Just Friends

I was relieved when a knock on the door interrupted.

“That better not be Brad again,” Ben piped up following behind me as I went to open the door. I swung it open and my heart sunk. Gina stood in front of me looking like she had just seen a ghost.

“Gina, it’s not what it looks like…”

“What is it that it’s supposed to look like? A cozy evening at home? Because that’s exactly what it looks like to me. Here I am coming over to talk to you thinking that maybe we could commiserate a little bit about being dumped and you’ve moved in on my man. I thought we were friends, Addy.”

“We are friends, Gina. Please let me explain.”
“What is there to explain?” Gina asked looking from me to Ben and back again.

“Gina, please don’t be mad at Addy. She had a bad week. I came over to cheer her up and keep her away from Brad. She did nothing wrong.”

“What about you, Ben? Did you do something wrong? Like, I don’t know, pine after Addy the entire time we were together? You were all too eager to become a free man when Addy came back on the market. A little too convenient, don’t you think?”

“You’ve got it wrong,” I butted in. “We’re friends. That’s all. Right, Ben?” I looked up at him and he looked back at me with utter disappointment behind his eyes.

“Just friends. That’s right. That’s all.” His shoulders slumped.

“That look told me all I need to know,” Gina said as she turned and stormed off. I started to go after her but then stopped. I would let her cool off and call her tomorrow and try to smooth things over. Gina and I hadn’t been friends for long but since Ben and her had been dating we had become fairly close. I didn’t have a lot of female friends so it was nice to have a girl to go shopping and just share things with. I didn’t want to lose that female companionship.

I looked over and Ben was putting on his coat.

“What’s going on? Where are you going?”
“I think I should go home,” he said not looking directly at me.

“But why? We haven’t even watched our movies yet.”

“I just think it would be for the best.”

“Is this about what I said to Gina – about us being just friends? I didn’t mean to hurt you; I just…”

“You just were telling the truth, right? We are just friends. That’s all. You don’t return any of the feelings I have for you, do you?”