My Kind of Woman

33. Well, Is It?

"To say sorry... I'm sorry," she said. But she said it very unconvincingly. I didn't really care anymore, anything between me and Giana had long since fizzled out. I wasn't someone who held grudges so easily. I would modestly say I was quite a forgiving person.

"No hard feelings," I said with a small smile.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well, that was easy." Giana deadpanned. "I was expecting at least a little grudge."

"Well, we'll never be proper friends again, so I guess you can consider that a little grudge. But no hard feelings. In the past," I said, shading my eyes with my palm.

She smiled. "You're very easygoing, you know?"

"I know."

"It's a shame. We could've been better friends. In another life perhaps," she said wistfully. It was all very dramatic, but I was glad it was being said.

I laughed softly. "Friends - in another life."

We nodded at each other, like men do in the street with a tight smile, and she left me. It was a clean close to an awful friendship, that fortunately, I no longer had to worry about. And as if on cue, Jackie came jogging through the gates, smiling toothily.

"What did I miss?" She asked, falling into step with me, bumping our hips.

"Giana," I told her.

She raised both her eyebrows and went, "ooh."

"I know right. It was weird."

Jackie hummed. "So? What happened? We all friends again?"

"Not quite," I grinned, "I actually told her we'd never be friends again."

Jackie's smile fell very quickly, making me laugh sharply. "What? That wasn't supposed to..."

It was very obvious from her reactions and choice of questioning that she had asked Giana to do that. For some reason, she felt guilty for our sour latter half of the friendship. Maybe it was for the time I had water thrown over me, or when I was slapped, or even just for bringing Giana to me in the first place. I was sure that Jackie thought that all of my previous bad moods had been because of her. When really she only thought she knew. But I appreciated it. Jackie was lovely, but that loveliness only made my heart ache. I forced myself not to think about it.

"Did you send her to make up with me?" I asked.

"I might have."

"She didn't really want to make up with me. Actually, we put a very neat end to the friendship, so thank you for that," I bumped our shoulders and smiled. Jackie latched onto my arm.

"I tried to make you friends, but I did a better thing instead?"

"Basically."

"Where are we going? To mine? You want to stay and study?"

Relief made me relax my shoulders. "Stay the night?"

"Of course."

-

Being back in Jackie's house after so long away felt like visiting an old memory. Nothing had shifted or changed, but the place felt so different. Mr. Reed was still at work, and would be back in a few hours, and Mio was lay across the couch watching a drama on the television. I didn't call to her, because I knew there would be a time later to talk.

Whilst Jackie and I were studying, I started to think about what she'd said. How had she known? What had I been doing sloppily? She knew it wasn't Mio, but I'd obviously made it clear there was someone. How had she known?