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Take all the time you need

I put the phone aside and try to breathe through my nose. My gut painfully churns.

I know—I know—that this might be nothing. I know Joe and I’ve been doing great, and I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

But it doesn’t feel like nothing. It feels like things are falling apart, and here I am again, for the second time in less than a year, completely in the dark when the man I care about starts to pull away.

I’m such an idiot.

I need to get it together.

Breathe, Liz. Breathe. In. And out. In. Out.

Eventually, I feel enough like myself to pick up the phone and text Roxie.

Liz: We need to get wasted tonight. My place

She responds immediately. Of course. Is everything okay?

Liz: Joe’s avoiding me and I don’t know why

I feel awful and want to drink and see if it helps

Roxie: Say no more. Tonight’s libations are on me

****

Bobby is getting ready to go somewhere with Trey when Roxie arrives.

“You ladies having a sleepover?” Bobby asks. He looks great in tight navy-blue pants, leather shoes, a nice button-up, and a jacket with an interesting pattern. If someone had told me a year ago that my grease-covered, trucker-hat-wearing brother would be described as stylish, I would’ve died of laughter. Yet, that’s exactly what he is.

Roxie is unpacking all the stuff she’s brought—pizza, beer, tequila, a margarita mix, and two pints of ice cream. “We’re going to drink alcohol, eat junk, and badmouth your sister’s boyfriend,” she says.

Bobby focuses on me, his face pinched in a frown. “What happened? I thought you and the big guy were solid.”

“You and me both,” I say, shrugging. “He’s been blowing me off, so perhaps I should take a hint and consider myself dumped. Again.”

Bobby shakes his head. “That doesn’t sound right. Something’s going on.”

“I’m not going to beg anyone to be with me. I’m done being an idiot.”

“I wish I could just decide to not be an idiot,” Roxie says somewhat wistfully.

The buzzer from downstairs goes off. “It’s Trey,” Bobby says as he lets him in. “He might know what’s going on.”

“What’s going on,” I say, “is that my good friend Roxanne and I will eat and drink and watch some trashy TV, and then it’s gonna be the weekend, and then life will go on.”

Trey arrives soon and he and Bobby share a brief, sweet kiss.

“Lizzie. Roxie,” Trey greets each of us with a nod. “How’s it going?”

Roxie raises a slice of pizza and a beer in a two-handed salute.

Trey looks around. “Where’s Joe?”

“He’s blowing off Lizzie all of a sudden,” Bobby says. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Trey shakes his head. “Not really. But he’s been completely out of it all day today, like he hadn’t had a wink of sleep. He looks like a zombie, the way he did before he met Liz.”