"I can't believe you ran him over" Teri screams.
"I did." That's the time I laugh about my embarrassments with her. Teri has been my soul sister since elementary school. She dyed her hair more times than she changed her clothes. She was a prude, as we all used to say, but she started dating some guys in freshman year, and everything changed. She was the loose one in our relationship.
"But he came after you, so he really wanted to see you."
"You should have seen him: he's in shape, mature... and pretty handsome." That last part, my voice was low.
"You're in love again" she sings loudly and dances sitting on the seat of my car.
Teri and I decided to come to New York some months ago. She got this job as a keyboardist in a talk show and convinced me that Hollywood would be toxic for a "young naive actress" like me. As if. So we headed to The Big Apple and rented a flat near downtown. Her job is not that demanding: she plays in the talk show band, recording the program Monday to Thursday, having the other days off.
"He wants to see me again. Tomorrow."
"What? Shut up! Seriously?" She screams again.
"He said we should talk, so he invited me to lunch tomorrow." Trying to sound like it's no big deal is pretty hard.
"It's a date."
"It's not a date."
"It is a date. Why would he invite you to lunch if he wasn't interested?"
"We are longtime friends. At least, we were. I believe he's just trying to make it up for all the time we spent apart."
"Shut up." I almost knew she wouldn't buy it. "Deep inside you, you know that he was interested in you and all these complicated emotions were reciprocal. Now you are trying to make it up to each other."
"I kept thinking about it on my way home, but it looks like..."
"A dream?" She is really good at mockery.
"You shut up."
We laugh our butts off. Teri living with me makes things more bearable. But she won't be able to help me with my date tomorrow, I mean... my lunch with Andy. Even though we know we each other since elementary school, things changed between me and Andy: we have our own lives now.
"You should expect anything from it you know, we grew up. We are different from high school." Teri reminded me.
"I fear that. I don't really know if he's still the Andrew I was in love with." All the questions in my head will haunt me until tomorrow.
"He might have changed over the years, but maybe you'll be the one that will bring the old Andy back. A familiar face always makes the difference." She hugs me and I hug her back.