Why Can't We Be Friends

“I'll see you Monday. Right after work?”

Connor stood with his luggage in hand outside of DFW airport. It was Sunday morning and he was already heading back to New York. He had a lot to do before the work week began.

“Perfect! I'll make dinner this time.” I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a hug.

Connor's face winced. “I don't know...”

“Hey!” I pushed his shoulder back, “You haven't even tried my cooking!”

He laughed as he continued, “Maybe that's why Kadie left.”

“Too soon, Connor. Too soon.” I held my hand over my heart pretending to cringe in pain.

“Ma'am I'm going to have to write you a ticket if you don't move your car from here. This is a fire lane.” A police officer walked up and interrupted our conversation. He pointed to a sign we were standing next to and read it out loud. “No parking allowed.”

“Yes, officer. I was just saying goodbye.” I turned back towards Connor, who was holding in a laugh, and hugged and kissed him one last time. Once he went through the double doors, I ran back to my car and headed home.

I walked inside my house to see Kadie, Adam, and Kadie's mom over. They sat with Jaime and my parents at a table full of breakfast. I dropped my purse on the kitchen counter and took a seat.

“Oh, hey Jaime, so nice to actually see you.” I sarcastically nodded my head towards him. After Connor and I headed back to the wedding last night, Jaime left shortly after. He texted me letting me know everything was okay and that he'd be home late. I heard him stumbling in around 2am.

“What can I say? Bitches love me.” He mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for Kadie, Adam, and I to hear. My dad looked up at him confused while Kadie and Adam covered their mouth from laughing out loud.

“You should take Jaime to the stables today, Lynn.” My mom scooped out scrambled eggs into my plate.

“Oh yeah, we should take the boys riding!” Kadie excitedly added on.

“I don't know” Adam stopped eating as he looked over at Kadie. “Me and animals don't really get along.”

“Yeah, me neither. There's no such thing as nature in New Jersey.” Jaime added.

“Oh, hush you two! Summer and Marissa are the sweetest. You'll love them.” I reached over the table for a slice of toast and started eating my breakfast. Both Jaime and Adam sat in silence as they stared at each other.

“Wait” Adam rested his elbow on the table, with his fork still in hand. 

“Aren't Summer and Marissa characters from The O.C?” Jaime finished Adam's thought.

Kadie and I both shot an embarrassed looked towards each other. We hesitated to respond.

“We were young and it was our favorite show, okay?” Kadie proclaimed, to which Adam and Jaime bellowed over laughing.

After breakfast the four of us went down to the stables while our parents stayed at the house and continued their leisurely Sunday. Kadie and I decided to invite along the gang and have one last get together before we left that night.

“Oh shit!” Jaime whispered as we jumped out of Kadie's car.

“What is it?” I looked over at him concerned. His eyes were set on Lori.

“I didn't know she was gonna be here.” He grabbed both my shoulders, “She's crazy!”

I couldn't help but laugh. For as long as I'd known Lori, she was the sweetest little thing. But, I noticed at the bonfire and wedding that Jaime's presence brought out her wild side. It was definitely entertaining.

“Don't worry. She can't be as crazy as you. C'mon!” I dragged his arm as we walked through the gates into the stables.

Kadie and I sold our horses, Summer and Marissa, to Billy when we'd left for college. He was a local with a horse farm. We never wanted to give them up, but there was no one else to take after them. So, Billy agreed to let us come over to his stables whenever we wanted to tend after the horses. He'd even let our friends take his horses for a ride. Southern hospitality was something I truly missed.

I saddled up Summer, and helped Jaime saddle up the horse he'd be riding. Once everyone was ready, we rode out into the forest behind Billy's farm. There was a small creek that we followed. I turned over to look at Jaime. His face was distressed.

“What's wrong” I asked him.

He grumbled, “I guess kids are out of my future” He held his hand over his inner thigh. Everyone laughed.

Woody rode up next to Jaime “Oh, c'mon! It ain't that bad!”

“No, no” Adam called out from Woody's other side. “It's pretty bad!”

“You Yankees are killing me!” Woody teased as he rode on.

It was a little past noon and we were all starting to get hungry again. We cut our ride short, blaming it on Adam and Jaime's lack of fun, and headed over to a local restaurant. When we walked inside we spotted Francy and Joshua sitting in a corner booth.

“Really?” I threw my hands up in defeat. “Every damn place we go..”

We all sat on the opposite side of the restaurant. I saw Francy eye us from across the room. Our waiter came by and took everyone's order.

“Can I get a beer” Jaime barely finished his sentence before Woody cut him off.

“He means root beer.” Woody turned back to Jaime. “We don't drink on the day of the Lord.”

“What?” Jaime cried in confusion. “That's ridiculous. What about football season?”

“Thankfully He's a Texan, so He looks past our sins during football season.” Woody responded with a cold stone face.

“He'll have a regular beer.” Kadie punched Woody and corrected Jaime's order. “There's no such rule, Jaime. He's just being a dick.”

“You should have seen your face” Woody laughed as he mocked Jaime's expression.

There was a few times throughout lunch that we'd get too rowdy and I'd see Joshua and Francy looking over. A part of me felt bad for everything that went wrong over the weekend. I knew a lot of it wasn't my fault, but I also knew I wouldn't be happy until I really talked it out with Joshua.

I excused myself from the table and approached Joshua and Francy.

“Can we help you?” Francy sighed.

“Josh, can I talk to you for a minute.”

Joshua stared at Francy silently for a moment before he rolled his eyes and stood up. We walked out to the patio and sat at an empty table.

“Look, for my own sanity, I have to forgive you for everything. This is a small town and I can't keep fighting with you every time we run into each other. So, can we please just stop all this child's play?”

Joshua looked away for a minute before he agreed. “Fine.” He rubbed his hands over the back of his head. “This is getting exhausting anyway. I guess we just have to remember that it'll get easier with time.”

“Thanks Josh." As I was walking back inside Joshua stopped me.

“Lynn, can we just have one last hug?”

I smiled and nodded my head before I walked over to hug Joshua.It was nice to have one civil moment with him despite everything that had happened between us.

We walked back inside to everyone's shocked expression. I chose to ignore everyone's questioning and instead finished my meal. After we were done with our lunch we said our last goodbyes to everyone before heading home.

“What was that all about?” Jaime asked as we hopped into Kadie's car.

“Nothing” I smiled and leaned my head on his shoulder.