More Than Friends (7 page)

“Fifteen to thirteen.” She called Kendall using their unit numbers.

“Go ahead.”

“He’s got a head wound and there’s some broken glass that looks like a match to that bottle on the front porch. Hold what you have until we get DV out for pictures.” She chose her words carefully, knowing that the wife was within earshot. She doubted the woman was dangerous to anyone except the man currently incapacitated in front of her, but Kendall would take her into custody just in case.

“Ten-four.”

She pulled on a pair of latex gloves, then grabbed a towel from the counter and pressed it to the gash on his head.

When paramedics arrived a few minutes later, she was still crouched there and had gotten little more than a moan from the patient. She waited until one of the medics nodded and placed his hand over the towel she held; then she stepped back and moved out of their way. Judging from the vitals and comments they called to each other over his prone body, his condition was stable.

She found Kendall in the front yard, returning from securing the wife in her patrol car.

“He’ll survive,” Evelyn said.

The medics wheeled a stretcher carrying the husband out of the house and toward the ambulance. His wife watched wistfully through the car window as they passed. When she called out that she loved him, Kendall shook her head.

“We’ll be out here again in a few weeks.”

Evelyn snorted. “Welcome back.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Seriously, how’s it been?”

“You were right. I needed to stop wallowing and get back to it. It’s just—everything’s changed and I can’t seem to fix it. Did I tell you Melanie texted me?”

Evelyn shook her head.

“I thought maybe she wanted to work it out. But turns out she just wanted to talk about splitting up the furniture—like I have anywhere to put that stuff. I’m living in your guest room. Then she starts in about separating the bank accounts and won’t I be glad to have my share of our savings. She’s so fucking ready to move on. I don’t think she’s even upset about all of this.”

“Of course she is.” She recalled the sadness in Melanie’s eyes when she last saw her.

“She’s got a funny way of showing it.”

“Not really. Everything you said sounds just like Melanie.”

“Huh?”

“She’s a planner, Kendall. Occupying her mind with what she needs to do next is her way of dealing with all of this. She needs to feel like she’s
doing
something to move the situation forward.”

“Well, she can’t make me move forward.” Kendall looked over her shoulder at the woman sitting in her patrol car. “Will you go by there with me tomorrow before work to pick up some stuff?”

Something about people now negotiating their breakups through text message made Evelyn sad. Even relationships were becoming far too impersonal.

*

“Hi,” Melanie said somewhat breathlessly as she opened the door to Kendall and Evelyn.

She hadn’t gone this long without seeing Kendall since they’d first started dating. Their few attempts at communicating had ended with Melanie feeling guilty, then trying to convince herself she shouldn’t. Kendall seemed to still hope she would change her mind about the breakup and she didn’t want to encourage that, but they had to have a certain degree of interaction until they sorted everything out.

And she wasn’t heartless. Certainly she still cared about her. Kendall looked tired and Melanie wanted to smooth away the smudges of fatigue around her eyes. But it wasn’t her place to offer comfort. And despite the remorse she felt for causing Kendall such distress, she didn’t have a trace of regret for the decision she’d made. As soon as their personal business was separated, she planned to keep her distance, hoping a clean break would help them both heal.

“I’m here to pick up some things.” Kendall’s cool tone indicated this was not a social call.

She stepped back, waited until they came in, then closed the door behind them. As they passed, she noticed the familiar spicy perfume she would forever associate with Kendall.

“Hey, Mel.” Evelyn followed Kendall inside, though she looked as if she would rather be anywhere else. She barely made eye contact and had her hands shoved so deeply in her jeans that Melanie was surprised they hadn’t bored holes in the pockets. Melanie longed to calm her obvious worry as well.

“I was hoping you would come over when we can sit down together and talk. We should go over the finances in person,” Melanie said.

“I’m on my way to work. I don’t have time for that today.”

“But you assumed I would have time for you to just show up without calling?” Irritation overshadowed her compassion.

“What? I’m supposed to call before coming to my own home now? Besides, I didn’t think you’d be here.”

“I had a meeting with a client this morning and dropped by for lunch. I was just about to head out to the job site.”

“Well, I don’t need your help packing anything, so you’re free to go.”

“I talked to the apartment manager about switching the lease into my name.”

“Why do you automatically get the apartment?”

“You haven’t said you wanted it. If you do, I’ll start looking for another one.”

Kendall looked around, disdain painting her features. “I don’t.”

Melanie sighed, exhausted with Kendall’s passive-aggressive game.

“I’m going to wait outside,” Evelyn blurted into the tense silence.

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to. Let me know when you’re ready to start packing things in the car.” Evelyn didn’t wait for agreement before she crossed the room and headed out the front door.

“Fine. I won’t be long.” Kendall strode toward the bedroom.

After Evelyn left, Melanie followed Kendall and picked up the thread of their previous conversation. “I’m just trying to figure out what the next step is, Kendall. We need to make some practical decisions, and I’m not sure how long we should wait.” More than anything, she needed the closure of disentangling their lives.

“Keep the money, Melanie. All of it.” Kendall took a suitcase down from the closet shelf and opened it on the bed. She opened a drawer and emptied it into the bag, seemingly with no regard to the actual contents.

“We saved that money together. It’s half yours and you are going to take it.”

“No. I’m not.”

“You are. I won’t have you telling everyone I left you with nothing.”

“What difference does it make?
You left me
. Whether it was with nothing or with everything makes no fucking difference.”

Melanie’s body went cold and her limbs felt weak, but she stood her ground. “If you need to make me the bad guy, go ahead. But there were two of us in the relationship. The fault isn’t mine alone.”

“Don’t you have someplace to be?” Kendall didn’t look up from her packing.

Melanie stared at her a moment longer before leaving the room. She continued straight through the living room and out the front door.

After taking three quick steps into the middle of the breezeway, she spun around. Evelyn leaned against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other, fiddling with the stem of her sunglasses. She looked up, and the sympathy in her soft brown eyes diffused Melanie’s anger. She drew a deep breath and released it slowly.

“I’m sorry if we made you uncomfortable,” she said quietly.

Evelyn shrugged.

“I guess this is weird for all of us, huh?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve heard you guys argue, but I always knew you would work it out.”

“Not this time, Ev. I’m sorry.” Strange as it sounded, she did feel as if she owed Evelyn an apology as well—as if Evelyn were the child of their broken home.

“How are you?” Evelyn asked as she took a step closer.

“I’m okay. I just—” She stopped, uncertain how to proceed. She wanted to talk to Evelyn but didn’t want to put her in an awkward position.

“What?”

“I have a lot to adjust to right now.”

Evelyn touched Melanie’s arm. “Why didn’t you tell me you guys were having problems? I don’t expect Kendall to talk to me about her feelings. But you—all of the times I’ve opened up to you about my girl trouble—”

“I know.” She nodded. “You’re right. We went from being happy to being in a rut so gradually, I didn’t notice until it was too late to recover. Then I guess I didn’t want to admit we’d failed.” She never had trouble sharing her feelings, but this time—this failure made her want to draw tightly inside herself. Kendall was her first serious girlfriend, and for a long time she’d thought she’d be the only one.

“I put you guys on a pedestal as an example of my ideal relationship.”

She mentally added another casualty to her recent actions. She’d shattered not only her own world, but Kendall’s as well. And, without even realizing it, she’d first let Evelyn harbor illusions about their “perfect” partnership and then torn those illusions apart with one decision.

“We didn’t belong there. I don’t even know what an ideal relationship is.” She had to believe that after the emotions cleared, they would realize this was best for all of them.

Chapter Six

“I have a date,” Kendall announced as she and Evelyn walked together through the cafeteria-like line at their favorite meat-and-three place. Once a week, they ate there during their shift and indulged in the rich Southern cuisine. “Do you think it’s too soon?”

Four months after her split with Melanie, she still sometimes had trouble not thinking of them as a couple. But in that time, she’d taken steps toward moving on. She’d managed to get the rest of her things from the old place and rent a condo in an affordable neighborhood not far from Evelyn’s. Surprisingly, decorating it by herself brought feelings of satisfaction and pride along with the expected tingle of loneliness.

She’d spent her first holiday season without Melanie in seven years. She had resisted the urge to text Melanie on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. And she’d finally stopped checking Melanie’s Facebook page—well, she’d cut it down to once a week.

“I don’t think there’s a timetable for these things. If you’re ready, then it’s been long enough. Where’d you meet her?” Evelyn asked, after pointing out her choice of vegetables to the woman behind the counter.

The woman holding a spoon of green beans seemed too interested in their conversation, so Kendall waited until they’d both paid and settled at a table to answer. “I met her on one of those online sites.”

Evelyn laughed.

“What? I don’t want to date anyone I already know. The police department can be so—incestuous. And it’s exhausting to think about meeting someone in a bar and trying to figure them out. On the Internet, they spell it all out for you. Sure, most of it may not be true, but I can hope for a while until I meet them and find out they have some major personality flaw or a huge wart, or a—”

“Hey, slow down. I’m just surprised. I didn’t know you were thinking about getting back out there, let alone putting your profile online.”

“I didn’t either. But it’s pretty clear Mel and I aren’t reconciling.” The Web site required an active account before allowing users to browse available women. So, on a whim one night last week, while tipsy, she’d set up her own profile, intending only to see what kind of women visited those sites. She’d nearly forgotten about it until, a few days later, she received e-mail notifications that a couple of women had viewed her profile and “smiled” at her, whatever that meant.

“Good for you.What’s the plan?”

“We’re meeting for dinner. Someplace bright and public, you know, in case she’s a murderer or has a scary ex-con boyfriend.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

She shifted in her seat and bent her head closer to Evelyn’s. “I haven’t been on a first date in seven years.”

“Nervous, huh?”

“You could say that. But right now I’m more concerned with just putting myself back out there.” The woman she planned to meet tonight seemed nice and, if her profile was accurate, she was cute and they had shared interests, but she didn’t let her expectations get too high. “I just hate the awkwardness and uncomfortable silences that go with a first date.”

“You’re looking at it all wrong. Think about the possibilities. Right now, there’s potential. You could have a great first date. And if not,” Evelyn shrugged, “you meet someone else and have another one. Nothing lost.”

She teased Evelyn. “So, I should just become a player?”

“I’m not saying that. But maybe just don’t take things seriously right now. I know you, Kendall. You want to be in a relationship. You like being taken care of and having someone to dote on.”

She nodded.

“I have no doubt you’ll find that again. But it doesn’t have to be right now. You have your own place for the first time in a long time, so enjoy being alone. And if you meet some cool people in the process, that’s great.”

“You’re right. But hey, you’re still there for me when I need a wingman, right?”

Evelyn grinned, knowing Kendall was only half joking. “Absolutely.”

They finished their lunch with light conversation and made plans to get together late Saturday morning for breakfast and a postmortem of Kendall’s date. They’d established the tradition years ago after Evelyn had a particularly tragic one. This would be Kendall’s first time on the other end of the meal.

As they walked out the front door, Evelyn’s phone buzzed and she pulled it free from the holster. When she saw Melanie’s face on the screen, she switched it to her other hand, facing away from Kendall.

But she didn’t need to make an excuse to take the call, because the dispatcher’s voice came across the radio requesting Kendall to back another officer on a disorderly person.

“I’ll catch you later,” Kendall said after acknowledging the transmission.

“See ya.” Evelyn slid behind the wheel of her patrol car and answered her phone. “Hey, how are you?”

“I’m sorry to bother you while you’re working. But that’s actually why I’m calling. One of my clients had a break-in and the theft included some stuff from one of my trailers. It’s down on Riverside Street, so I thought since it’s in your district—”