Emma wanted to pull the covers back over her head and bury herself until the pain went away. If it ever did. But Annie was relentless. Somehow she found herself standing under a hot spray letting it beat down on her, hoping maybe the some of the memories from the night before would wash away. Finally, clean and dressed in T-shirt and jeans, hair pulled back in a ponytail, she sat at her breakfast room table with a steaming cup of coffee in front of her and Annie in her face.
“Okay, chickadee. Give. And don’t leave out one single thing.”
Reliving it was as bad as going through it the first time. Maybe worse, because now the pain was sharper. More intense. But Annie dragged it all out of her, every excruciating, hurtful, humiliating detail. She was exhausted when she finished, ready to dive back into bed and hide.
“So you see?” Emma took a sip of the coffee, now cooled off, and made a face. “I was right all along. I was just a novelty to him. A new toy. No matter what he said.” She looked across at her friend. “Right? You agree with me, don’t you?” When Annie didn’t answer her she repeated, “Right?”
Annie heaved another long sigh. “I was so afraid of something like this.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “What? You knew he was just fooling around with me? Why didn’t you say something? Why did you encourage me?”
Her friend shook her head. “No. That’s not it at all.”
“Not it? Then what? I don’t understand.”
Annie got up, emptied the cold coffee from both of their cups and refilled them with fresh hot liquid.
“We’ve known each other for ten years now, right?”
Emma nodded, frowning. What was Annie getting at?
“We’ve spent a lot of time together but never really socialized. I mean gone out on double dates or gotten together with the guys we were dating. Right?”
“Yes, but—”
“There’s probably a good reason. You had a very well-ordered life and dated very stable guys. I, on the other hand, took a lot of walks on the wild side so our men had absolutely nothing in common.”
“I guess I never thought about it that way.” She pushed her tangled hair out of her face. “Maybe you’re right and I’m just now able to see it. So, what’s the point you’re trying to make here? That I’m out of my element?” She snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“The point is I know a little bit more about the music scene, the rock scene, than you do. I’ve been to clubs, followed the blogs, all that stuff. And I know what goes on there. Hell, my friend Jodi Lynn dated a guitar player for about six months, and I hung out with her at some of their gigs.”
“So? None of this is making me feel any better.”
“Then listen to me.” Annie took a healthy swallow of her coffee, flinched as it burned her tongue. “Groupies are a hazard of the trade. They’re like viruses, popping up everywhere and there doesn’t seem to be a cure.”
Emma snorted. “No kidding.”
“The point is, my little innocent, they are amoral and aggressive. Whoever brought the redhead to the concert last night, you know it wasn’t Marc. And you don’t know if he made the moves on her or the other way around. What did he say when you asked him about it?”
“I didn’t,” Emma mumbled.
“What? What’s that you said? Speak up.”
“I said, I didn’t ask him.”
Annie flopped back in her chair. “Well, why the hell not? You mean you just turned tail and ran out of there? Boom?” She sat up and took Emma’s hand in hers. “Honey, you’re establishing a pattern here. Do you see it?”
Emma frowned. “No. What do you mean?”
“I love you like a sister. You know that. Right? I don’t think anyone was as excited as me to see you decide to savor life a little more. I was your cheering section.”
“And?”
“And one thing hasn’t changed. When you hit a wall, your first tendency is to run away.”
Emma was instantly defensive. “That’s not true. I don’t either.”
“Yes. You do. When you’d had enough of Andrew instead of sitting down with him, telling him how you felt and breaking it off the way you probably should have, you ran out of his house without giving him an explanation and then resented the fact he wanted you to give him one.”
“I guess you’re right. But at the time it seemed the only thing I could do. Just get up and run. Before he tried to talk me out of anything.”
“No buts. Listen. Maybe you could have saved yourself a lot of aggravation if you’d just laid it out for him and then taken a hike. Not to mention avoiding the issue of the breakup with your folks.”
“They’d still have objected.” Emma took a swallow of her coffee, now cold, and made a face.
“Maybe,” Annie agreed. “But at least you would have gotten it out there and not been on the defensive.”
“So what does that have to do with Marc?”
“You did the same thing with him,” her friend pointed out. “Instead of waiting to see if there was an explanation, you just turned and ran.”
“Hey. I thought you were on my side.”
“I am. I’m just pointing out the truth, as hard as it might be for you to accept it.”
“Anyway, I didn’t need an explanation for this. If you’d seen the two of them together, you wouldn’t have had to ask any questions. The answers were obvious.”
Annie shook her head. “Nope. Don’t believe it. I do believe you saw what you described, but try this on for size. What if she went after him? What if he was doing his best to peel her off of his body? Groupies are predators and they like nothing better than invading someone else’s
