The Gay Man's Matchmaker

Chapter 16

“Oh, my God, Kee,” Lauren sighed. “I am so sorry he did this. I promise you I had no idea!”

I was sitting on her couch convulsing with the aftereffects of my sob-fest. Somehow I’d wandered to the only other place in the city I could feel safe right now … namely my ex-best friend’s fiancée’s apartment. Lauren lived in a small apartment bordering The Village. It was tiny, but very homey, and she’d decorated it in soothing colors and fabrics that would seem more appropriate for a country house than a NYC apartment, but that’s Lauren, a contrast to the core.

I vaguely remembered choking out the story to her as I wept shortly after I arrived. She’d probably meant to curse me out for waking her up when she’d answered the door. It was around one am when I got there. But I guess she took one look at my face and realized I was in need, because she pulled into the apartment and sat me down on the couch before she went into the kitchen to put a pot of water on for tea and retrieve a box of tissues. Then she sat with me. All I remember saying over and over again was “Why would he do this to me?” I’m sure Lauren thought I was talking about Tommy, but I couldn’t possibly have cared less about that bastard. It was Joey I was crying over.

“I … kn-know.”

And I did know. Lauren would never, ever have endorsed such an asinine plan, and would likely have slapped the hell out of Tommy’s head … with the help of a stepladder of course … before she’d let him go through with it. It was probably why he’d conspired to keep us apart for the last few days so that I couldn’t ask her about their supposed plans for the night. He was a shit, and I would never forgive him for it, I vowed. I really meant it, too. At this point, my best friend was dead to me.

The phone shrilled, jarring me. Lauren gave it a confused glance before she reached over and picked it up, clicking it on.

“Hello?” She listened for a minute before her face twisted in anger. “Yes, he’s here and no, you can’t talk to him!”

What? Who is it? I looked at her helplessly.

“You’re damn right I’m mad!” she yelled into the receiver, apparently not giving her upstairs neighbors a thought. “You had no fucking right to set him up like that, Tom!”

Ah, the fiancé, I sighed to myself. Well, he was her problem now, as far as I was concerned.

“Of course you didn’t think it would turn out like this!” she scoffed. “You never think about the consequences of anything you do, or how it’ll make others feel!”

Uh oh. That sounded more serious than I thought.

“No, I’m not overreacting! You’ve hurt him badly, Tom. I don’t give a shit what your intentions were. He had to face that humiliation alone, too!”

It had been humiliating. Just thinking of Chris’ smug expression twisted my insides and probably raised my blood pressure a few hundred points. And what about Joey? Was he laughing with Chris right now? Yeah, he’d hit him, but who knew what his real intentions were. He had moved in on me awfully fucking fast. And when was the last time I’d been swept off my feet like that? I’ll tell you when! Never! And I never should have let it happen this time, either. Alone may have been lonely, but alone was also safe. And I got the occasional fuck when I felt like it, anyway. Why did I let them talk me into this damned relationship thing?

“We never should have pushed him into dating to begin with,” Lauren put my thoughts into words. “And you never should have betrayed him like that. You’re his best friend!” Were, anyway. “You should have been the one protecting him, not throwing him out there like that!”

My thoughts exactly. I believe if we looked back to where I began this story, we’d see I’d been saying this shit all along! Not that anyone listened to me, right?

“No. I don’t want you coming over here,” she said into the receiver tiredly. “Absolutely not. I’m pissed at you, too.”

She looked disgusted with him as she spoke.

“I’ll meet you for lunch tomorrow, but I want you to know right now that you’re in a huge doghouse.” She listened for another minute before she shook her head. “No, I don’t want to make any more wedding decisions right now.” Huh? “Because this really showed me that I don’t well you as well as I thought I did.”

“Lauren, no,” I whispered softly.

She pinned me with a dark look and shook her head again. I sat back against the couch, defeated. I could be mad at him all I wanted to, but if he lost her, I don’t know what he’d do. And, yeah, maybe he did deserve it. But she didn’t. After all, I worked so hard getting them together.

“I didn’t say the wedding was off … yet,” she muttered to him. “I just said I didn’t want to talk about the wedding right now. You’ve given me enough to think about for one night. Tomorrow, lunch at Porter’s. One thirty.”

After barking out the commands she severed the connection with a sharp hiss and gave me a sad look.

“Don’t go blaming yourself for this, Kee,” she ordered. “I’m looking out for my own best interests here. If he could do something like that to you, someone he’s known and cared for all of his life, how can I blindly trust him?”

I didn’t have an answer for her on that one. Sad, isn’t it?

“You’ll be staying with me, right?” she asked softly. “I mean, I know it’s not the most spacious place in the world,” she glanced around, “but it’s cozy.”

That brought a small smile out of me. I’d like to stay with her. Really, I would. But I knew I couldn’t. So long as I stayed around, he wouldn’t be able to patch things up with her. I knew that with a certainty. Lauren was sweet to a point. But if she had to look at the forlorn face of the one Tommy’d wronged, she’d never be able to work things out with him.

“Just for tonight,” I said sadly to her. “It’s not that I don’t love the accommodations,” I quickly added when she readied herself for an argument. “You know you need to work things out with him.”

“But …”

“No, listen to me,” I shushed her, which is usually harder to do, but hey, I looked pathetic right now, and I wasn’t above capitalizing on it. “He’s an ass, no argument from me. Will I ever talk to him again? Who knows? I don’t plan on it. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on him.”

“Kee!”

“Really! You’re like, the only link he has to humanity.”

“I wouldn’t go that far!”

I speared her with a pointed look and she shrugged with a small smile tugging at her lips. I knew she still loved the hell out of him … even if he didn’t deserve her.

“What about you?” she asked.

What about me? That’s a good question. I couldn’t go back to living with him now. Being civil? Pfft! Are you kidding? There’s a good chance of him waking up without his liver if we stay together. And I’m not fond of the idea of spending the rest of my life in jail over him. He was no longer worth that much of my time.

“I’ll find somewhere else to live.”

“That doesn’t seem fair to me.” Then she looked pensive. “I know! How about I move him in here? Then you could keep the apartment?”

“I couldn’t afford the rent on my own.”

“Joey?”

“Who knows if he wasn’t just using me?” I asked wearily.

“Okay then. How about I move in there with him, and you move in here?”

Hmm. That idea had merit. I could live on my own for once in my life and not have to worry about a slobby roommate messing with my stuff. Plus, my meditation sessions wouldn’t be interrupted, and I could live near people that reminded me of … well, me. And Lauren and I could still see each other, sans the asshole. I liked that. I think I liked that a lot. And then I could decide when and if I would straighten things out with my so-called boyfriend in my own time, with no outside interference.

“That might work,” I said casually. “But make him grovel for you first.”

Hey, my fucking world just deteriorated in the span of six fucking hours because of that bastard! I had to grab onto something uniquely me, and helping her make him sweat would have to do!

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” she smirked. “I’ll make him crawl!”