“I'm out the door. I'll meet you in five.”
Misch actually got a little teary eyed as she saw her friend walking towards her. She didn't want to make it weird, so she stood lamely beside the table, just smiling. Lacey wasn't smiling, though. Her eyes were brimming with tears and her lower lip trembled. She walked right up to Misch and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tightly.
“I'm so sorry,” Lacey cried.
“What!? For what? You don't have to apologize, Lace,” Mischa assured her friend.
“I do,” Lacey sighed, finally pulling away. She brushed the tears away and sat down. “I wanted to call you, so many times. But I felt so bad for how I treated you, and everything, and I worried it would be weird. Then today I thought, just call her.”
“I'm glad you did. It's not weird, and I deserved how you treated me,” Misch slid into the booth as she issued assurances.
“No. You're my friend, I've known you longer than Bob,” Lacey replied.
“He's your husband. You have to listen to him. Husbands come first.”
“Not always.”
Isn't that the truth.
A waiter took their order, then they chatted, caught up with each other. Lacey was so glad that Misch was dancing again, and Misch was excited to hear about how Lacey's baby was doing. They had a couple cocktails and relaxed. Slowly, the awkward tension began to fall away.
“So. What was it like?” Lacey finally asked. She was looking down at the table and blushing.
“What's what like?” Misch countered, slurping at a vodka-tonic.
“What was it like sleeping with someone else,” Lacey said bluntly.
“Jesus, Lace, don't hold back.”
“I've been curious for a while.”
“Sex is sex, I don't know what you want me to say.”
Lacey sighed and glanced around before leaning low over the table.
“I want to know everything,” she whispered. Misch ran her teeth across her bottom lip.
“Everything?” she whispered back.
They stopped at a liquor store before they went back to Misch's place. Lacey squealed at the sight of the apartment, called it “quaint” as she walked from room to room. As in living room to bedroom to tiny bathroom, since that's all there was really.
“Your own apartment! We never lived on our own! Do you ever think about that? We didn't leave home till college, then we stayed in dorms, then we went back to our parents for the summer. Then you hooked up with Mike and I met Bob,” Lacey sounded wistful.
“Yeah, the first night I slept here, it kinda hit me. This is my first place, on my own,” Misch agreed.
“You get to do anything you want now,” Lacey's voice was soft. Almost sad.
“Totally. I pee with the bathroom door open, whenever I want.”
“Gross.”
They made fruity drinks and curled up at opposite ends of the couch, burying their feet together under pillows.
It's little things that make life better. Like putting your feet on top of your best friend's and then putting a pillow over them.
“Do you really wanna hear all this?” Misch asked, grimacing when Lacey asked for the dirty details again.
“I'm dying to hear all this,” Lacey assured her. Misch took a deep breath.
“It was … crazy. Awful and awesome, all at once,” she started.
“How did you meet him?”
Oh, he was spying on me for months before I even went to Italy. Thought I had great legs, and apparently also thought I was stupid.
“In a cafe. I was going over a manual, and this creepy guy wouldn't go away. Tal appeared out of nowhere, chased the guy off,” Misch smiled at the memory, at him holding up her hand, acting like she was his wife.
“Was it a while before you slept with him?” Lacey asked, obviously just wanting to get to the good stuff. Misch cleared her throat, blushed a little. This part never sounded good.
“Uh, not really, no.”
“Really!?”
“Yeah. That first night. We got to talking, he was funny. We went to a bar in a hotel. Turned out it was his hotel. He kissed me in the bar. Kissed me in the elevator. Kissed me in his room. He's … a hard man to resist,” Misch chuckled.
“That is so crazy! I can't, I just can't picture you kissing someone else besides Mike,” Lacey breathed.
“I know. I couldn't either, for a long time.”
“What happened next?”
“I had to go back to his hotel room a couple days later cause I -,”
“No, after he kissed you. Did you, like, jump on him?” Lacey questioned her. Misch laughed.
“Not at first. I kinda wigged out. I kept saying I couldn't do it, that I wouldn't do it, I was shaking. I was a hot mess, I don't know why he kept going. But whoa, man, did he keep going. Things almost went down right in the elevator,” Misch snickered.
“That is so hot.”
“Yeah. Then in his room, while I was still freaking out, he just kinda grabbed me and kissed me. Carried me to bed. Did things to me … I still get breathless thinking about them,” Misch panted a little, fanning herself.
“Did you …,” Lacey rolled her hand for emphasis. They were besties, but talking about their sex lives wasn't something they often did, so Misch was surprised. But not embarrassed. Tal had actually cured her of a lot of her inhibitions involving sex.