Big Bad World

If You Love Her

[AUBREY'S POV]

Lacey wasn’t much for talking these past couple of days. She had told me all about confronting Nicole, and I could sense in her body language that she wasn’t confident in anything at this point. Me being her best friend could tell she was trying to prepare herself for heartbreak. There was no point of her living at her place, since she had practically taken over mine. I allowed it because I loved my best friend and I knew she was scared. I also knew that Keith would be making the biggest mistake of his life for letting her go. Nicole being his ex wife didn’t matter to me. Keith’s happiness didn’t matter to me. All that mattered was Lacey’s happiness and I knew she wasn’t going to be happy if Keith walked away. With me knowing this, I had to talk to Keith personally.

 Lacey was fast asleep on the couch with her phone sitting on the coffee table. She had made it way too easy for me. I knew it was cruel in a way, but I was positive Keith had a better chance of responding to Lacey than me. My hand quickly reached for her phone and texted Keith.

 “Hey. I know you need time, but can we please meet up for coffee? I miss you!!”

 After pressing send, I had decided to look over their text conversations. The way they spoke to each other wasn’t what I would expect, but Lacey did have an old soul. His words had a way of bringing meaning and life into her life. Texts like, “We’ve got this, baby. I’ve got you. It’ll be okay” or “I wrote today. The song was inspired by you.” There was no way I was going to allow Lacey to make Keith choose. Keith was in love with her, and it was clear just through a simple text message. I could even sense it in the way that they fought of texting. The man deeply cared about her. Before I could read on much longer, I received a text back from Keith.

 “I’ve been missing you too. I’d love to meet up for coffee. Right now good?”

 I bit my lip and looked over to Lacey and back at her phone. Was it wrong that I was doing this? It didn’t matter. I couldn’t stop what I had already started.

 “Now sounds perfect. I’ll see you soon, babe.” I shot back.

 I placed Lacey’s phone on the coffee table, grabbed my bag and exited the house quietly. There wasn’t an initial plan in my head.  Only an idea of what to say and how I could possibly persuade him to not hurt Lacey was all there was at the moment. My car drove toward the coffee shop that I knew they both always went to. I had only hoped this was the coffee shop he was coming to as well.

 For a moment or two after I arrived, I sat in the car pondering on how I was going to approach him. While pondering, I spotted Keith walking into the coffee shop. How was I going to walk in there and see disappointment after he was expecting Lacey? For a moment, I was nervous. After long, I had to shake it off and go in there to save my best friends relationship.

 My feet hit the pavement and walked toward the coffee shop. As soon as I entered, I spotted that Keith had just ordered his drink and sat down at a nearby table for two. He had appeared to be nervous by examining his body language. For a moment, I felt a twinge of guilt once again for doing this. Though hesitation didn’t stop my feet from walking toward him. As soon as I reached the table, I sat down quietly waiting for him to notice me. Once he had, his eyes grew wide almost in disappointment that I wasn’t Lacey. “Hi…” I mumbled.

 “Uh, hi Aubrey,” he said in a confused tone.

 I swallowed hard before speaking, “I know, I’m not Lacey. I’m sorry. She has no idea I’m here. I’d like to keep this between us, please?”

 Keith nodded in disappointment. “Uh, yea, sure. So, she’s not coming?”

 I shook my head apologetically. “No, I’m sorry. I stole her phone.”