Intoxicated by Jeana E. Mann

she wanted?”
    “No. She just said it was important that she get in contact with you.” Penny frowned and wrung her hands. “I tried to keep her quiet, but…”  
    “It’s okay, Penny.” Ally rubbed the strain between her eyebrows with two fingers and drew in a long shaking breath.  
    “I wanted to tell you before someone else did. Mr. Reyes would freak if he knew about it. You know how he hates a scene.”
    “Thanks, Penny. I appreciate your discretion.” Ally squeezed the woman’s hand before the elevator doors opened and she stepped inside.  
    With the distraction of her mother’s appearance and Jack weighing heavily on her mind, Ally managed to make it to the print shop and endure the rest of the meeting. When she finally returned to her office, the phone rang the minute she stepped inside the door. She hesitated at the threshold, torn between making a run for it or taking another phone call which would no doubt result in another couple hours of work when it was already well past quitting time. Work ethic won out and she lifted the receiver with a sigh.
    “Ally Taylor. May I help you?”
    “Why didn’t you call me and tell me about Brian?” Ally recognized the accusing voice on the other end of the line immediately. It belonged to Karly, her college roommate. At the sound of Karly’s voice, Ally felt a rush of warmth. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed having a friend until that very moment.
    “The customary telephone greeting is hello ,” Ally replied, smiling as she spoke.
    With Karly on an internship in London, it had been ages since she’d spoken to someone outside of work besides Jack. Consumed with professional obligations followed in quick succession by the Brian-Becca debacle and Jack, she had lost touch with the few friends that she had. She couldn’t stand their pitying stares and obvious discomfort. The couples were especially leery of her, as if she had some dreaded communicable disease that might endanger their own relationships.
    Karly was different, though. She was Ally’s friend and had been since they roomed together freshman year in college. Unlike the population at large, Karly disliked Brian from the moment she met him, claiming that he was too polished and too polite to be much of a man. “Men should have a few rough edges to them,” she had said with a wicked giggle and Brian was as smooth as a polished stone. Karly would understand in a way that no one else could.
    “Hello? Can you hear me? Why didn’t you call me?” Karly said again in her deep raspy voice. She always sounded as if she was on the verge of laryngitis. “They have phones in London, you know. I had to hear about it from my brother.”
    “Oh, great. So your brother knows?” Ally groaned and began to twist the tendril of hair that escaped her ponytail. “He’s in California. How could he know?”
    “Because this is big news, Al. You guys were together forever. Everyone just assumed…” Karly’s voice trailed off and Ally realized that the whole incident seemed like ancient history to her now and that she hadn’t even thought about Brian or Becca since she went to the lake with Jack.
    “I know. Me, too,” Ally said. “But it’s over and done.”
    “I hear they moved in together last week. Brian’s mom is fit to be tied. You know what a snob she is.”
    “Yeah, she always hated Becca.” Even speaking Becca’s name made Ally’s gut wrench with sadness. She changed the subject to ease the pain. “How was London?” Karly had been on a work-study program for the last semester, finishing up some post-graduate studies.
    “Fine,” Karly replied. “The food was weird and it rained every day.”
    “When did you get back? I wish you had called me.”  
    “A few days ago, I guess.” Without pausing, she launched right into her attack. “I’m worried about you, Al. Are you okay? You must be devastated.”
    Ally sighed. Why did everyone ask that same question, like she’d just