Standing outside Sal’s Bar and Grill, I mentally and physically practiced smiling. When I felt I had it just about right I opened the door. Sadie was sitting where we always sat, right between the window and bar, and eyeing me skeptically while twirling a strand of long strawberry-blonde hair between her fingers. When she ever so slightly nodded, I approached the table more confidently.
“Hi, hi.” She placed the cloth napkin on her tiny lap with a flourish.
“Hey!” I sounded so cheery it hurt. “How’s things?” I reeled it in.
“Since last night? Uh, fine.”
When I opened the mostly Italian menu it was only to pretend to contemplate my choices. I’d banked on her leading the conversation, like always, but this time I’d do my best to contribute. The feeling of her eyes on me was one I’d grown to expect but also loathed. She was doing it on purpose because she was always so interested in watching me. I could ask her about Aaron, but I refused to do that.
“I think I’ll get a club and fries,” I offered lamely.
She smirked, which I thought was odd, until she said, “That’s what Aaron always gets here.” Like I would, one, care and, two, not already know that. Then she whipped out her rhinestone covered phone, and I could mentally construct the gagworthy and emoji-filled text she was undoubtedly sending to Aaron.
We sat in silence while she beamed goofily at her cell until the waitress showed up. Sadie ordered some ridiculously heavy pasta with sausage and cream sauce. It made me smile to myself, a real smile, because the twig sitting across from me was probably going to eat the whole damn thing.
“So…um, do you have some weird lurking neighbor?” I asked after our orders were placed.
“What? You never make any sense.”
“Last night this guy almost accosted me outside your house.”
Her eyes widened considerably, meaning I actually had her attention. “What? I need more details than that.”
“Okay, maybe accosted is too strong a word. I just got a different vibe from him; but he mentioned you by name.”
“Well, what was his name?” she asked. “All the neighbors know my name.”
“Didn’t say.”
“What’d he look like?”
I thought about her simple question, really thought about it. I could describe his fancy dress shoes perfectly and could probably pick the yellow Lab out of a lineup, but him? I knew I looked into his lofty blue eyes. I knew I saw his defined face perfectly framed by unruly blond waves. I knew his lips seemed so provocative, even though he only used them to speak, and his body practically glowed with male pheromones.
I knew those things because I never seemed to stop thinking about our meeting, but I couldn’t describe a single feature to her. Maybe I just didn’t want to.
“I don’t know.”
“God, Ollie. What a good story.” She picked her phone back up and I prepared myself to pay for her stupid expensive bottled water.
“He was tall, really tall, and had a yellow Lab with him.”
She looked up from the screen, then slowly put the phone back down. “No. He. Did. Not.” I nodded. “Tall guy, blondish curly hair, gray-blue eyes, hot beyond reason for a bore? That’s William Brooks. He lives across the street. He’s gorgeous, a doctor, and adores me.”
“He’s older than us?” It was hard to keep the interest out of my voice, but I needed to know how much older.
“Yeah, he’s got a few years on us. He just graduated or something—I think. What did he have to say?”
“It was nothing, really.” Sadie’s eyes dimmed a smidge.
“But he mentioned me?”
“Just that he saw me leaving your house.” Sadie looked to her phone and I could feel the spark of interest dying. Was it always that hard? Did everyone else have to work for friendly conversation?
“Listen, Aaron’s going out of town for a few days and I’ll be bored and lonely. Why don’t you stay over at least a night or two?”
“Sure,” I said after taking a beat to think about it. The text I would send her later to get out of it practically wrote itself. Something about a cold or stomach bug always worked because she didn’t want to catch it. Then it hit me. Why did she want to spend an extended period of time with me anyway?
“Why?”
She paused for a second longer than necessary for the simple question. “To visit his brother.”
“You know what I mean, Sadie.” She probably thought she was so clever.
“Fine. I’m trying to be your friend. I’m trying to protect you, but no. You have to drag it out of me when I’m trying to have some class in this delicate situation.” She sighed as if I’d been badgering her for hours. “It’s the anniversary of your dad and I’m worried what you might do.”
She gave me that overly concerned yet pitying look I’d grown to hate but everyone loved to give.
“So?”
Her eyes narrowed. “So? So? You’re already a wreck. I thought the reminder would only make you worse…if possible.”
I thought it went without saying that I didn’t need the anniversary to remember, but I smiled a real smile at her anyway. Not because I was trying to prove I was okay—she knew I wasn’t—but because Sadie really cared. “I’m going to be fine.”
She stuck out her rosy lips and scrunched up her high cheeks, resulting in a face that led me to believe she was one hundred percent sure I wasn’t fine…and maybe never would be. “Just please come over. Please.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “We can have a sleepover.” She was right to worry about me, and I did enjoy spending boy-free time with my best friend, but I’d never admit it. “But no surprises.”
“Of course not.”
“Sadie.”
“I promise,” she said with the believability of a used car salesman.
At the end of the meal she paid the check for the both of us and it terrified me. When Sadie was overly nice, it meant she was definitely up to something.