bag down and taking my coat off. Zoey burst into tears almost immediately. It was so weird, Zoey is almost never like this, she’s my rock and everyone else’s. I nodded and then grabbed my bag and coat. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

I ran across the street to a food shopette that was open 24 hours and grabbed two bottles of wine, frozen cookie dough, and a tub of strawberry ice cream. In just a few minutes of my return Zoey was sitting on the couch eating the raw cookie dough with the wine and telling me what happened.

“I looked so good, Faith, but it’s like I was the only thing he couldn’t look at in the restaurant. I was wearing that read chiffon top and a black pencil skirt with black 4 inch pumps and a corset! A CORSET! Me!”

“Maybe he was just shy? You know… instead of looking at you because he’d be intimidated so he looks anywhere but you…”

“That’s what I thought until I saw him checking out our waitresses’ ass and every other woman around us.”

To make a long story short, the date just went downhill from there. He spilled wine on her and tried to smooth talk his way into first date sex. Zoey slammed the door in his face before calling me.

“Did I take you away from anything? You look dressed up.”

“I was just on a date with Kevin. We were headed to his place when you called, he dropped me off. It’s not a big deal.”

“He was taking you to his place?” Zoey started in on the ice cream.

“Yeah, I told him about my trust issues and he’s been really understanding. I didn’t realize just how much he’s sacrificed to be with me before…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he’s risking his job and it turns out that all of his friends have ditched him because he broke it off with Hannah.”

“ALL of his friends?”

“Yeah, the way I understand it…all of his friends were mutual friends of Hannah and when he called off the wedding to see me they ditched.”

“Okay.” Zoey said stuffing her mouth with ice cream. I shot her a dubious look.

“Spill it.”

“I mean….that just seems really…sketch. He doesn’t have a single friend left to introduce you to, not even the guys he was with when you first met him? I mean…you guys were practically having sex on the dance floor before Anna, Elise, and I dragged you home. They seemed okay with him being with you then…”

I thought back to that night, Zoey was right. Kevin had several friends with him who were encouraging him the whole night. We definitely would have left together if my girls hadn’t taken me home and his friends were fine with what we were doing, not one of them hinted that he had a fiancée or looked guilty. I didn’t really know what to say, but when I looked up Zoey was asleep. I cleaned up the remnants of cookie dough and ice cream containers, grabbed a blanket and wrapped Zoey up. It was too late for me to catch a bus home so I crashed in her bed. She crawled in a couple of hours later.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”