"I think we should call her," Anthony said.
"Yeah, you're right," sighed Sebastian. "I don't like seeing him like this."
They both looked over at their friend, sitting slumped over his beer.
—
Right as she was taking her latest culinary attempt out of the oven, her cell rang.
"Ow! Dammit!!" she exclaimed as her arm touched the side of the still hot pan when she reached for her phone.
"What?!" She yelled into her phone.
"Well hey to you too, Short Stuff." Anthony said from the other end, using the nickname he'd given her from the moment they'd met.
"This better be good, Mackie!" she said, running cold water over her arm. "I was just taking dinner out of the oven."
"Oooh, so that's what I smelled. I thought someone was burning roadkill."
"Ha ha ha." she mock-laughed. "What do you want?"
"Yeah, we have a sort of emergency."
"What does that mean 'sort of emergency' and who is 'we'?" She turned the tap off "Where are you?"
"We're at Jay's me, Sebastian and Chris, and Chris is...."
"Is wh...Wait, wait, no, don't tell me," she said putting the pieces together. "They broke up again didn't they?"
"Yep," Anthony sighed.
"You know, this shit is really getting old." she said angrily. Then her voice softened "How's he doing?"
"Honestly, Short Stuff, I can't tell, something is different." He looked over at his friend, Sebastian's arm around his shoulders trying to get him to talk. Lowering his voice Anthony said "I think it may be worse this time. I think they're finally over, for good."
She snorted "Yeah right, we say that, then she'll do like she always does as soon as he gets interested in someone else and swoop in and ruin it, and him."
"Yeah, possibly, but for now we need to focus on him."
"Okay, you and Seb are there why d'you need me?"
"Weeeellllll..."
"Oh you have plans, so you called me?"
"Basically."
"How do you know I don't have plans?"
He scoffed "Cause it's you, no offense Shorty, but you never do anything."
"Whatever."
"No seriously, do you have plans? Cause if you do we can call someone else."
After a pause, she sighed and said "No, no. Give me a few minutes. I'm on my way."
"Thanks, Short Stuff."
"Yeah, yeah..."
She hung up the phone and went into her room to change. She rushed back into the living room, blowing out the candles she had set out and lit around the room and on the table, then into the kitchen checking that the stove was off and grabbed her phone and keys.
As she left the building she sent a text.
>Hey sorry. An emergency came up. I gotta get one of my friends. Next weekend ok?
Um Ok, it's fine
>Cool. Thnx.
She sent the last message before she entered the bar. Thank god she lived only a few blocks from there and that she met such an understanding guy. The guys – Sebastian, Anthony, Chris – didn't know about him. She wouldn't be able to take the mocking from them and she wasn't eager for him to meet them either. They like to act like her big brothers and they loved to intimidate the guys she dated. Normally she'd laughed it off, but this guy she actually liked and she didn't want him to be scared off.
