She shifted on her chair, the wood creaking beneath her. Why had she agreed to this? She could hear Valerie in the kitchen, droning on as she got some snacks together, but Anne just kept glancing at her phone, for once wishing it would ring with a work emergency. Something that would mean she needed to leave immediately. Maybe some injury lawsuit would land on her desk for her to deal with, or a client needed to sue someone for defamation. She wasn’t picky.
“So that’s when I thought, well there’s no helping someone that determined to make an ass of himself.” Her friend set a paper plate down, cheese and crackers spread out haphazardly, and settled into her chair, smiling expectantly.
“Oh, uh… yeah, there’s no helping someone like that.” Anne shifted again, reaching forward to nibble on a cracker, carefully avoiding getting crumbs on her dark suit.
The woman across from her looked almost as unchanged as the small dining room they sat in. Her brown hair still pulled back in a ponytail, those same blue eyes intent behind her glasses. There were more lines in her face now, sure, just as the curtains in the windows had faded and the wallpaper had started to peel, but time had hardly touched this place, this person.
“It’s been too long since we’ve hung out, Anne,” Valerie said. “I’ve missed you.”