When Girlfriends Break Hearts by Savannah Page Page B

Robin to be up and ready for the day early in the morning, even on a weekend. She was always eager to get a start on the day and always looked very professional when she went to work. Even on her “off days” she’d lounge around looking professional. She always had a soft hint of makeup applied—basic powder, blush, and maybe a swipe of mascara. Always ready for something—except for this.
    “Sophie,” she said. “This is a surprise.” She pushed her black plastic-rimmed glasses further up her nose, squinting into the morning sunlight. “What are you doing here?”
    I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what to say. A few things had come to mind. You bitch. Or, How dare you. Or, I know everything. Instead, I finally responded with, “Hi, Robin,” purposely not answering her question. She would find out soon enough how I was doing.
    “Hi.”  
    I detected a slight hesitation in her voice. Did she know?
    And then it happened. She knew; I could tell by the horror suddenly on her face. The truth was out. There was no denying her secret anymore.  
    After what seemed like an eternity of silence, she said, “You know.”
    I narrowed my eyes and slowly shook my head. My lips tightened. My jaw tightened. I felt like slapping her hard across the face, but somehow I refrained.
    Robin crossed her arms and her posture slightly caved. “Sophie—”
    “How could you, Robin?” I interrupted. “How could you?” I was surprised at how calm I was.
    She backed up into the living room—presumably to keep the conversation private instead of on the street—and I followed briskly behind.
    “How?” I demanded, louder this time. “How the hell could you do it?”
    Robin moved from the front door and headed towards the kitchen. “Would you like some coffee?”
    “No, I don’t want coffee!” What did she think this was? Some damn fireside chat? “I want to know why you screwed my boyfriend!” Any rational behavior on my part was gone.
    “Sophie, I meant to tell you.” She took a shaky seat in the chair across the room. “It’s been killing me keeping this from you.”
    “Why’d you do it? How could you do it?” I started to pace. “I mean, how does someone do something like that? My boyfriend and my best friend deceive me like this? I don’t understand how you can have little…no…no…how you can have no regard for my feelings. Or my relationship. Hell, my relationship with you! Doesn’t our friendship mean anything? How the hell does someone do something like this?” She opened her mouth to respond. “And don’t tell me you were drunk and wah, wah, wah. I don’t want to hear that crap.”
    “We were drunk, Sophie. We were way past okay-drunk. He was drunk and saying all these things about how he didn’t know what he wanted in life.”
    I quickly shot her a damning look. Was she really going to drag Brandon’s uncertainty about his future—about us—into this conversation?
    “He said he was going through a tough personal time,” she continued, starting to chew her lips; an insecure habit of hers. “He said he didn’t know what he wanted in life and that he wasn’t sure about taking that next step with you.” She looked up to see my reaction. I had a cold stare.  
    “I guess I wanted to make conversation,” she said. “And I told him I wasn’t sure about my life, either. I mean, single for awhile…not sure where my career would go…wondering if I’d ever meet Mr. Right. We were just on a roll complaining about our lives and all of the uncertainty, I guess. I started to talk about the breakup I had with Joseph and how that was tough….”
    Joseph was Robin’s last serious relationship; it dissolved last year. They had gotten into a series of arguments and nit-picking that eventually became lethal to their relationship. No matter; Robin eventually concluded they were going nowhere anyway. Since Joseph, she had had some dates here, some second and third dates there, but nothing that was