The Secret Keeper

I called Anna last night to catch up (she’s been really sick with morning sickness, hence the lack of Anna updates) and talk about going on a double-date with Sean and I.

“Do you think you’ll feel well enough to go? I don’t want you to be miserable to whole time.” I said.

“I think I’ll be okay. It’s only a few foods that can trigger the vomiting now. If we avoid going to a seafood restaurant I think it should be okay. When did you want to do this?”

“How about this weekend? We could go to dinner and then see Sean’s band, if you guys are up for that.”

“That sounds like fun. I’ll tell Theo not to make any plans and start looking for some restaurants in the area, if that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah, that’s fine, we’ll go wherever you can go, you’re the one with food restrictions, so it’s only appropriate.”

Anna and I caught up about all sorts of things that have happened since we last spoke. Everything was fine until she brought up Elise.

“You know…I don’t think she really likes us that much.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Well…when was the last time you talked to her?”

“Last week,” I said (I really had to think about it), “But now that I think about it, she was pretty distant…I don’t even know what’s going on with her anymore.”

“Faith…I have to tell you something…but you can’t tell anyone.”

I was caught off guard by the sudden change of subject momentarily, but encouraged Anna to continue.

“Elise has basically stopped talking to me.”

“What? Why?”

“I saw her doing something she shouldn’t have and I brought it to her attention.”

I was shocked. Anna is the kind of person that usually goes to great lengths to avoid confrontation, it was incredibly out of character for her to do something like that.

“Well, what exactly did she do, Anna?”

“You can’t tell Elise that I mentioned it or she’ll be even more angry at me.” She said imploringly.

“Okay.”

“And you really can’t tell Zoey. She doesn’t know…”

“Okay…” I said, more slowly.

“Zoey was called away on another photo shoot about a week ago because the other creative director for the magazine had an allergic reaction to a bee sting and had to be rushed to the ER. Zoey’s shoot was almost done, so I offered to step in, since I used to creatively direct photo shoots before I came at the magazine, right.”

“Right.” I nodded to myself, trying to follow her story.

“When Zoey left, I noticed that Elise was outright flirting with Wesley.”

Dread washed over me like a bucket of ice water and I swallowed hard. This was not good.

“Did…did Wesley respond?”

“He didn’t condemn her behavior, if that’s what you’re asking. The thing is, I know Wesley fairly well as a co-worker, I mean I am responsible for hiring him (I forgot to mention that Anna recently got promoted, instead of just selecting the clothing the magazine chooses to feature, she’s also responsible for putting together photo shoot teams and hiring the people needed to fill those positions) and he chooses to keep things really professional. When Zoey told me that he had asked her out, I was floored because he usually doesn’t mix his work with his personal life, from what I can tell.”

“What does that even mean Anna?”

“Elise was basically throwing herself at Wesley, Faith, and he was enjoying it enough to not bother to reject her.”

“Maybe Elise didn’t know Zoey was dating him when this happened…they haven't been together all that long...”

“Oh she knew. When I pulled her aside at the end of the shoot to ask her about it she gave me a really bitchy answer and basically refused to acknowledge that she was flirting at all.”

“What did she say?”

“It doesn’t matter, the fact is that she knew Zoey was dating Wesley and, frankly, that seems to be the only reason, to me, that Elise is even interested in him. She’d never noticed him before last week.”

I was floored. Elise always seemed to go after questionable guys and she definitely expresses her attraction to men more freely than most people, but to go after her friend’s boyfriend just seems like a really low thing to do.

“Faith?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not going to tell Zoey are you?”

“No, but if this comes to a head and Zoey finds out that we know about it, she’s going to be extremely hurt and upset.”

“I know. I’m sorry, I know you and Zoey talk a lot, but I just needed to tell someone!”

“I understand.” I said glumly.

Both of us were in pretty low moods by that point and we decided to say good-bye for the night. I don’t even know how to feel about Elise’s behavior at this point. There’s no doubt that Elise and I have grown apart but how could she have changed so much?