1: 1
My night shift ended, and I took a cab to the barbecue joint.
Edwin Mason and his crowd were already deep into the meal, the table loud and warm.
My best friend Nora Fox was pressed against his side in a deep V-neck, her face flushed pink.
"Sonia Cox, you made it. Sit, sit." Nora waved me over like nothing was wrong.
I looked at the wreckage of the table, the few grilled skewers left, and mumbled an apology.
"Edwin, I want some of your grilled sausage." Nora looked at him through half-lidded eyes.
Edwin thoughtfully snapped the stick in two and held the sausage up to her lips.
"No, not that one. I don't want the top. I want the one down below."
The whole table burst out laughing. Not getting it, I laughed along too, awkward and lost.
Edwin and Nora watched me and laughed even harder.
Later, when I finally understood what that line meant,
the two of them were the ones crying.
1.
After the laughter died down, Edwin and Nora were still the center of everything.
And me, Edwin's actual girlfriend, might as well have been invisible.
"Edwin, you lucky guy. Your girlfriend's got such a great body."
I glanced down, on instinct, at my own flat, shapeless figure.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught the pleased look on Nora's face.
I knew it. Someone had mistaken Nora for Edwin's girlfriend again.
Ever since Nora met Edwin at my apartment,
the two of them had been stuck together like conjoined twins.
When I was burning up with the flu, he was helping Nora pick out nail designs.
When I begged him through my cramps to take me to the hospital, he left me on the side of the road because Nora was scared of thunder in the rain.
When I was cleaning up after his sick mother, changing her, wiping her, he was off chasing dreams with Nora at the ends of the earth.
Every dinner, every gathering, the one on his arm was Nora.
Never me.
At first, when people got it wrong, his friends would correct them for me.
Then, little by little, Edwin and Nora seemed to enjoy it too, and no one bothered anymore.
Something sour rose up my throat.
I'd worked too late tonight and missed dinner, and my useless stomach was starting to rebel again.
I fumbled for a cup, and someone on my right slid a glass of hot water over.
The warm heat went down, and that sour churning, whether it came from my stomach or somewhere else, got pushed back down.
"Edwin, come on, tell the guys how you and your girl met."
Edwin smiled. "Knock it off, man. Nosy."
But the guy wasn't satisfied. He picked up a beer and walked over to Nora.
"Come on, since Edwin won't say it, you tell us. How'd he win you over?"
Nora glanced at the fizzing yellow liquid in the glass.
Then she gave Edwin a wounded little look.
Edwin pushed the beer away for her and pulled me over by the arm.
"Wrong girl, buddy. This one's Edwin's girlfriend."
The guy holding the beer went red in the face.
Nora waved at him, playful. "I'm Sonia's best friend. She was running late from work, so Edwin just brought me along first. We're all friends here, right?"
Even with Edwin holding on to me, the space between us was still wider than the space between him and Nora.
The guy looked at me, embarrassed. "Sorry, sorry. My mistake, I've got no eyes. Three drinks, my penalty."
He knocked back three glasses one after another, gulping them down, his face flushing crimson.
Before I could get a word out, Edwin shoved a full glass of beer into my hand.
"Lee Whitney, come on, you've made your point. We're all brothers here. This one's on me and my girl, so we're the ones who should be apologizing to you."
I gripped the glass, the pain deep in my stomach making my hand shake so I couldn't stop it.
Edwin drained his own glass and looked at me, quiet.
"Drink up, Sonia. Lee did three to apologize to you. You've only got this one."
I looked up at the man wearing the title of my boyfriend.
I looked at the whole table waiting for the show, opened my mouth, and got ready to force the drink down through the pain.
"Oh, Sonia's probably not feeling well. Let me drink it for her."
Nora snatched the glass away.
Before it even reached her lips, Edwin blocked it.
His arm swung too hard, and the whole glass of beer splashed all over Nora.
"What are you trying to prove? Your period's about to start."
Nora looked at him, troubled. "I just didn't want to put you in a tough spot, Edwin. Now I'm all wet."
Nora's chest rose and fell, her curves even more striking.
More than a few pairs of eyes drifted over her.
"Take off your shirt and give it to me."
At his furious shout, I froze in shock.
