"YOU OGHT TO KNOW EVERYTHING," STATED JESSE, SUDDENLY, while they were going through the B&B's books that afternoon. "I've been deliberately mysterious and I don't want to be anymore."
Kathy raised her eyebrows, encouraging him to continue.
"Mary Anne asked me to… Well… to… sort of… take care of you."
His words were too unexpected to raise any emotions just then.
"Take care of me?"
Jesse gazed at her, gauging the effects of what he'd just said.
She placed the sheets of paper she was holding slowly back on the table.
"And why would she do that?"
"I guess she felt she didn't have much time left and wanted to do something for you."
"Listen, Jesse, I'm not destitute, ok? I was sad when she met me; that's true. It was - it still is - a difficult situation for me, because I wanted to change important things in my life and I didn't know how. Meeting Mrs. Sloan was great, because she made me recover my faith in friendship, which was somehow lost after experiencing the egoism of plenty of people lately, and she also said the right words to make me start believing in my own self again. That was fundamental for me, and I will never forget it.
But if the words you just pronounced did come out of her mouth… then … she wasn't the kind of friend I thought she was."
Jesse looked at her as if he were looking at himself in a mirror. She was reacting exactly like he would have in that same situation. He hadn't realized that until now.
"Kathy, don't be mad, please. Let's talk this over."
Those were magic words. How many times had she tried to talk things over with David and he hadn't listened? How many days had she tried to phone him during their frequent periods of separation and he hadn't answered? And then she had made it up with him just by not trying to talk things over anymore. She didn't like that, so she wouldn't refuse somebody else's offer of clarification.
"All right."
"I admit," he began, "that at first I was too selfish to realize that this situation involved two other people besides myself. I didn't know you then, if that may count in my defense. But now I see things differently - from a broader perspective - and I am sure Mary Anne just wanted to be a good friend to you even after her… death."