The Right One

Thirty nine

It riled him up afresh as he thought about it. Before Efe could get a word in, he continued, "It's like she's self destructive, you know? Like she purposely does all sorts of crazy things just to the drive people who care about her out of their minds. She's been like that for as long as I've known her. One would think she'd have even thought to change after all she went through the last time she kept things to herself but no, not Hope."

Certain Raymond was done with his speech, Efe considered it safe to speak. "I get why that might make you angry. So that's why you're not speaking to each other?" It didn't seem like enough reason to him.

Raymond snorted like he thought the whole situation was silly. "More like I'm singlehandedly sulking. I intentionally didn't pick up the first few times she called thinking that would calm her enough to listen, but you know what she did?"

"Sounds interesting. Did she barge in here with a tractor?" Efe guessed. He looked excited at the prospect.

"Nothing quite as interesting. She stopped calling entirely," Raymond finished on a laugh, shaking his head disbelievingly.

Efe laughed as well. "Looks like you've met your match."

"More like I've met a master. I'm going to need a manual on how to relate with that one."

Efe laughed harder. "If I didn't know better, or maybe I don't, I'd say you're actually enjoying this."

An easy smile spread on Raymond's face. "I've had time to think about it. Like I said, Hope has been like this the whole time I've known her. I don't expect that she'd just change out of the blue."

"So why are you angry then?"

"I'm not, at least not anymore. I just want her to start trying at least. If we're going to work, the effort can't be one sided," Raymond explained.

"And you think ignoring her would have that effect on her? Is that really a good idea? What if she gets it in her head that she's better off on her own?"

The alarm on Raymond's face at that possibility almost had Efe cracking up again. "What? No! Stop it. Stop planting doubts in my head."

Enjoying it way too much to stop, Efe continued, "What if you only end up adding to her stress, y'know after everything she just went through and she decides you're not worth the trouble afterall?"

"Okay, now I'm worried." He hadn't thought that far. Things had just happened the way they had and he'd just went with the flow, but what if Hope wasn't taking it well? What if the reason she'd stopped calling was not because she was waiting for him to crack first? "Alex would know if something was up with her, right?"

"I don't--"

"Hope is actually very good at pretending she's fine. Alex wouldn't know if anything was up with her!" He concluded.

"Guy, calm down. Now you're being extra. I was only trying to goad you into calling her."

Raymond sighed. "I know, but you're probably right. Not about her thinking I'm not worth it, but that she could be really stressed out right now. I'm an idiot. Of course I should call her." He started to reach for his phone but stopped, changing his mind. "No, I should go and see her instead."

Efe watched, incredulous and amused as his friend immediately shot to his feet, looking around for his car key. "You're going right now?"

"Yeah?" Raymond responded distractedly, finally spotting the key.

"Okay, I'll come with," Efe declared, jumping to his feet as well.

Raymond's head whipped back fast so he was facing his friend. "What? No."