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“I’m good. Drive safe, sweetheart.”
She blew him a kiss and left, shutting the door behind her.
After a few minutes of silence, Hal said, “Say something, for God’s sake.”
“I’m just trying to figure out when you had the opportunity to kiss Savina Ras. You’ve become a ghost when it comes to her.”
“She was at the clinic with her foster dog.”
Solomon grinned. “Shit, man, you kissed her while you were working?”
Hal sipped more whiskey. “Yes. And Nathan caught us.”
“You still got a job?” Solomon asked in his usual blunt way.
“Yes. Nathan was surprisingly understanding,” Hal said.
“Savina kiss you back or slap your face?” Solomon asked.
Hal stared at him, and Solomon shrugged. “Savina’s always had a bit of a temper.”
“She kissed me back,” Hal said.
“So, why do you look like you did when we got caught siphoning gas from Coach Vernon’s car back in grade twelve?”
“Why the fuck do you think? I kissed my best friend’s wife,” Hal said.
“No, you kissed your best friend’s widow. And it ain’t like Alan’s gonna rise out of the grave to give you shit over it.”
At Hal’s glare, Solomon shrugged again. “I miss him as much as you do. Doesn’t mean what I say isn’t true. Alan’s not coming back, and neither is Mary. Why shouldn’t you and Savina find happiness together?”
“Because it’s….” Hal swallowed down the rest of that sentence. Telling Solomon about his guilt over Alan’s death would only lead to questions. Questions Hal didn’t want to answer. If Solomon knew about Hal’s pettiness and jealousy over losing his wife while Alan and Solomon still had theirs, he’d never speak to Hal again. It would be the final blow to completely shatter Hal’s bruised and cracked heart.
“Because it’s what?” Solomon asked.
“Wrong,” Hal said.
“It’s not cheating,” Solomon said.
“I know that. But it’s still wrong.”
When Solomon got that familiar ‘you’re wrong and here are all the reasons why you’re wrong’ look on his face, Hal said, “It feels wrong tome, Solomon.”
“Okay,” Solomon said. “So, have you and Savina talked about what happened?”
“No,” Hal said, “and I don’t plan on talking to her about it. It was a one-off thing, a mistake that will never happen again.”
“You sure about that?” Solomon asked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hal said.
“It means I saw how you looked at Savina before you started avoiding her.”
“I’m not avoiding her,” Hal said. “We were just never that close. It was Alan who connected us, and with him gone….”
“Well, ain’t that a load of horse shit,” Solomon said. “You and Savina were thick as thieves after Alan died. Savina’s told Heather more than once that you helped her get through the worst of the grief.”
Hal stared moodily into his whiskey. “I helped her because I knew what she was going through and because a few weeks before he died, Alan asked me to be there for her.”
