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“Your mom–”
“And have Veronica randomly show up here, in a concerned state, nonetheless? I don’t think so!” Julia snorted. “There’s not enough prosecco or Xanax in the world.”
“You could have called Erin,” Keegan suggested next.
Julia thought about it. The second she felt that little swell, she went into panic mode, and the only thing she could hold on to was her last feeling of peace, which was Erin. Every bit of her being brought peace to Julia’s soul.
“That’s a little bit much to put on a new-ish friend.”
“She’s just a friend?” Keegan gave her the side eye. “Really?” Julia nodded and then Keegan’s expression changed as if she was about to jump across the space between them to throttle her. “When are you going to be honest with yourself? Anyone with two eyes can tell you’re more than just friends.”
“Maybe she’s more,” she reluctantly admitted. Keegan just gave her that look. “Okay! Fine! She means a lot more to me.” She flashed Julia a soft smile. “It doesn’t matter. After the Lauren debacle, she doesn’t want to see me. She’s leaving in a few weeks anyways.”
“Okay, let’s unpack this one by one.” Keegan leaned on her knees, regretfully taking another sip of that awful wine. She grimaced and Julia fought back a chuckle. “What happened that night at Rosana’s?”
“Well, we have to go back even further to explain that.”
“How much have you kept from me, woman!”
“Okay, okay!” She held up her hands in defense. “I can’t explain a lot of it. Erin and I–” she trailed off. “We just have this–” she trailed off again. “We just kept–” and then again. “I don’t know what I’m saying!”
“There were sparks,” Keegan clarified.
“Yes.”
“Over and over?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you two do about it?”
“Nothing!” Julia shouted, as if she was caught doing something wrong. “I mean, besides that moment I told you about, I kept my distance.”
“Julia, you’re an adult. You’re allowed to like someone. Did we have this conversation about Erin already? It sounds familiar.”
“Ha ha ha,” she laughed sarcastically. “I know, but we couldn’t because of work. It would have been too complicated.”
“Only because you were making it complicated,” she argued. “So, what happened that night?”
“Erin walked out because I was there with Lauren when I refused all of her advances before that. I was there with someone else after finally letting go of all my inhibitions and kissed her. We didn’t talk about it after, or discuss what it meant. After feeling that damn lump, I kind of dropped off the face of the Earth.”
“Oof,” Keegan sighed. “You did fuck up.”
“I know!” Julia groaned, falling backwards onto the rug. “As my best friend, aren’t you supposed to support me and tell me this is all in my head? That I didn’t mess anything up? That I still have time to fix this?”
“Missed that memo.”
“Ugh!”
“By the way,” Keegan said reluctantly, “she doesn’t have weeks left.”
“What?” Julia asked, abruptly sitting up and pulling unused muscles in her back.
“She doesn’t have weeks left,” she repeated.
“She was contracted at KHS until the end of April.”
“Yes, she was,” she said as she nodded, “but she finished her reports while you were out. She’s been working day and night. They’re allowing her to complete the evaluation and leave early. This is her last week.”
