20. Lara's Back.

TONY.

I rolled over to the other side of my bed and my hand touched another body under the duvet. Besides that, I could feel the presence of someone else in the room. I tried to open my eyes but a severe pain ran through my head. I winced in pain. I guess it’s the hangover, the aftermath of the several drinks I had yesterday with Beth. Thinking about Beth, I wondered if she was okay.

I tried to open my eyes again but slowly this time. When I opened my eyes, I felt someone moving around on my bed. Immediately, my eyes widened in total shock. I saw Beth staring back at me with half-opened eyes. When she saw me, her eyes widened in shock too. I looked at my body and looked at hers. We were both naked and the duvet wasn’t doing justice to covering our bodies properly.

We both screamed and began to fight for the duvet, both of us wanting to cover our nakedness.

“What are you doing in my room?” we yelled at the same time.

“Your room? No, it’s mine,” we yelled yet again at the same time.

Our eyes turned to the door and we saw the number of the room. It actually was Beth’s room. I knew I had made a mistake.

“I’m so sorry Beth. I don’t know what happened, I swear,” I apologized profusely.

I tried getting up from the bed so I could put on my clothes.

“Please can you turn around?” I said, avoiding eye contact with her.

Beth, who was also avoiding eye contact, turned around immediately. I gave her the other half of the duvet and she covered herself properly with it. I got up from the bed and quickly began to put on my pajamas, which was lying across the room, together with Beth’s clothes. After wearing my clothes, I turned around and asked her to put on her clothes too. She did as she was told and after we had both dressed up; I turned around so I could keep apologizing but before I could say anything, she spoke,

“This shouldn’t have happened, Tony.”

“Why? I thought you we feel something for eachother no matter how little it might be, so what shouldn’t have happened?” I asked.

“You of all people should know why, Tony. You were my best friend’s husband-to-be for crying out loud. This was a terrible mistake. It shouldn’t have happened. Even the kiss we shared last night shouldn’t have happened, its not right,” she said.

My mind flashed back to the previous night when I had escorted Beth back to her room. I still vividly remember kissing her. It was one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me last night.

“I still think there’s nothing wrong in what we did, Beth. You’re a single lady and I’m a single man and we have the right to do whatever we want with each other. If you’ve forgotten, I will remind you that Lara didn’t show up for the so-called wedding which means she didn’t love me in the first place so I can decide to do whatever with whoever I want ,” I said.

“You don’t understand; Lara and I have a girl’s code we’ve lived by since we were kids. We promised never to date each other’s men or exes. I have broken that code and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look her in the face again, that asides, you’re still her man too.” Beth said.

‘A girl’s code? What does that even mean?’ I thought. I didn’t bother to ask so I simply sighed in defeat because I knew there was nothing I could do to convince her otherwise.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Tony. I really don’t know,” she replied.

“Okay, I’ll just go,” I said, picking up my phone from the bedside table.

I opened the phone to check what the time was but something else caught my attention. I saw I had gotten several missed calls from a particular number. When I saw the name on the screen, I became shocked.

“Beth, look,” I said, showing her the screen of my phone.

She turned around, looking really sad but as soon as she saw the name on the screen of my phone, her eyes widened in shock.

“Lara called you?” she asked.

I nodded slowly. I wondered why she was calling. Maybe she’s calling to give me a reasonable explanation for why she abandoned me on our wedding day. I was about calling her back when my phone began to ring and her name appeared on the screen. I told Beth that Lara was calling back and she asked me to pick the call. I picked the call and just as I was about to say hello, I heard her voice.

“Hi Tony,” she said very calmly.

“Lara?” I asked to be sure.

“Yeah it’s me,” she replied.

“Tony, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have backed out of the wedding. I realized what I did immediately I ran away but I couldn’t bring myself to come to you after what I had done. I know you must hate my guts right now but please can we meet? Give me a chance to properly explain myself. Please Tony,” she said.

I was speechless. Hearing her give those unreasonable excuses made my blood boil. She had the nerves to call me after all she had put me through. Well, since I already told myself I wanted to hear her excuse, I’d have to meet her then.

“Fine, let’s meet,” I said and cut the call.

I looked at Beth and told her everything Lara said to me.

“You should go see her. Besides, all that happened between us was a mistake and it never happened,” she said in a dejected manner, and somehow it felt like, she was giving me a repeat of what I had once told her too.