Best Friends Forever by Kimberla Lawson Roby

out?”
    “I’m assuming since you’re calling me from the home phone, it went well.”
    “And that’s all you have to say about it?”
    “What do you want me to say, Celine?”
    “I don’t know. Anything.”
    “Look, I can’t really talk right now.”
    “Keith, that’s fine if you don’t care about me, but what about Kassie? Are you ever planning to call her again or come see her?”
    “Of course I am.”
    “When?”
    “Soon. I really have to go, okay? You take care,” he said.
    Celine held the phone for a whole minute before finally setting it back on the nightstand. She curled her body in the fetal position and sobbed like a child. She’d so thought she was in a better place when it came to Keith, but now that her surgery was over, she felt alone and rejected. Even with Jackson, Lauren, and Kassie there with her, she felt depressed, and she knew it was because of how badly Keith had treated her. She’d asked herself this before, but what she still didn’t get was why Keith had done what he’d done, and why now. Why not a year ago or many months from now, when she wasn’t dealing with cancer? And he’d been so mean to her before moving out. Then, to add insult to injury, he didn’t even want to talk to her or Kassie. Not on his worst day would Celine have expected something like this from Keith. From the time she’d met him, she’d seen him as the ideal husband, and it hadn’t taken much at all for her to fall in love with him. He’d been considerate, caring, and responsible, and their marriage had been the one thing Celine had always counted on. She’d known that even if all else failed in life, she and Keith would have each other. She’d believed it was the two of them and their daughter against the world forever.
    She lay there, but when she heard someone knocking, she hurried to dry her face with her hands.
    “Come in.”
    Jackson walked over to the bed and sat on the side of it. “What’s wrong? Are you hurting? What can I get you?”
    Celine thought about the way she’d cried in the recovery room yesterday and how her nurse had thought she was in physical pain, too.
    “I’m okay.”
    “Then why are you crying? And I can tell you’ve been crying a lot.”
    “It’s nothing.”
    “Look, Sis, I know this isn’t my business, and I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, but if Keith was low enough to leave you like this, you’re probably better off without him.”
    Jackson’s comment made Celine weep more.
    “I’m sorry, but if that fool doesn’t realize what a good woman you are and all he’s giving up, then so be it. I know this doesn’t feel good, but you’re going to have to move on. You’re going to have to be strong and find your new normal.”
    Celine kept quiet because she was too embarrassed to say anything.
    “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but you won’t always feel this way. It’s just going to take some time is all.”
    “I can’t help the way I feel. We’ve been married for twelve years, Jackson. Keith is the father of my only child. The man I was sure I’d grow old with. So how do I just up and stop loving him?”
    “I don’t think you can. I don’t think anyone could do that when they’ve loved someone for so long. But I do think you have to see Keith for who he is.”
    “That’s easy to say when you’ve never been married. It’s just not that simple.”
    “Maybe not, but he just up and moved out like you and Kassie didn’t matter. Like you never mattered to him all these years.”
    “I don’t think that’s it. Keith and I loved each other, but then my business started taking up a lot of my time.”
    “That might be true, but Keith’s a grown man who knows marriages aren’t perfect. Yet he went out and did whatever he wanted.”
    Celine heard the door opening again, and she was glad to see Lauren. Celine loved her brother, but she couldn’t deal with him right now. She heard all that he was trying to tell her, but ultimately he