A Chat Long Over Due

I wasn't going to answer the phone at first, I didn't want to talk to anyone. But when I looked at the caller ID, I gasped and grabbed the phone.

"Janie?" I asked in disbelief.

I heard her laugh, "Yeah Amber it's me. How are you doing? Is this a bad time?"

I told her it wasn't, that I was alone because Alexis and Reed just left for the 'daddy and me' group. "I can't believe you are calling me, you have no idea how happy I am to hear from you. How are you?"

Janie told me about our friends, school and her family. She talked for a good 20 minutes non stop, it was nice to hear about everyone again. "So," she finally paused long enough to take a moment to breath.

"So what?" I asked.

"How are things going with Reed?"

"What do you mean?"

Janie sighed, "Come on Amber its me. I know how much you loved him and how badly he hurt you when you told him about Alexis."

I almost asked her why she wanted to talk about Reed but I didn't. "Things are fine, he's taken a huge interest in spending time with Alexis and that's what is important." I don't know why, but I didn't feel like telling her anything else about him.

"That's great!" She exclaimed, "I'm glad that he finally found you, he has been a little obsessed with that since you've been gone."

"Well Janie, he wanted to be a part of Alexis' life, so I don't really blame him for being obsessive in his efforts to find her."

"Yeah," Janie sounded a little different when she said that.

"Janie what's wrong? Did you call to talk to me or to find out what Reed is doing?"

"Amber, I'm sorry."

My heart jumped in my chest as she said those words, why is she sorry? She didn't...she wouldn't...but she did say she was told Alexis was pretty. Who would've told her besides Reed? "Sorry about what?" I asked, preparing myself for the worst.

She hesitated, sighed and then took a deep breath. "I've done something really stupid. I didn't mean to hurt you but I wasn't thinking straight at the time. Amber, I -"

"Wait!" I cut her off. "I don't think I want to know."

"But Amber, I think you should know that I -"

"Please Janie," my voice cracked. "I don't want to know if something happened between you and Reed." Janie was so quiet for so long that I took it as admission of guilt. "Listen, I have to go."

I started to pulled the phone away from my ear when Janie's maniacal laughter made me stop. "You think I...?" She was laughing so hard that she couldn't even finish that sentence.

I listened to her cracking up for a good five minutes before I started to get upset. "It's not funny Janie!"

"Oh yes it is!" She cried. "Amber, Reed hasn't even looked at another woman since he met you! And trust me, plenty of women have tried to weasel their way into his arms since you left town but he's not interested in them. Devon says that Reed is bring him down with all his talk about true love and soul mates."

True love? Soul mates? "Janie if you haven't done anything with Reed, then what are you sorry for?"

"I did a terrible thing Amber, I thought at the time I was doing the right thing. I thought that you were hurting enough and didn't need to be reminded about all the pain he caused. I knew it was wrong though, I told him it was wrong but he insisted that it was for the best, that you would thank us down the road."

She was rambling, "Janie please! What are you talking about? What did you do? Who said I'd thank you?"

"Devon, he said that Reed was out of his mind and he didn't know what he wanted. Amber, Devon asked me to help him stop Reed from making a fool of himself."

I was confused, I didn't know what Devon had to do with me. "What did you do Janie?"

"I went into your email and deleted all messages from Reed." She groaned, "I didn't read them, Devon told me that Reed was sending you cruel email, calling you names and stuff like that. I didn't want you to see that, I knew he hurt you so much already. So I listed his email under spammers and then checked back to make sure that they were deleted."

I went to say something but she continued, "Then I ran into Reed a couple weeks ago. He looked so happy, probably the happiest I've seen him in a long time, so I asked him what was up. He told me that he just got back from visiting you and Alexis. He told me that this whole time he thought you were ignoring his pleas to be in both your lives but it turned out that you never got any of the emails he sent you after you left."

"I asked him what those emails were, and he told me basically what he said. I felt like such a bitch Amber. I thought I was protecting you."

"You went into my account and erased emails to me from Reed?" I couldn't believe it, I trusted her. Janie was the only one who I told everything too, and she betrayed me!

"Amber, I didn't know. Devon told me Reed was being an ass, I wanted to protect you!"

"Janie, how could you? This entire time Reed has been trying to be a part of Alexis' life and you are the reason she's missed out on knowing her daddy? I can't believe you!"

"I'm sorry Amber, I though Dev-"

I shook my head, "What is this about Devon? You broke up with him! He was fooling around and you two were fighting all the time. Why on earth would you believe anything he told you?"

Janie was crying, "Amber I'm sorry. I thought I was helping you out."

I stood there listening to her cry and I wanted to join in. She was my best friend and I missed her but could I forgive her for getting in the way of my daughter knowing her father? What's the big deal? You knew something happened with the emails, this explains it. She didn't have to tell you at all, I tried to figure it out. You and Reed talked about it and you've seen the email so you know how he felt at the time.

So is it really that big of a deal now?