Auntie Bridget was Angela’s mother. I guess she had a point. Word did get around our family like lightning.
“Is it, Zo? I really wanted you over to get into that thick skull of yours. You’ve been a little distant since my wedding. I don’t know if my mom is right, but I do know you’ve changed. I just hope I had nothing to do with it. I really miss hanging out with you.” Karen’s voice was almost as pained as my heart was at the time.
“It’s not you…or Angela.” I licked my lips, trying to garner the nerve to finally open up and share my misery. Next to Angela, Karen had been my closest confidante. “KK, I…ummm…sort of got involved with a guy.”
Her eyes enlarged. “Is that why you’ve been MIA? I mean, that’s a good thing, right?”
I shrugged, feeling that cry at the back of my throat again. “No.” I swallowed hard. “Not when you fall in love with him and he up and leaves you without warning or reason.”
There were several expressions that washed over Karen’s oval shaped face: concern, confusion, relief, and then amusement.
“Well, Zo, I know you’ve never been the type to fall head-over-heels over a guy, but it’s not like it was so serious that you have to call it heartbreak, right?”
“You do when you make love to the first man that causes you to question your values and to want to change everything you called yourself planning for your life,” I whispered, unable to look at her.
But I heard her gasp. “Zo!” I glanced up to meet her eyes. “You lost your virginity?”
I nodded while biting the inside of my cheeks.
“Holy mother of Joseph!” she breathed. It was a phrase we all used.
“Well, there goes Bernard’s dreams out the window,” she murmured mostly to herself. “Does Angela know the guy? I know how tight you two…were.”
My eyes slammed shut and my face wrinkled as though in pain. I nodded my head.
Karen gasped. “An ex of hers? Oh, Zo! I know you’re not that type of girl.” She’d begun to panic and at the same time, mollify me.
“Worse,” I whispered, still unable to open my eyes.
“How much worse can it get besides Timmy?”
I did open my eyes to that one. Timmy was Angela’s fiancé. I caught Karen’s drift. It could only be as bad as Angela’s current. But that wasn’t true.
“Oh, it’s even worse than him.”
“Zoey, you’re scaring me! Who?”
“Stenton Rogers.” The tears I’d been swallowing all week nearly surfaced at the mention of his name.
Karen sat back in the sofa and covered her mouth, looking identical to Aunt Jenny. Jeez! I’d aged this girl in a matter of seconds.
“Was it his stature?” She lolled her head in disbelief. “Ang said that he’s even better looking in person than on television. Even I didn’t think that was possible. Did you get caught up in all of that, one thing led to another and you gave him your virginity? I could understand that slipup, you know?”
I shook my head throughout much of her assessment, knowing where she was going with it. “It was more than that, KK. He told me he loved me.”
“Well, Zo, you know that’s not uncommon for men when they want something. And then with him sensing you were the good girl you are, I’m sure he went even further with his persuasion.” She shook her head, suddenly angered. “So, it’s taken all this time for you to get over a fling from a year ago. I see now, Zo.”