Page 33

Ran Into Chris

“O kay, the broth is some sort of pork flavoring. The noodles are thin and springing, and they gave me plenty, so it’s going to be filling. There are either chives or maybe these are green onions.” Helena glanced down at the menu that the server had left and read through the list of ingredients under the bowl she had chosen. “Oh, okay, it looks like green onions. I’ve also got ginger and sesame seed oil… Yeah, I can taste the bite from the ginger. Oh, wait, this had chives and green onion in it. Red cabbage, yeah I see that, and chicken. Then on top I’ve got two soft boiled eggs that just sort of float in the broth.” She took up her chopsticks and got a mess of noodles up to her mouth, slurping as was culturally appropriate. “You got to slurp too,” she said around her full mouth. “It’s a requirement.” She giggled at the thought of what Rafferty’s face would look like as he watched her eat.

“It’s warm and the egg is creamy,” she said when she swallowed and prepared another bite. “With that little bit of spice, it really wakes you up all the way to y our toes…”

She trailed off in her description as she locked eyes with someone down the counter.

To her shock, Chris stood there, staring daggers at her, while the woman she had seen him with at the fancy restaurant stood beside him, receiving a plastic bag with takeout fo od in it.

Guilt pierced through her as she had completely forgotten what she had witnessed and the fact that she hadn’t made up her mind whether to tell Charlie or not. Self-accusations of what a bad friend she was coupled with assurances that not interfering in her friend’s lives was a good thing warred within her while she met Chri s’s eyes.

“Oh crap,” she breathed out. “It ’s Chris.”

The woman Chris was with tugged on his sleeve, ready to go. He turned to her and leaned in a moment, saying something in her ear. She glanced over toward Helena, then smiled at him and gestured outside. Helena couldn’t hear what they were saying over the hubbub of the restaurant, but to her alarm, Chris started walking down the counter t oward her.

“Oh crap, crap, crap,” she whispered and turned to face her bowl. She did not want to deal with another public confrontation, especially considering how much stress she was under, but with each moment, it became clearer and clearer she would have n o choice.

“Hey, Helena,” Chris’s voice said, coming from right nex t to her.

“Hey, Chris,” she said neutrally. She looked up at him but didn’t want to meet his gaze so returned it to her soup.

She heard him sigh next to her. “Look, about the other night,” he said, and she braced. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry about over-reacting like that. I… I obviously panicked.”

“Yeah,” she said, focusing on maintaining ne utrality.

“And I wanted to say thank you for not saying anything to Charlie. I really appreciate that,” he said.

She couldn’t stand it; she couldn’t keep the words from coming out of her mouth. “You should be the one to tell Charlie,” she snapped, feeling hot behind her ears.

“Yeah, I know. I know you’re right,” Chris said, surprising her by not fighting it. He sat down slumped on the stool next to her, backward so he braced his feet out into the aisle behind them. “I’m really sorry about you getting stuck in the middle of this, Hel, but it’s all just really confusing right now, you know?”

His demeanor cooled her fire. “Who is she?” s he asked.

“Co-worker. She’s really nice. You’d like her,” he said. “I don’t know what to tell you. It just sort of happened and I don’t know why. I mean ever since college I’ve only been into Charlie, but lately … I don’t know. It’s like ever since your dinner party, something just snapped i nside me.”

“Since my dinner party?” Helena asked, another surprise.

He nodded. “I don’t know. Something happened that night. Something that had been building for a while, and I just looked at Charlie and… it wasn’t there anymore.”

“What wasn’t there anymore?” she said, her stomach feeling l ike lead.

“I don’t know,” he repeated.

“You don’t seem to know a lot,” she pointed out, a little irritated. “You haven’t talked about this at all with Charlie?”

“If I can’t understand it, how can I explain it? It’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.” Chris looked toward where the woman waited for him outside the front window. “And you know what he thinks about people who say the y are bi.”

Helena pursed her lips. She liked Charlie a lot, but he was the kind of person that once he made up his mind about something it was extremely hard to change it. Bisexuality and gender fluidity was always a subject non-grata with him.

“Still, he’s your husband, Chris. You took a vow,” she po inted out.

“You don’t think I know that?” Chris snapped, shooting her a sharp look. “I’m going to talk to him. I am. Just give me some more time, okay? I need to come to him with answers.”

Helena pursed her lips, debating. “I’ll wait another week,” she decided, “but if you don’t tell him, then I will have to. I can’t keep something like this from my friends forever.”

Chris’s expression darkened to a level of hate she had never seen before on his face. She felt herself pull away but resisted any urg e to run.

“You do that, and I will destroy you,” he growled in no uncertain terms. “I will tell him about what you did to Shawna. I’ve never told him in all these years.” He stood up, using his higher position to loom over her threateningly. “I’ll tell every one of your dirty secrets to everyone you work with, and we’ll see how long you still have a job. You will keep your mouth shut. Do we understand ea ch other?”

All she could do was nod as she struggled to hold the wh imper in.

With a sniff, her friend… her former friend straightened up. Then nodded once as if that solved everything and turned to leave. She watched to make sure he had gone. As he exited the door, he turned, leaving the woman he had come with confused and trailing be hind him.

“Are you okay?” an older man asked, leaning from the other side of her a few s eats down.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she said airily, though she could feel the tears beading in her eyes. “Just having a rough day is all.” She forced a smile to reassure him and he acc epted it.

“That guy’s an asshole,” the old man pr oclaimed.

She laughed and nodded. “Yeah, he’s being o ne today.”

“If he had tried anything, I was going to kick his ass,” the old man assured.

“Well thank you, but I’m glad it didn’t come to that,” she said and then went back to try to finish her ramen, but she didn’t have the same appetite she’d had before. “I’m alright, Raffie,” she whispered under her breath, so he wouldn’t worry. “But I miss you.”

She made herself finish her soup anyway because she still had a long day ahead of her. There was still a lot of time before she was supposed to return to the office, but the walk she planned to take through the downtown park was just too unpleasant as the cold winter wind whipped through. There was a dusting of snow on the ground this time, but the air was so frozen that it just made her feel like a walking icicle. With fifteen minutes left before the minimum allowable time for her to return, she gave up and decided she’d rather endure Yosef’s censure than another minute out “i n nature.”

When she got back to the shared office, it was pretty much empty in the main room. It looked like everyone else had also gone out for lunches, and she kicked herself for not thinking to ask anyone if she could join them. Then she would at least have been safe from that unsettling encounter wi th Chris.

Deciding not to dwell on her mistakes, she went to Scarlet’s office, then stopped, remembering that Yosef had said he would be giving Scarlet a massage. It wasn’t the first time she had been kicked out for that reason. Scarlet needed them regularly to help with her circulation and to improve her quality of life. Helena figured they probably weren’t finished yet but decided she could try to just sneak in quickly and grab her computer so she could get a few other things done while they fin ished up.

That’s when a short, sharp cry of pain startled her just as she reached for the door handle. “Oh God, oh God,” cried Scarlet’s voice and then there was a bang sound from the other side of the door. Imagining Scarlet having fallen and broken something, Helena quickly seized the handle only to find it locked. Of course it would be locked!

“Dammit, dammit, Scarlet! Are you alright?” she called through the door as she scrambled to get her copy of her keys out of the coa t pocket.

There was no response as she shoved the right key into the lock and wrangled the door open. Something was blocking the door, and she caught sight of Scarlet’s wheelchair, lying on its side, probably the source of the crash.

“Scarlet!” she shouted as she burst into the room, only to stare at Yosef’s bare ass facing her and Scarlet’s legs splayed on either si de of him.

Her outburst startled t hem both.

“The Hell!” Yosef shouted as he bucked back and twisted and by then Helena was already covering her face. “Get the fuck out!” he shouted as he struggled to pull up h is pants.

She had to uncover her face with one hand so she could grab at the handle of the door to shut it. All the while as she struggled, Scarlet was cawing laughter at the top of h er lungs.

“ Get out!”