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“Keith, you know I can’t come home,” I exclaimed into the phone later that night as I sat in my hotel room in New Orleans.
“I know.” Keith sighed. “I just miss you.”
“I miss you too, sweetie,” I said, “but you know I this is a big assignment and I have to prove I can handle it.”
“Yeah.” Keith’s voice was so downcast that my heart went out to him. He was really devastated without me.
“Listen Keith, I have to go,” I said. “I’ve got some work to do, but I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, I love you,” Keith said.
“I love you too. Bye.”
As soon as I hung up the phone there was a light knock on the door. I glanced at the clock and frowned. Who would be here at this hour?
When I opened the door, Chris and Joey were standing there, meekly holding out identical red roses.
“We’ve come to bury the hatchet,” Joey declared, falling to one knee and offering me the rose.
I couldn’t help but giggle as I excepted their peace offerings. It was the sweetest apology that I had ever received.
“We’re sorry we jumped to conclusions about you,” Chris told me.
“Yeah, we finally decided to grow up,” Joey added.” We wanted to invite you to a game of poker that is commencing in Justin and JC’s room at this time.”
“Sure.” I grabbed my key and slipped it into the pocket of my brand new pajama pants.
For the next hour I felt as if I was walking on glass. As if I stepped down too hard the floor would shatter. If I made one wrong move I would be an exile from the group once again, but the five guys soon set me at ease.
“C’mon Gwen,” Lance coaxed. “Come on over and play a game with us.”
“I don’t know how,” I answered, not looking up from the episode of I love Lucy I was watching.
“What?! Don’t know how to play poker?” Chris exclaimed.
“Nope.” I turned back to the classic episode where Lucy and Ethel got jobs at the chocolate factory.
JC grabbed the remote and flicked off the TV.
“Hey!” I protested. “I was watching that!”
JC grabbed my hand and pulled me to the table. “You can watch it later, I think Lance has that one on tape.”
I took a seat next to Justin. “I’m sure you guys don’t want to take the time to teach this game to me.”
“It’s no problem,” Joey said. “Okay, this is how it goes…”
“I won!” I cried about fifteen minutes later as I raked in the chips.
“Beginners luck,” Chris grumbled playfully.
“Nah, I’m just sweet like that,” I replied with a mock egotistical air.
“Yeah, we’ll get you next round,” Joey said as he dealt the cards for another game.
I looked around. I couldn’t believe they were the same guys that I had met a few days ago. They were smiley, friendly guys once you got to know them.
Maybe, I thought, these three months wouldn’t be so bad.
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