Friends Will Be Friends

The girls and I were having lunch on Saturday. I had just told them about the incident with Mike and Molly walking in on us and they were dying from laughter. Molly was bright red.

“I’m still so sorry.” She said.

“It’s really my fault, Molly. I need to stop having sex on couches. I mean this is, like, the third time this has happened so…”

“Geez, the THIRD time!?” Anna said.

“I guess I just like couches.” I shrugged. Molly laughed and looked more comfortable.

Our food came (I had a French Dip, Anna had a turkey club, Molly had a Rueben, and Zoey had a meatball sub. All of us had fries on the side and lemonades) and we continued the conversation after digging in.

“I don’t get it, what’s the big deal? Why can’t Molly be there? Or why can’t you guys go to his place?”

“Mike insisted we do it at my place so I would feel more comfortable, and, to be honest, being at my place does make me feel more comfortable. I can’t explain why, I think it’s a safety thing, you know? Like how many times are we told not to go to strange men’s homes? I know I know Mike much better than a stranger and that I have certainly hooked up with dudes at their places before but…still. And it’s not that Molly can’t be there, I mean, we live together so that would be an unrealistic expectation to expect her to leave every time either one of us brought someone home, I think Mike just kind of wants our first time to not have anyone around, you know?”

“And I also don’t want to be there for your guys’ first time, so I’m not complaining.” Molly said, “You guys should have that moment together and not next door to me.”

“Have you guys not been able to have sex since then?” Anna asked, surprised.

“No,” I said sadly, “I started my period and sex is pretty much the last thing I want to do right now.”

The girls all made understanding commiserations.

“So what are we doing for your birthday this year, Faith?” Zoey asked.

“I haven’t really thought about it.” I said, “I think I just want a quiet night in, nothing big. I don’t even think I want cake.”

“What!? No cake!?” Molly said dramatically.

“I don’t know, I’m just…I’m not feeling like celebrating this year, I guess. Maybe we can all just go see a movie or something.”

“Aw, that’s so lame, Faith!” Anna said.

“I know, but this year has been so…exhausting, I just want to put it behind me. I mean, Sean and I broke up and then I started dating a bunch of random dudes and then I cheated on Randy. Then Sean and I…we….well, I don’t know quite what we were doing but then we stopped seeing each other, I went on that abysmal date with Brad, I lost my job, my apartment burned down, I thought Murphy died…it’s just been a whole year of bad and I want to forget about it.”

“But there were good things, too, Faith.” Zoey said, “You got Murphy back, you got to have Molly as a roommate, you started a new career, and you met Mike. That’s not anything to sneeze at. Besides, wiping the slate clean is supposed to be a New Year’s thing, not a birthday thing. At least let us take you out for some dessert or something.”

“Let’s take her to a strip club.” Molly joked.

“Just think about it, Faith. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, but we should do SOMETHING.” Anna said.

We went shoe shopping after lunch but then Anna had to go relieve the babysitter and Zoey had to go pick Wesley up from the airport (he was on an out-of-town shoot) so Molly and I went home. It was a really relaxing day. I don’t think I’ve realized quite how busy I’ve been with Mike and my two jobs and volunteering at the animal shelter…I really needed a day of just fun and friends.