The Good Friend

Sara had been having a really rough week, her husband had gone missing four days ago on Friday night. Sara told police that John had left the house like he had done every Friday night for the last few months, ever since he started that bowling league. He had not returned later that night like he usually did, exhausted by the frames he had played.

Jackie and Sara had been friends since grade school. Inseparable through good times and bad, they had been the best of friends. So when Jackie had spoken to Sara last night, she knew her well enough that she knew she must invite Sara over to ease her mind.

Jackie had read about this Chocolate Cake that was moist, flaky and so rich that just looking at it made her mouth salivate in desire, surely that would help Sara mend. The recipe had used fresh strawberries, but they had left instructions for making the cake sweet, tart or even savory.

So Jackie, being a dutiful, loyal friend decided to start the cake that night and invite Sara over the following day to have some girl talk and set her mind at ease. Jackie had feared that she wasn’t a good enough friend to Sara, but she knew this cake would fix that.

Jackie asked Sara to come over that evening after work, Sara agreed to head over as soon as she left. While Sara was at work, Jackie put the finishing touches on the cake. She painstakingly drew some beautiful designs on the side of the cake when it was all done. Looking divine as she placed it in the center of the table.

Sara pulled up later that evening, her eyes puffy and red, and her face showing weariness that Jackie had never seen. Jackie’s heart broke for her friend, she could see the exhaustion on Sara’s face. Jackie wondered again if she was a good friend, Sara was clearly in agony and she had done nothing to calm her for four days. Surely, this girl time would help.

Jackie had never been a fan of wine but she knew Sara had a penchant for a well paired Cabernet Sauvignon with chocolate anything. Jackie said as they sat down in front of the cake, ‘Ok, tell me all about it”. Sara stared at her untouched glass of wine. Jackie would not let her best friend fall into the void like this, she pressed, “come on sweetie, I know that look. Please talk to me, it will help. I just know it”.

Sara looked at her friend and weakly smiled. “I know you want to help. Thank you, you are really a good friend”, said Sara as she locked eyes with Jackie. This warmed Jackie’s heart, knowing that she wasn’t a bad friend in her eyes after all was exactly what she needed to hear.

“Tell me everything, I can tell you have been holding back.” Said Jackie. Sara looked at her wine again and started to go into the details of the event. She said that John had started a bowling league a few months ago.

He had been nervous at first, but she could see his confidence and happiness rise after every following week. She talked about how she hated bowling, but he had always loved it. When he told her about it she knew she needed to let him have this guy time.

As she went on with her story, little smiles would flash on her face. She explained how as weeks went by, she could see how happy he was and that made her happy. So she never complained about losing out on Friday nights with him. Sara just wanted John to be happy.

Jackie loved this about her friend, she was so giving, so loving. Sara went on to talk about how the week before he disappeared, he had come home really unhappy. He had told Sara that he had done something wrong while at the lanes and it cost him. He didn’t say how, she had just known that it must have been really rough, because he was pretty torn up about it all week.

The night that he had left he had told Sara that he would be a bit later than normal. While Sara had been so curious about this that she could pop, she knew that this time was special to him and wanted to let him do his thing. She thought that he just needed his “man time” and in the long run this would be that much better for their relationship.

Jackie saw the pain as Sara went on, making her own heart hurt for her friend. Sara explained how he had just never come home. That she had stayed up just so he could tell her how the evening went. They began to eat the cake as she spoke. The chocolate seemed to be doing its job, her spirits lifting with every bite.

He never arrived though. Her impending sense of doom had just gotten worse until the police finally accepted her case. She had thought that maybe something stupid had happened. She feared that maybe he had gotten into trouble. His confidence had risen so much that it wasn’t a big leap to think maybe he had started gambling.

Jackie watched, listen and ate her cake as Sara went on. She savored every bite as her friend described the hell she felt she was going through. This pain was real, Jackie had no doubt about it. Just a bit more cake and Jackie just knew that she would be the friend she knew she could be. Sara and Jackie were both finishing their first slice of cake, the wine starting to do its job and relax them both.

As Sara was finishing her story she went to get another piece of cake, taking the knife and cutting herself another slice. Her face scrunched a bit as the knife stuck in the cake. Jackie knew it was her chance to finally make her friend happy again.

The last few months flashed through Jackie’s mind as Sara worked her slice from the cake with some effort. The moment a few months ago when John had ran into her at the bar on a Friday night. The moment at the end of the night where John had unexpectedly leaned in to kiss her. The rush of blood through her body had instantly made her forget all else, her mind and body now taken by passion. The look on Johns face though was shock and fear, clearly present in his tortured eyes. He had almost ran out of the bar, leaving Jackie to sit and stew in her passion.

She remembered how the passion and desire she felt would not leave her all week. So that following Friday she decided to go to the bar again, hoping against hope that she would see him again. After a few beers while starring at the door, he did not disappoint.

John walked through the door and locked eyes with Jackie. His face seemed pained still, but he walked slowly to where she sat. Neither of them had said a word, they just embraced in a kiss that was like gasoline on the fire of her passion. She grabbed his hand neither saying a word and led him to her car in the dark parking lot. He had taken her right there in her SUV, their passion intense.

As they lay in the SUV they both panted and looked at the ceiling. They sensed each other again and looked at each other, still no words. His eyes tortured again, he quickly jumped out of the vehicle, half clothed and half running away from her car. Leaving her again stewing in passion.

Over the next few months it had turned into a weekly rendezvous. An unspoken agreement that Friday night they would meet in the bar, talk and drink until one would lead the other to the small motel near the bar. Their passion lasting long into the night. She could feel the excitement grow each week, and she just knew that John felt the same. For months they had met like this, a secret passion.

She watched as Sara worked the cake away from the plate, her eyes now transfixed on the dessert as it pulled away. Sara’s eyes widened and their eyes connected in a moment of revelation.

Last Friday now flashed through her mind again as it had so many times. John had arrived at the bar flushed, he grabbed her hand and immediately led her to the dingy hotel. Her excitement already bubbling up as this sudden fierce passion had overtook him.

The memory continued, all running through in an instant. As they had gotten to the hotel he immediately sat her on the bed and started rambling. Her shock at their break in the unspoken protocol making her chest feel tight.

He went on and on to Jackie, explaining how everything felt wrong since the previous week. He explained how the guilt had been eating him and even though they had obvious passion, it was wrong. Jackie looked at him, smiling, listening. Her passion transforming as he spoke.

He finished telling Jackie that this “thing” they had, had to stop now, they were over. He finished his plight and looked at her deeply in the eyes. The torture that she had seen the first couple of visits returned, though now it looked to be a hectic madness in his eyes.

They stared at each other, Jackie could feel the smile burning her face. The passion now raging, though it did not feel the same, something had changed. John began to speak and without realizing, she had grabbed the lamp off of the end table next to her. Her passion, now a fiery rage instead of a desire she could not sate, forcing her to watch as if she were another person.

She had watched as the lamp connected with John’s stunned face, his head rocking to the side hard. His eyes which were still locked with hers at that time, flashed with confusion and fear as he fell off of the bed.

Her rage still in control, she seemed to watch from a distance as her body landed on top of his, her arm savagely swinging the lamp over and over towards his head. She gasped in deep breaths as she seemed to return to her senses. Now seeing what was once John, now just a mess of what used to be Johns face on the ground below him.

Her mind again snapped to the present, to Sara’s red and watery eyes in front of her. She could tell her friend was in shock, though Sara’s eyes did not show any of the relief that Jackie was sure she would feel. Jackie was confused and thought that Sara must not understand.

Jackie simply said to Sara, “We had to stop, our passion was real. I had to stop him…” Her smile felt warm on her face, she felt as though her love for her friend was shining with that smile. Sara’s eyes though filled with tears as she began to scream and scramble towards the door.

Jackie sat still, her mind transfixed on how she must be a good friend now that Sara’s pain would end. The cake that Sara had dropped as she scrambled to the door had fallen on the floor at her feet.

Her eyes traveled down, her eyes landing on the wedding ring that had fallen from the slice of cake. The ring that was still attached to the appendage it once had rested on, her smile warm on her face. Sara’s screams only a whisper in the back of her mind.