Chapter 38
“You feel better?” Bernie asked Libby. Libby nodded. “Much. Thanks for coming to get me.”
“No problem,” Bernie told her. “It would have been a pity to have ruined a good exit by going back into Julie’s and using the phone.”
Libby didn’t say she hadn’t because she’d been too embarrassed to. She, Bernie, and Rob were sitting by the swan pond, watching the street lights reflect off the water.
Rob handed her a beer.
“Have one.”
“Really, I shouldn’t.”
“Really you should,” Rob insisted.
Libby took it.
“I wish I had been there,” Bernie said.
“It was pretty funny,” Libby admitted. Despite herself she started chuckling, thinking about it. “Seeing him like that.”
“I bet,” Bernie said.
“I can’t believe I did it,” Libby mused.
“He deserved it,” Rob said.
“You think so?” Libby asked.
“Absolutely.”
“I second the motion,” Bernie added. “Now drink up.”
Libby took a sip of her beer. As the liquid slid down her throat, she found herself automatically analyzing its taste. There was a hint of bitterness followed by a taste of cinnamon and a slight sweetness she couldn’t pin down.
“This isn’t bad,” she noted.
“Brooklyn Brown, baby. Brooklyn Brown,” Rob said.
Libby watched the willow leaves swaying in the breeze.
“You know,” she told Bernie and Rob after a couple of minutes had gone by, “I think at some level I’ve always known. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”
“I’m sorry,” Bernie said.
“No need,” Libby told her. “I feel fine, I really do.” She paused for a moment. “I don’t understand, but hearing about Tiffany . . . pushing that pie in Orion’s face. It’s like I’m over this long, lingering disease. I’m finally over Orion.”
And when she said it, Libby knew it was true.
“I’ll drink to that,” Rob said.
“On to better men,” Bernie added.
“I just can’t believe that Tiffany would . . . did . . .”
“Sleep with Orion?” Bernie finished for her.
“Yes, and then go on as if nothing had ever happened. I mean, I used to cry on her shoulder about Orion and she was sleeping with him all that time! How could she? I don’t get it.”
Rob tapped his fingers on his beer bottle.
“Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal to Tiffany.”
Libby turned towards him.
“How could it not be? I was her best friend.”
Rob shrugged.
“Some people think of sex more like recreation.”
“Like she thought they were playing golf?” Libby asked as she watched Rob put his bottle down on the grass.
“Yeah.” He smiled at her. “Only in this game they were using two balls instead of one.”
Bernie punched Rob in the arm.
“What?” he said to Bernie. “It’s true.”
Libby turned what Rob had said over in her mind.
“I think you might be right,” she said at last.
Rob laughed.
“I always am.”
Bernie punched him in the arm again.
“Ouch,” Rob cried. “That hurt.”
“It was supposed to,” Bernie told him.
As Rob was rubbing his bicep, something else occurred to Libby.
“You didn’t know about Tiffany and Orion, did you?” she asked her sister.
“No.” Bernie held up her hand. “I swear I didn’t.”
“Would you have told me if you had?”
“I would have tried.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” Bernie said, “that most people in your situation don’t want to listen. When I look back, I realize a couple of people tried to tell me about Joe and my friend. I just didn’t want to hear it.”
Libby was taking another hefty gulp of her beer when Rob turned towards her.
“So tell me,” he said, “do you still think Tiffany didn’t do it? Inquiring minds want to know.”
Libby shook her head. “Three hours ago I would have said absolutely not. Now I’m not sure.”
Bernie cracked her knuckles.
“Dad always says the simplest solution is usually the right one.”
Libby sighed.
“I really feel like a moron.”
“Well, you know what they say about love blinds,” Rob said.
Bernie cleared her throat. “I believe the line is, ‘Love comes from Blindness, Friendship comes from knowledge.’ Comte de Bussy-Rabutin.”
“Obviously not in this case, “ Rob replied.
“You have a better quote?” Bernie asked him.
“Yes. This.”
Libby watched Rob as he reached down, plucked a handful of grass, and threw it at Bernie.
She laughed and threw some back.
Suddenly, before Libby knew how it happened, the three of them were having a grass fight. As Libby giggled and tried to stuff some down Bernie’s T-shirt, she realized that she felt lighthearted for the first time in a long time.