Complicated.

7:

Spencer thumbed through the stack of mail in her hands as she entered her apartment, mentally picking out what was junk and what wasn’t. She opened one envelope, her bank statement, and tossed the rest onto the kitchen bar, along with her purse and sunglasses. On that same counter top sat her answering machine. It had a small, red digital 2 blinking in the bottom right corner, telling her the number of messages she had waiting for her. She leaned over and hit the play button.

The first message was work related and unimportant, but she let it play all the way through. Half-listening, she scanned the record of all the purchases she made the month before, then quickly glanced at her balance on the bottom of the page.

Charlie, her Golden Retriever, was sitting at her feet, watching her every move. His tail wagged excitedly against the carpeted floor, while he patiently waited to be acknowledged.

The next message was by Aiden. “Hey, I’m just calling to remind you about our coffee date. I told my boss that I have a doctor appointment in order to get some time off tomorrow. It’s hard to get any time off on a Friday, but since I rarely ever ask, he let me. You hear that? I’m sacrificing part of my Friday, one of our busiest days of the week, to do this, so you cannot back out on me. Call her.” After the click, the machine informed her that it was the end of her messages and shut off.

Spencer re-folded the bank statement and carefully slipped it back into the envelope before lowering her eyes to the black cordless phone sitting in its base. Sighing, she plucked the phone up and stared at the digits, willing her fingers to follow through with the next step. Calling Ashley and inviting her to join Aiden and herself for coffee was something she had been dreading all week. She knew their conversation was going to be weird and awkward like their face-to-face one was a few days before. But that was the whole point of the coffee meeting, to eliminate the awkwardness between them, reclaim their friendship. That’s what Aiden saw happening at least. Spencer wasn’t so sure. She was skeptical about the whole thing; the phone call, the meeting, trying to reconnect with Ashley, befriend her. If she had to be honest, she couldn’t see herself being friends with Ashley. Ever. There was just too much history between them.