Page 62 of Betting on the Best Friend
Oliver smiles when Madison sighs and mutters, “Yeah, okay.”
“I’ve spent the past few weeks trying to get Ruby to see me in a different light.” I explain my plan, from the dating app to pickleball. “But my friend Sydney helped me realize it wasn’t working, and that I needed to be straight with Ruby.”
I expect two more nods, but Oliver looks thoughtful and Madison looks uncertain.
“You don’t agree?” I ask.
“Not sure,” Oliver says.
“Your first instinct with Ruby might have been right,” Madison says.
“Over being honest?” There’s no way. I can’t believe Oliver especially isn’t advocating for being direct.
“You can be honest without words,” Madison says. “But tell us about the fight.”
I do, finishing with a slump against the sofa as I picture Ruby trudging away. “Why did Ruby get mad? She has to know my intentions were good. She knows me.” That’s what unsettles me the most. Feeling like I’m suddenly not Charlie to her. Or that what it means to be Charlie is suddenly different in her eyes.
Madison settles back to the floor, squeezes her eyes shut, and heaves a big sigh. “I got this.”
She sounds grumpy about it, and I send Oliver a questioning look. He presses his lips together to fight a smile.
Madison opens her eyes. “I’ve been listening to some therapy podcasts, and I’ve learned that I’ve been acting out for several years.”
I shoot Oliver another look. She needed a podcast to figure that out? Anyone who knows her could have told her that. But Oliver avoids eye contact.
“I act out when I’m angry,” she says. “Anger is usually about something else though, so you have to pick it apart. Lucky for you, I might have the whole anger section of the emotion wheel memorized.”
Emotion wheel?I mouth to Oliver.
Another slight nod.
“Could Ruby have been frustrated? Resentful? Anxious? Scared?” Her eyes widen. “Betrayed?”
“What? Madi, no. I didn’t betray anything.”
Oliver gives a maybe-yes-maybe-no side-to-side head nod. “You changed the rules.”
“Ruby likes rules,” Madison says.
“Whenshemakes them,” I point out.
“Yes. Exactly.” Madi smiles like I correctly identified the color of the bear in a story time book.
“I didn’t betray her. Your wheel is broken.” That brings Ruby’s words back. “That’s what she said. She said I broke things.”
“Babe, what do you think?” Oliver asks Madison. “Scared?”
She nods. “Pretty sure that’s it. You know Ruby. She is so attached to her people.”
“We’re still attached,” I say.
“But it’s changing,” Madison says. “She has a hard time with that. She’s had the same best friend since they were eight. Same roommates now that she had when we were college freshmen babies.”
“Don’t you think that’s why her breakup was hard?” Oliver asks. “That her ex was a five-year habit and it was a change, not that she missed him?”
“I do, yeah,” I say. “But this is different. I told her we would be fine eventually.”
Now it’s Madison who does the side-to-side head thing. “Eventually could be bad. Too squishy.”
