Jez walked through the door and dropped her bags on the floor. Clara jumped and dropped the book she was reading in her lap. "Oh hi." Clara smiled. "How was your trip?"
"Good. How were things here? I bet you enjoyed the time to yourself."
"Yeah I did. I think it was exactly what I needed."
"Well that's good. So I hope you don't mind but I'm gonna have Benny over. You remember meeting him don't you?"
"It was a brief meeting but yeah I remember meeting him."
Jez smiled and took out her cell phone. She stepped into the next room and Clara could only hear a faint bit of the conversation. Jez was laughing like a little school girl and whispering. She came back in the room just in time to agree to see Benny later on. "God I missed him." Jez slid into one of the chairs.
"I know that look." Clara laughed. "Makes me miss Chet."
"You should invite him over. You guys can hang out with Benny and I. It might ease the tension between the two of you. Then you guys could get some of the things out of the air that maybe talking over the phone or whatever wont do."
Clara hadn't really thought about ever again meeting up with her ex. She had written off the whole thing as just a bad experience and was doing her best to move on to bigger and better things. However she didn't have too much going on that night so she figured what the hell. He most likely wouldn't agree to come any way so there was really nothing to stress over. But as she took her phone out to send the text she froze. She didnt know how to word it. Would she say it was a double date or just a dinner with her new room mate? Finally she put the words together perfectly in her head and got them out in a text before she could forget them.
'Hey would you maybe want to come to dinner over at my new place tonight? My roommate is having her boyfriend over and I just don't want to be a third wheel and you were the only one I could think to ask, that is if you don't hate me.'
Clara waited for almost an hour before she got a response.
'I guess. I thought you were done with me though.'
'There should be no reason why we can't be civil to one another. Not to mention it will give you an opportunity to see the new place.'
The conversation seemed to go over so easy. There was really no reason why the two of them couldn't meet up and talk the way they were doing right now. That was the thought until the actual time came for Chet to come over.
Clara was sitting cross legged on the couch checking her phone every minute to see if he told her he was there. Jez and Benny seemed to be too preoccupied with one another to pay any attention to the outside world. When they heard a knock on the door Jez got up and sat on the arm of the chair Benny was in. Clara straightened herself up before opening the door.
"Hey come in."
"Thanks. Sorry it took so long had to make a quick stop to the liquor store."
Jez smiled as she grabbed the bottle of vodka from Chet's hand. Clara and Benny just sort of stared at each other from across the room. "Who wants a drink?" Jez asked as she made her way to the kitchen.
"Do you need some help?" Benny asked trying to hide the fact that his face was beginning to shift in color. He got up and disappeared into the other room with Jez.
Clara and Chet stood awkwardly facing each other before Chet slowly seated himself on the couch. They were both silent as if each one was afraid to be the first one to talk. They waited on the drinks to speak. Chet nearly downed his in one large gulp where as Clara sipped at hers casually. Benny decided to break the ice for everyone.
"So who wants to watch a movie? I got some stuff I've just been dying to stream." No one in the room responded before Benny clicked on a movie none of them had ever heard of. The beginning scene was a girl standing in the shower and a man slipping in behind her. It hadn't even gotten through the credits and there was nudity.
Clara and Chet stared at each other while Benny and Jez pawed at each other like wild animals. Clara couldn't stand sitting out there any longer and got up to leave. Chet followed her and watched as she sat at the kitchen table and put her head in her hands.
"Hey you alright?"
"Yeah its just weird being here with you and everything. I know I'm the one who invited you but I just really don't know what to say. We have already said everything that needs to be said to one another. Plus I really think you should know that I kind of have feelings for someone else."
"You have a new boyfriend already?"