15 - That's What Friends Are For

The annoying buzzing sound woke Ariana first, and she nudged Jon.  “I think that’s yours.”

“No. It’s yours.”

“Who would be calling me this early?  It’s definitely not mine!”

Jon pulled his head from under the pillow and reached for his phone from the nightstand.  Sticking it in her face, he insisted grumpily, “See?  Not mine.  Now will you please answer your definitely not mine phone?  I’m tryin’ to sleep!”

She lifted her head and looked at the nightstand, but there was no phone.  Leaning over the side of the bed for her clothes, she reached for her shorts and found it in her back pocket.  Flipping on to her back, she swiped her finger across the screen and saw that there were a couple of missed calls and one voice message – all from Cara. 

What could she possibly want this early in the morning?  They had left her at Petit Soho to help Max close up last night.

Instead of listening to the message, she hit the button to call her friend.

“Good morning mon amie.  Did I interrupt you?”

“Very funny.  Yeah, sleep.”

“Sure, whatevah!” she laughed into the phone.  “Listen, I wanted to know what you had planned for the day.  I have to go to the studio for a while and thought we could spend the day together.”

Ariana looked over at Jon, who was buried under his pillows. 

“Jon? Jon...” She lifted the pillows. “Jon!”

One bleary blue eye looked back at her, not happy about being open.  “Huh?”

“Cara wants me to spend the day at the studio with her.  Is that okay with you?”

“Uh huh,” was his sleepy reply.

Setting the pillow down over his head, she answered her friend with, “So, what time do you want to meet?”

“I’m here already, so whenever you can drag your ass out of bed.”

“Let me grab a quick shower.  I should be there in an hour.  Do you want me to pick up some coffee?”

“That would be great.  See you soon.”

Thirty minutes later, she was in a taxi on her way to Cara’s, located just around the corner from Petit Soho in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood.  The building had belonged to Cara’s parents, and when they passed away, she renovated the flower shop into an art studio. 

Ariana could hear the music as soon as her foot hit the sidewalk, and it prompted a smile to curl on her lips. 

Some things never change. 

Kicking open the door with her foot, she entered the exhibition room.  Ceiling to floor windows let in the natural light that reflected off the paintings and sculptures that commandeered the place.

“Cara?” Ariana called out over the thumping radio.

“Back here sweetie!”

Navigating her way towards the working area in the back, Ari found her friend sitting behind the pottery table.  Her long, red hair was pulled up in a clip at the top of her head, and there were patches of clay all over her face.

“Breakfast?”

“Sure.  Let me wash up.  Pull up a stool.”

Ariana found a clear spot and set down the coffee and bagels she’d brought.  Sifting through the piles of papers, she located the stereo remote and lowered the volume.

“Whatcha’ doing?  I thought you liked this group?”

“I do.  Just not this loud so early in the morning.”

Cara came around and gave her friend a hug, squeezing tightly and not letting go for a long minute.  Then, she took a step back and smiled into Ari’s eyes.  “God, how I missed you! How are you doing?”

Ariana picked at a bagel, breaking a little piece off and popping it into her mouth.   “I’m good.  Real good.”

“Ariana Liliane, don’t you lie to me!  I know you better than you know yourself.  And besides, according to Jon, you’re not.  Why don’t you start with how he found you?”

This wasn’t something that she particularly wanted to talk about.  She’d known coming here would invite the questions, but she hoped to gloss over them as quickly as possible.   

“So, he found me a little drunk at the St. James.  Don’t you think I was entitled to get a little drunk?  I mean, I had just found out about Lili.”

“A little drunk is what I was last night.  Ari, you were passed out.  That, my friend, tells me that there is more going on than just Lili dying.  Talk to me, mon amie.”

“Five days ago, my world came crumbling down, Cara.  I’d say what I did was justified.”

“Crumbling down? How? Ariana, Lili died.  That is what we call life.  I wouldn’t consider that to be world crumbling.  I just don’t understand why you would get so piss-ass drunk about it, or why you felt you had to handle it alone.  We have been sisters for years.  All you had to do is call me, and I would have dropped everything for you.  But instead, you choose to let no one help you and lock yourself in your hotel room and drink.  You were lucky that Jon happened to be there. Why was he here anyway?”

Ariana played with the hem of her sweater. “Cara! I don’t want to talk about this.  What happened, happened.  It’s over and done with.  Can we just move on?”

“Absolutely not!  Why can’t you just tell me what’s wrong?  We have always been able to talk to each other, no matter what.  What’s changed?”

“Nothing’s changed.  I just don’t want to talk about it.”

Cara frowned, and Ari knew she didn’t want to let it go.  She also knew her friend hated upsetting her, so she showed mercy and changed the subject.   

“Last night was fun. Just like old times, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.  It was great to have the three of us together again. What did you and Max do after we left?”

“Oh nothing, just talked and played a game of pool, which I won by the way.  Did he tell you that Jonas is in town?”

Jonas was another kid from the neighborhood.  Even though he was younger than them, they’d still let him hang out.  Now he had had a band and was doing well for himself, so she understood.  

“No, he didn’t.  It’s been ages since I’ve seen him too.  What’s he been up to?”

“Recording, I suppose. Max mentioned that he might come in this weekend and jam a little. I would love to see him.”

“This is really turning into a family reunion.”

As the words passed her lips, Ariana felt the tears gather in her eyes and a sob escape her lips. These tears were lingering far too close to the surface for her liking.  It seemed like all she did was blubber these last few days. 

“Forgive me Cara,” she implored with a wavering voice while wiping at her eyes.  “I don’t know why I am crying.”

Cara rounded the table, pulling her beloved sister into her embrace.  “It’s okay. Let it out. It will do you good.”

It was long minutes later by the time Ariana managed to get herself calmed down, and when Cara released her, Ari found herself still restless and ran fingers through her hair.  She finger-combed it and twisted it into a knot on top of her head. 

When her friend gasped, Ariana look up to find Cara curiously grabbing at her left hand.  She turned it palm down to inspect the ring Jon had put there last night. 

“Wow! I haven’t seen this in a long time.”

“I found it in the memory box in my old room.”

That much was probably true, Cara thought, but her friend was holding something else back.  It was time to take another shot and prying answers out of her. 

“And just like that you decide to wear it?  Ariana, will you please just tell me what’s going on?  I can’t help you if you don’t.”

“Oh, Cara,” she sighed.  The tears had weakened Ariana’s resolve as well as draining her.  She didn’t have the energy to be evasive anymore and decided to open up to her best friend.  “These last few days have been spinning me in every direction possible.  I don’t even know where to start.”

“How about starting with what happened after you found out about Lili?”

Ariana took a deep breath. 

“Shocked and numb are just a couple things I can remember feeling when I got the call about Lili.  Like I was dreaming.   I took the first flight I could get, but it wasn’t until I was sitting in the lawyer’s office that it all came crashing down. Reading Lili’s letter made me realize that I was alone, with no one to share my life.  No family...”

Cara went to speak, but Ariana raised her hand to stop her.

“Please let me finish.  I kept wondering what I would do now, and when I couldn’t come up with any answers, I went back to my hotel room and got drunk.  That is when Jon found me.  He just happened to be in Montreal.  Call it fate… luck… divine intervention? Whatever it was, he was just here.  My first reaction was, ‘Thank God he’s here and found me”.  Like he always has.  But as the alcohol wore off, I wasn’t sure how I felt, and now I’m really confused.”

“Why?”

She found herself unable to meet Cara’s eyes and Ariana focused her full concentration on the hands folded in her lap.  She fiddled with the tiny piece of platinum encircling the ring finger of her left hand, and admitted on a whisper, “He asked me to marry him.”