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A New Lisa Marie?
A week later, Candice, Trish and I went to Lisa Marie's new apartment in the West Village for a housewarming gathering. It wasn't any big deal, just us girls, and I was glad for it... Maybe it would get my mind off of my sins of the prior week.
The kiss in the elevator left me breathless and so very aroused. He knew all the right buttons to push in me, and I sensed he knew what was in my heart... I had never truly gotten over him, and I would have sold my soul had he not known that.
I was weak, weak as I'd always been when it came to him. There was such a passion between us, it had threatened to ignite at any given moment, without notice. And so, we ended up in a nearby hotel together.
Images of Edge, naked, above me, beneath me, came unbidden into my head. I squeezed my eyes shut as though to rid my mind, my memory, of the images.
Fortunately, none of my friends seemed to take notice of my gesture. They were too wrapped up in the apartment and their conversations.
"So, you moved on a whim all just because of your neighbors talking about you?" Candice asked.
"Well, yes," Lisa Marie replied. "Who are those nosy busybodies to talk about my sex life?" She wrinkled her nose in annoyance. "Those old biddies were just jealous - all of them."
"But tenants in your building were robbed because you let a guy in at two A.M., right?" Trish asked.
"Yeah," came the muttered response. Lisa took a swig of white wine and looked away, embarrassed.
"Oh, don't worry about that anymore," I chimed in. "Look at this amazing place you've got!"
That brought a smile to the brunette's face.
"It is amazing... And would you check out this view?!" She rose and sauntered over to the windows, pushing the drapes aside and then removing them altogether. She then opened the windows and peered outside into the night. "New York City! We four have got it all!" Lisa Marie cried.
Trish giggled and poked me in the arm as she sipped her wine.
Lisa joined us again.
"Would you look at us? We do have it all! Great careers, great sex, great lives all around!"
I flinched just a bit. Her mention of 'great sex' got me thinking about Edge again.
Our little get together went on another two hours before Candice and Trish left. Both had early days the next day. I was actually glad for that and stuck around to help Lisa Marie clean up. But I had an agenda all my own, and I spit it out as I was standing near the sink with the wineglasses.
"I slept with Edge," I blurted, noting the look of shock that came to my friend's face. "It was a one-time thing, and it's not going to happen again."
"My God... When did this happen?"
"Last Friday," I said, letting out a whoosh of breath. "I ran into him at Jeff's furniture expo thing, and he showed up alone later when I was leaving and cornered me in the elevator... and it just... happened."
"Does Jeff know?" the brunette asked.
"No," I admitted, shaking my head. I realized I could barely even bring myself to look at Lisa. "And I'm not going to tell him.
She nodded.
"That's probably for the best."
"Oh, it would devastate him!" I lowered my head, bringing both hands to my brow. "Oh, God! What did I do? Why did I allow it to happen?!"
I felt Lisa Marie's hand gently on my arm.
"Oh, honey," she said, "stop beating yourself up... You're human. We all make mistakes."
I nodded and said, "Yeah... Yeah, you're right." I was so grateful toward Lisa Marie and actually felt better for telling her my secret. I had known that if anyone would understand and not be judgmental, it was her. "Don't tell Candice or Trish about this, okay?"
"Of course I won't," she assured me. She gave my arm another reassuring squeeze.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, Leece," I said. I hugged her tightly, so relieved to have gotten this off my chest to her.
Lisa hugged me back.
"Don't worry, honey... It'll all be okay."
I pulled back, met her dark eyes and nodded. If only I could actually feel convinced by my friend's words. I stayed another hour or so before leaving her to her new home.
*
In the morning, Lisa Marie awoke to realize she had yet another housewarming gift... She was sick as a dog thanks to a nasty stomach virus that had been going around for weeks.
"Oh, God," she moaned. On top of an aching stomach and nausea, she also had a pounding headache that radiated from her left eye.
The brunette made a slightly strangled sound as she rose to adjust the drapes she'd removed from the windows the prior night. But it was to no avail as she was unable to get them back into place.
"Oh, no..." she murmured. She turned and raced toward her bathroom.
When she was finished with her misery over the toilet, Lisa Marie managed to hobbled back to the couch, where she had fallen asleep during the night. She felt so awful, she could have cried. In fact, she did start to cry as she reached for the phone. She knew she needed help, and maybe one of the many men she'd shared short spurts of her life with would offer her a hand.
She dialed a number she was shocked to remember, then waited as it rang on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Chris? It's Lisa Marie."
There was a beat of silence followed by a sigh. Then, "What do you want?"
The sick brunette was astonished that the man would speak to her that way, with such hostility in his voice. After all, she had had an actual relationship with him!
"I'm sick with a stomach virus, and I was wondering if you would... well, be sweet enough to come to my place and take care of me?" she asked, a pleading tone in her voice.
"You have got to be kidding me," Chris muttered in response. "You blew me off, claiming I couldn't satisfy you in bed. And now, four years later, you call to ask me to play nursemaid? I don't think so!"
"Oh, please, Chris!" Lisa begged. She knew how pathetic she sounded, but she was desperate.
"Bye... And don't call me again!" He hung up with a definitive click.
Defeated, the weary brunette hung up and sobbed weakly.
*
Twenty minutes later, I swung by Lisa Marie's place. It didn't take long, since I was only on the other side of Greenwich Village. I even brought her some chicken noodle soup - not made by me but by Progresso.
Lisa balefully explained what she had done in her desperate state, and my jaw hung slack.
"I can't believe you called Chris!" I exclaimed.
"He wasn't the only man I called before I called you... Remember Ken Anderson?"
I blinked, nearly doing a double-take.
"You called him?"
"I did," Lisa Marie nodded. "He wouldn't come over, either... Said he was too busy with his club." She began to cry again. "Amy, let's face it - there are two kinds of men in the world... the kind that that hold your hand, and the kind that do you. And the ones that do you aren't worth a damn!"
"Aww, sweetie," I said, wincing as I held my sick friend in my arms. She sobbed, and I stroked her hair on her sweaty brow. Lisa was burning up with a fever, and clearly, she was delirious.
"I miss Chris!" she whined. "I never should have dumped him! Who knows, if it weren't for my pettiness, we might have been married with a couple of kids by now!"
"Shh... Hey, let me get you a bowl of soup," I said.
So, that was the time when it seemed that there was a new Lisa Marie in town. But it didn't last long...
By the end of the week, she was completely recovered, and the old Lisa we all knew and loved came back, bedhopper
and all.