[Verification message: Where did you go?]
[Verification message: I heard you moved? That’s just a rumor, right?]
[Verification message: Please accept…]
I was getting seriously annoyed. I blocked him.
Half an hour later, a call came through from his mom’s phone. My mother looked at me, her expression pained. I couldn’t refuse. I
took the phone.
“My mom said you moved. That’s not true, is it?”
The familiar voice made/me feel like we were in another lifetime.
Frank’s voice was rushed. “You’ve lived there for decades. Besides, we… my mom still wants to be best friends with your mom
forever.”
“You just went on a trip, right? Someone must have misunderstood.”
My voice was flat. “We moved.”
“We’re a thousand miles away now.”
We were renting temporarily, waiting for the renovations on our new house to be finished. We would probably move in before the New Year. But there was no need to tell Frank any of that. I just answered his questions.
After a long silence, I thought he had hung up. “Well, I’m hanging up now.”
“Don’t!” he said, twice, then his voice became small, like a child who’s done something wrong. “I apologized to you in the group chat
Chapter 2
04:40
“Don’t!” he said, twice, then his voice became small, like a child who’s done something wrong. “I apologized to you in the group chat
about the Angela thing. Did you not see it?”
How could I have missed it? The group chat had exploded minutes after I posted the recording. Frank had been forced to tag me and apologize. He’d even said he would talk to me in person, that he would buy me a gift to show his sincerity.
I hadn’t replied.
Now, faced with the question, I answered, “I saw it.” Before he could say more, I asked, “Is there anything else?”
Frank sounded disappointed. In the past, I would have chattered on for hours if we hadn’t seen each other for a few days.
After a long pause, he spoke again, a note of resignation in his voice. “Are you still angry with me because of Angela? You were just lying about having a boyfriend to get back at me then, and you’re doing it now, right?”
“While you’ve been gone, I’ve done a lot of thinking. With Angela, it was just a fling, a moment of novelty. I can explain everything…
But with you, it’s real…”
“Frank.” My voice was devoid of emotion, as if I were talking to a stranger. “Weren’t we just buddies?”
“I hope you find a more compatible buddy in the future.”
I had a lot to do. “Don’t contact me again,” I said finally. “I remember you were pretty decisive when you deleted me. Now you’re
being awfully clingy.”
