The Best of Friends

Chapter 2 may be a tad confusing if you read the original story. Names were changed because I just wasn't connecting to the names that Keely and Darbie's husbands had.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Craig sighed into the phone. For years, Darbie had teased Keely and him about having feelings for one another and for being too blinded by their friendship to see the truth. He never knew how she got the notion in her head, but without fail, it was always stated whenever she spoke to him.

"For the millionth time, Darbie, yes, I love Keely, and no, not in the way that you mean."

"Well, if you're not calling to profess undying love for Keely then what's up? Are you having one of your lovely dinner parties with Keely as the hostess like we used to do before Paul screwed up? I know she's been busy, but I so miss those." Darbie said with glee.

That was when he realized that she had no clue that Keely had stopped all contact with him.

"Darbie," he started hesitantly. "Do you know that Keely hasn't returned my calls since she split with Paul?"

"Son of a bitch," spat out Darbie. "It's her noble sense of not being the cause of a family rift, isn't it? Don't even bother answering me. I know that's why she isn't talking to you. What have you done in response?"

He could already hear the gears turning. Without asking, he knew that she had started formulating a plan.

"I just keep calling her in hopes that she will get so sick of me, she'll eventually pick up the phone."

"Pfft... futile effort. You and I both know she is far more stubborn than that. It may take me awhile, but I can wear her down. I know how her logic works. Let me try something. If that doesn't work, we'll deal with it during the November cabin trip."

Craig started to speak, but Darbie quickly cut him off by adding, "For the last ten years, you have always come on the annual November trip, and you're not going to skip it this year just because Keely is being stubborn. Just clear off the calendar, and I'll be in touch."

As he heard the phone click, all Craig could wonder was what had he committed himself to.

********

Yawning sleepily, Keely leaned over to flip off her bedside lamp. Her hand jerked as the unexpected ringing of the phone startled her. Steadying the lamp and then straightening the shade, she quickly glanced at the Caller ID and saw Craig's last name. He had called every evening at the same time since he found out about the divorce. However, it was unlike him to call late unless it was an emergency, so she picked up the phone in a panic.

"Craig? Is everything okay?"

"It's not Craig, Keely."

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, exhaled, and reread the Caller ID. It was then that she noticed that it read Emerson P. "P for Paul," she thought. The panic welled inside of her. Something had to be wrong for him to call her this late.

"Are you okay? "

"Yes."

"Oh my God! Is it your father? Did he have another heart attack?" Her pulse pounded in her ears when she thought of Paul's father having another one; she loved him as much as she loved her own father.

Paul's heart broke when he heard the anxiety in her voice over the possibility of losing his father. She had always loved his family like her own, and he knew he was to blame for her distance from them. The irritation he had when he first called had completely dissipated.

"No, everyone is fine."

"Then why are you calling me at this hour?" Paul could hear the suppressed anger in her voice.

"I'm sorry; I had originally called to chew you a new asshole."

"Chew me a new... Why?"

"I just spent the last three hours trying to explain to your Aunt Linda that I'm not the father of Jessica's baby."

Laughter caught in her throat. She wanted to cackle with glee but the sheer exhaustion in his voice stopped her. Besides, she had never been vindictive and wasn't about to start now.

"Excuse me for coughing."

"Cut the bullshit, Keely. We were married long enough for me to know what your real cough sounds like. You were probably laughing." He even let out a little laugh of his own.

"Paul, do you blame me? It's not as if you didn't put yourself in this position. And honestly, I was sick and tired of being the one blamed for Jessica's 'situation.' I'm not the one who fucked her."

Hearing her use such language stunned him. That wasn't her style in the least, and he was shocked to know that he brought that out in her. Despite what everyone thought about him, Paul really did love Keely. He still loved her to this day, and he regretted what he had done. He sighed into the phone.

"You're right. I'm sorry for calling so late and scaring you. I just wanted, well, I don't know what I wanted - maybe to yell and have you finally yell back at me. Keely, I know I screwed up, and I know you're angry. But unleashing your aunt Linda on me was, I don't know; let's say its cruelty in the extreme. She just kept asking me what I planned to do. I didn't know how much she knew, so I sat there like an idiot while she went on her tirade."

Keely sunk back into her bed as she spoke with Paul.

"Truth be told, Paul, I don't know what Linda knows. I'm not the one who spoke with her. I gave Darb your new business card when she told me that Linda was starting to bother her and Alan. I didn't think it was fair for them to have to deal with her, and I just got tired of her constantly calling me. I... I just wanted you to suffer. It was wrong of me, but you are going to have to face your responsibility in this."

"Keely, it's not mine. I swear."

"You don't have to give me that. The divorce is final, so it can't be used against you. Not that I ever would have. There was only one thing I wanted: out."

The hurt in her voice cut him to the quick. It was true. In their state, she could have used his infidelity to financially rake him over the coals, and she hadn't. All she had asked for was that their property be divided equally. She didn't want alimony either. He probably would have felt better had she been a vindictive bitch about their divorce.

"Keely, I'm not feeding you a line. What you saw was a one time –"

Tearfully, she interrupted him.

"Paul, please don't. I'm trying to move on. If it was indeed the only time then you have nothing to worry about with Aunt Linda. You can just deal with her for the next three months until the baby is born then demand a paternity test. I've got to sleep. I've got an early flight in the morning. Good luck with Aunt Linda."

The darkness enveloped her after she flicked off the lamp. Hearing Paul again threw her into an emotional turmoil. Then there was the panic that she felt when she thought Craig was calling with an emergency. What would she do if he had been hurt and she hadn't talked to him in all these months?

There was an early flight in the morning, but sleep wasn't going to come any time soon for Keely.

********

Due to meetings with clients and a jam packed schedule, Craig's day flew by. He had worked nonstop until his partner, Eli, had poked his head into his office and told him to go home. It wasn't until then that he realized he missed his daily 7 P.M. message to Keely.

Although Darbie had told him that Keely would be away on a conference for the next week, he still wanted to be reliable. Lord only knew she didn't have that with his brother. He decided to leave her a message from work.

"One of these days, it's going to work," he said to himself as he picked up the phone.

A smile split his face as he heard Keely's voice on her answering machine. It was a short and simple outgoing message, but one could hear the warmth and kind nature in those few seconds. He was so distracted by her voice that it took him a moment to realize that the machine had beeped.

"Oh, it beeped, and here I was daydreaming. Yeah, it's me, Craig, being a dork and leaving my daily message albeit it a little late. It was a hectic day here at work, and in fact, I haven't even left yet. When you get home from your conference, give me a ring."

"Who am I kidding? You're not going to call until you're damn good and ready," thought Craig as he hung up the phone. Most people would have given up by now, but he and Keely had really bonded in college. She was the only person who knew his innermost feelings, and he really didn't want to lose that.

As he headed for the car, Craig just hoped that he hadn't already lost it.

********

Exploring new cities had always been Keely's passion, and she spent the first evening after her conference roaming around San Francisco only to find herself in a little restaurant nestled above an import store eating noodles. She remembered visiting Japantown regularly when her parents had been stationed in the Bay Area during her youth. However, her last visit had been over twenty years ago.

Enjoying the noodles is what she should have been doing, but instead she kept glancing at her cell phone and wondering why she hadn't heard back from Craig. He should have been home by now and heard the message that she had left him on his answering machine.

********

The blinking light on the answering machine greeted Craig as he entered the kitchen to make a light snack before settling in to watch some mindless late night television. Normally, he would have rushed to the answering machine in hopes that Keely called.

Since she was currently in California and never returned his calls anyways, he didn't rush to press play button. Instead, he settled into making himself some tomato and basil bruschetta and poured himself a glass of wine.

The bruschetta was divine, the wine was heavenly, and the television mediocre at best. As he cleared the dishes and put them in his sink, he noticed the machine blinking still. He recalled that he hadn't checked his messages yet.

The first message was just his mother checking in on how he had been. He smiled at how doting she was. She hadn't heard from him in a week and was ready to call out the Search and Rescue team. As the machine announced the date and time of the next message, Craig made a mental note to call his mother back first thing in the morning.

What followed was a short clipped message from Paul stating they needed to touch base. He wondered what on earth Paul needed to discuss with him and added another task onto his list of things to do in the morning.

The canned robotic voice announced another message's date and time. He continued cleaning his kitchen while listening to his machine. The plate he was washing hung in mid-air as he heard her voice.

"Craig...uh, it's Keely." Turning slowly, he stared at the machine. He didn't notice that he still held a sudsy plate in his hand, which was now leaving a puddle of soapy suds on his hardwood floor.

"You must already be at work. I just wanted to touch base with you. Um, if all your offers about being my best friend are still there, I'd like you to forget that I've been an idiot these last six months. I won't be home until Saturday morning, so I'll call you after Darb drops me off at home. If you want, you can give me a ring on my cell. It'll be on in the evenings."

Completely forgetting the plate in his hands, Craig ran to jot down the number on a stack of Post-It notes by the phone. As he reached for the pen while Keely left her new cell number, he noticed the soapy plate. He couldn't care less that he was acting like an idiot; his best friend was back in his life.