Free My Worst Best Friend by Dyan Sheldon Page B

I would’ve like blended right into the wall and he wouldn’t’ve known I was there and my life would’ve been ruined for ever.”
    It was a miracle the entire human species didn’t just stay in bed, paralyzed by the fear of wearing the wrong colour and nuking their lives.
    “Oh, don’t be unkind, Gracie. I know you’re an unbeliever, but I thought you’d be happy for me.”
    “I’m just teasing you, Sav. Of course I’m happy for you.” I was. But though I don’t have a romantic nature, I do have a cautious one. “I just don’t understand how you can be so stoked about someone you only talked to for a couple of minutes.”
    She bit into her bread and cheese. “But I didn’t. We talked for, like, hours. I don’t think I’ve ever talked so much in my life. The words just flowed from me like water down a drain.”
    In Dentist Tim’s waiting room? How was that possible? He didn’t open till nine, and he closed at noon on Saturdays. They’d have had to get there the night before.
    “Oh, Gracie…” honked Savanna. “Obviously we didn’t
stay
in the waiting room. I mean, it looks like an airport lounge – except for the old magazines and not being able to get a snack and stuff like that. You can’t have a real conversation in that kind of atmosphere. He was still hanging around when I came out and he asked if I wanted to get a coffee. So of course I said sure.”
    “You said
sure
?” People besides my dad thought I was pretty smart, but sometimes I was so slow to get things I might as well have been in another country. If I hadn’t figured out that she’d spent the afternoon with him, what had I thought happened? That he really had hypnotized her or carried her off? “You mean
that’s
why you never made it to Java? Because you went for coffee with
him
?”
    “Morgan. And I know … I know…” She took another pickle. “You’re right. I’m, like, totally impossible. But you know me. I just don’t seem to be able to stop myself. I’m very impetuous. You’re really balanced – you always think things through – but I just kind of jump into the pool with my shoes on. I mean, I, like, had to say yes, Gray. You do understand, don’t you? My heart wouldn’t let me say no.”
    Of course I understood. I was her best friend. That was what Savanna was like. Passionate. Spontaneous. Swimming around in a pool with her shoes on. While I stood on the side, wondering how much chlorine was in the water.
    “It’s kind of too bad your heart didn’t tell you to borrow his phone so you could call me,” I joked.
    Savanna laughed. “I would have, Gray, I really would have. But you know what it’s like. I was swept away. I lost all sense of time.”
    I didn’t want to sound a sour note here or anything, but it did strike me that that wasn’t the only sense she’d lost.
    “I just have one question, Savanna.”
    “What?” She picked up a drink from the tray. “You want to know when I’m going to see him again?”
    That wasn’t it.
    “What about Archie?”
    She looked at me over her glass. “Archie?”
    “Yeah, you know, tall guy … dark hair … strong jaw … heavy earlobes – you know, the guy you already have.”
    She shrugged. “I think Archie’s great, Gracie, you know that.” She took a sip. “But it isn’t all beds and roses, is it? I mean, I was thinking just the other day that maybe Archie was just one of those summer things.”
    “You mean like sunburn or poison ivy?”
    “More like lemonade. You don’t want lemonade in the fall, do you?” She raised her glass. “You want cider.”
    “But don’t you have to put the lemonade back in the fridge, first?”
    “Meaning?”
    “You know… Meaning, you can’t date two boys at the same time, Savanna.”
    “But I’m not dating two boys. I haven’t exactly had a date with Morgan yet, have I? We, like, only just met.”
    “Yeah, but you said he’s really special and—”
    “You’re worrying about nothing as usual, Gray.