Friends and Alibis

Life has a funny way of doing things. You could have someone’s best interests at heart and still – it wouldn’t quite turn out the way you had hoped it would. Maybe they would forgive you or maybe they would resent you forever.

In my case it’s somewhere in the middle.

He resented me. He was angry with all of us and who in their right mind would forbid this? He had every right to be as angry as he wanted to be.

The saying goes ‘time heals all wounds’ but I don’t quite believe it. You’ll have scars. You’ll still feel them from time to time, always a reminder. But they won’t hurt anymore.

He still found it in him to forgive all of us and to say we weren’t utterly relieved would be an understatement.

We were still only friends.

“Are you done?” I heard his voice.

“Almost. Give me a few more minutes,” I replied, slipping into the dress I had laid out on the bed.

I rushed to finish and almost tripped on my way down. To say I was excited was an understatement.

“Ready?” he smiled at me from the couch.

“Ready,” I confirmed with a smile as bright as his.

“Come on, then,” he ushered and we both slipped out of the house and into his car.

“You know, this actually our first one,” I mentioned, smiling coyly at him.

“I know,” he laughed. “And it actually took us this long.” He shook his head.

“You know what this means?” I asked, my eyes wide. “You took my virginity without ever taking me on a date, that’s actually kind of rude.”

He laughed at that. “But if I remember correctly you did the same with me. I’ll say sorry if you say sorry,” he grinned and looked ahead at the road.

“I’m not sorry,” I answered with a genuine smile.

“Me neither,” he smiled back and looked at me.

We were still only friends but who knew what the future would bring.