Me and Tina were friends in high school and for four years we were inseparable. We even went on a few double dates in our senior year.
When she met Gary I was happy for her that she loved him but I didn't care for him myself. He was a young tow truck driver, he was a big guy and while he was very strong he was also a little out of shape like many tow truck drivers can be. Still, Tina loved him and I stood by her when they got married right after graduation.
I visited them a few times over that summer and always felt a little uncomfortable around Gary. He was too friendly with me, you know what I mean? Like if he'd hug me his hands would always get a little too personal.
My concerns about Gary ended in the fall when I went away to study law at Duke.
While I was busy in school Tina was back home having babies almost one right after the other. I thought she had it so bad and I had it so good.
I got my Bachelor's degree and at a graduation party I met the man who would be my husband. It was a torrid and ill-considered romance and we were married eight weeks later.
Dropping out of school to help him with his career I went to work as a paralegal. He continued his education and after a few more years he passed the bar and became a lawyer. He found a job as an assistant district attorney in Vermont and so we uprooted and moved there.
It was my twenty-seventh birthday when I found out about my husband's affair with a woman on the City Council. His affair with her put a lot of things in my marriage into perspective.
The divorce was more or less amicable. There wasn't much in the way of money and there was quite a bit in terms of debt and he agreed to accept the debt and I agreed to just leave.
After the divorce was final I moved home to Texas with my parents and I did a lot of drinking and pitying myself. My dad wanted me to apply for law school in Austin but I wasn't really ready to go back to the books. Mentally I was a mess. I just wanted some time to get my head together before I got back into pursuing a career.
My folks were really great about putting up with my crap during that time.
Tina and Gary in that same time had relocated to a suburb outside of Denver. In a short time Gary managed to put together a growing business that included towing, an auto repair business, and a body shop. The three different businesses complemented each other and both he and Tina were doing pretty good.
The same spring when I was sitting at home drinking my sorrows away there had been a typical snowstorm in the Denver area. Tina had been driving to the shop after dropping off two of her kids at school when she skidded past a stop sign and got broadsided by a semi truck.
Her car was totaled, her pelvis was broken up, she had a fractured back, broken legs, and a head injury.
It didn't take much for me to go see her. My dad bought the airline ticket for me and drove me to the airport. A few short hours later I was in Denver and another hour or so and I checked into a hotel and went to see Tina.
She was horribly injured. All sorts of things were connected to her, there were sounds coming from the machines, and above all there was Gary doting on her and doing his best to make her feel better.
Tina was awake but the pain meds were having an effect on her so she was in and out the whole time. All the same I understood that she was happy to see me.
I talked to Gary and he let me know that Tina's mom was at the house taking care of the kids. Tina could go home in another two weeks but only if someone was there and Tina's mom needed to go back to Texas soon enough.
I embraced the opportunity to do something better than sit around drinking all day and I volunteered to help out.
Between working and seeing Tina I didn't see much of Gary. When he did come home he spent time with the kids or he slept. He had a business to run, a wife to take care of, and I was doing my best to keep their family running.
It ended up being three weeks before Tina was allowed to come home and when she did she was happy to see everyone and she was thrilled to see me taking care of things. Our friendship picked up where we'd left off a decade before and every day we did a lot of catching up.
Gary went back to working all the time and at this point he was working odd hours with odd days off. There was a lot to catch up to with his three-in-one business and his days off when he took them were Mondays and Tuesdays.
My days were soon filled with the routines of physical therapy for Tina, laundry, kitchen chores, getting her older kids off to school, doing daycare for the younger two, and making meals for everyone. It was a seven-day a week job and it made me stop drinking and pitying myself. Tina's very real problems were put ahead of my own.
Two months later and on one of those Mondays that Gary had off from work I was in taking care of Tina when he came out of the shower. Naked. To his credit he grabbed a towel as soon as he saw me and he was also appropriately bashful about the whole thing.
Myself I was blown away by what I'd seen! My father used to speak of his time in the Army with all the "swinging dicks" he'd see in the barracks but up until I saw Gary naked I never really understood what that meant. My husband wasn't equipped to swing and the best his dick ever did was jiggle.
Gary on the other hand was impressive. I found myself just a tad jealous of Tina in this way. She'd had a man in her bed for ten years while I had a guy who never quite seemed interested in me.
After Gary left to go do some shopping Tina and myself did a bit of girl talk and soon enough Gary came up. Tina really opened up after I got her a pain pill and she told me of her early days with Gary. He had been very adventurous with Tina and when they got married she said she was surprised she hadn't gotten pregnant beforehand.
I never knew about that at the time. I guess I hadn't been paying attention and I felt a little bad about it. I mean my best friend had given up her virginity and I didn't even know.
At one point of our pain-med fueled chat she told me that Gary was probably needing to get laid. I got all wistful for a moment and said that I needed to get laid too. We shared a nice laugh over that and the discussion moved on to another topic.
Things were getting good after that. Tina was walking now and getting around a bit better. Her great triumph one day was going to the bathroom and not needing any help to get up off the toilet. I started giving thought to my plans when I'd return to Texas.
In all this time Gary had actually been very polite to me. Unlike a decade before he was never handsy with me and never improper.
Late one Sunday night one of the littles got sick and ended up puking all over me. After I got her cleaned up and put back to bed I took a shower and dumped my pajamas in the laundry room sink.
Afterwards I was wide awake and my old friend alcohol was calling for me. Wearing a bath towel I went out to the liquor cabinet and poured myself a glass of whatever was handy. A big glass. I think it was tequila.
I went back to my room where I sat on the sofa, turned on the TV and sat down to sip my drink. I drank about half of it when I heard my door quietly open and quietly close.
"Whatcha' doin?" asked Gary as he sat down next to me on the sofa.
"Getting drunk." I admitted.
"Why?"
"Because this..." I gestured around me, "..is coming to an end and I have to go home and be me again."
"Fuck it, why don't you just stay a while longer then? Tina won't mind. Not at all. We owe you for everything you've done for us."
I shook my head, "No, you and Tina got to get back to being a couple and I'll just be in the way."
His hand went to my bare shoulder. "Tina can't do anything for another few months, maybe six. Her pelvis is still healing."
"Yeah, I guess so. I feel bad for you that way. I imagine you miss being with her."
"Then stay. I want you here too." he said as he moved closer to me.
