Page 34 of Stronger Than Fate
“Did you sleep with Henry Woollardy?” she asked, eyes wide.
“Yes.”
I could see her face contort into an ugly grimace, but I didn’t comment on it.
“Come in and sit down. And don’t get up until you tell me everything,” she demanded, sitting beside me.
“I’ll tell you, but first I want to talk about something else. I want you to be honest and tell me what’s going on with you about him. I know you’re not normally as unfriendly as you’ve been acting, so what’s happening?”
Sol lowered her gaze, and when she looked at me again, she seemed different. I noticed a gleam in her eyes that I’d never seen before. If someone had asked me at that moment, I would have said it was the distinctive gleam of resentment, but I was sure my friend didn’t feel that way about me.
“I don’t like him for you. That man is just playing with you. I thought you were smarter than that.”
Her words felt like a knife to the chest, but I tried not to show it.
“Why do you say that? I’m not in love with him. It’s true that I like him so much that I wanted what happened last night to happen, but there’s a big difference between giving him my virginity and giving him my heart. The latter I won’t do. Besides, why are you so sure about what you’re claiming?”
“You don’t need to be a genius to figure it out. He’s an older man who has all the signs of someone who runs from commitment, that’s why he’s single at his age, and you’re a girl who’s too trusting and inexperienced. He’s going to use you, nothing more, and he’ll dump you when he gets tired of you. I’m saying this because I care about you and I wouldn’t want you to suffer because of someone who surely has more women than a sultan.”
“Sol, I understand clearly that Henry isn’t a man with whom I can aspire to much more than what we have now.”
“And what do you have now? Do you think that because he slept with you, you can say you have a relationship? Are you really that naive? Or are you stupid?” she asked, agitated.
“I didn’t say that, and I don’t understand why you’re talking to me like this,” I replied, surprised, because she was being very harsh and it was starting to irritate me.
“I’m telling you this for your own good, forget about him and try to avoid him.”
“Why do you talk about him as if you knew him?”
“Know him? I don’t know him, but you just have to look at him to see what he is.I remind you that you yourself said this guy only wanted to sleep with you, as he surely wants to sleep with many others. Don’t think that now that he’s achievedhis goal you’re a happy little couple. That man you ‘connected’ with,” she said ironically, “is going to disconnect from you in the blink of an eye.”
“You can’t judge someone without knowing them,” I stated, because her comments gave me a feeling of injustice.
“Do you know him? Do you think that because you had sex with him you can claim you know him? Poor you, you’re just the new toy,” she said sarcastically.
Her words hurt a lot. Besides, her behavior had me completely surprised. Sol was my friend, my confidant, and at that moment she was being ironic and hurtful. I trusted her good intentions, though she was going about it the wrong way, and I didn’t understand why. If I didn’t know her and know that she cared for me, I would have thought she was jealous of my relationship with Henry.
“I’m not saying I know him, I’m just saying that you don’t know him well enough to judge him like that. I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Why are you being so harsh with me?”
“Harsh? I’m opening your eyes because you’re my friend. But if you prefer, I won’t say anything and you can deal with it however you want. Just don’t come crying to me later because I’ll be annoyed having to say ‘I told you so, you stupid girl,’” she threatened, raising her voice.
“Don’t worry, I won’t come to you looking for comfort, and I hope I won’t need to. And thanks for thinking so highly of me,” I pointed out, controlling the melody of my voice and trying to look at her while hiding the disappointment I felt.
I got up from the couch ready to leave. Today wasn’t the day to talk calmly, much less tell her what had happened with Henry. I preferred to wait until tempers cooled because if we continued like this, we would end up saying things we would surely regretlater. I loved her very much and would always be there for her, but at that moment I preferred to leave because I was starting to get angry and didn’t want the discussion to take an irreversible dramatic turn.
“You’re leaving?” she asked, looking up at me because she hadn’t risen from the couch.
“I think it’s better if we talk another day,” I indicated, heading toward the door.
“Or maybe it’s better not to talk about this topic anymore,” she suggested, without getting up from the couch.
“You’re probably right. It’s a shame I thought we were confidants who always told each other everything. See you, Sol.” I opened the door and left with my spirits at rock bottom.
On my way home, I kept thinking about the conversation, and no matter how hard I tried to understand it, I couldn’t. The further I got from her house, the sadder I became. We had always told each other everything, and although we often disagreed on many things, we had never judged or hurt each other; we always tried to understand each other.
I had been at the hotel for a few minutes when my phone rang. It was Sean on a video call. With everything that had happened with Sol, I had forgotten to contact my friend.
“Hello, handsome,” I greeted, trying to put on my best face.
