When I arrived home, the apartment was empty and there wasn't any note left for me to indicate where Esme went. After looking around fruitlessly for some clue to where she was, I gave up and sat down on the couch. I stared at the tv. I wondered if I should watch the next episode of "A Life's Journey" and use one of the few remaining candies that Fortia gave me. I believe that Esme wasn't happy that I watched at least one episode without her and she would be even angrier if I viewed another one without waiting for her. I sighed and got up and walked around the apartment aimlessly. Well, I had certainly a lot of time to think about what was going on. I hadn't checked my phone since yesterday. Part of me thought that Kyle might have tried to get a hold of me. So I nervously went to view my text messages and saw a few from Kyle. They went like this:

KYLE

  Olivia, I'm so sorry that you had to leave and weren't feeling well. Did you make it home ok? I was concerned about you.

KYLE

  I'm worried that I didn't hear from you, but I'm guessing that maybe you were not up to texting or calling anyone because of the way you are feeling. I just wanted to let you know that Tyler and Esme hit it off. I know you were concerned that Tyler would be bad for Esme because of his friendship with Colin. I have been trying to tell you that they are no longer friends, in fact Tyler and I are the ones who are very good friends and I wouldn't try to set up Esme with anyone who is not good enough for her. Oh well, hopefully I'll hear from you tomorrow? Feel better.

  The next two messages were from today. The first one was at 10 and the second one was just a little while ago at 12. I know when I'm out in the city, I don't always hear my phone ding me when someone is trying to text me. These messages said:

KYLE

  Hi. I hope you are feeling a bit better today. Please text me as soon as you are up to it. We all missed you last night.

KYLE

  I have to say I am surprised I didn't hear from you at all and it bothers me. I know you haven't been feeling well but I figured you would shoot me a short text telling me what's going on. I'm even more worried too.

  After that message, I start to feel really bad and I sat down and sent Kyle a message:

OLIVIA

  Kyle, I'm so sorry. I'm starting to feel a bit better now. I should have sent you a short text, as you said, to let you know what was going on and not worry you unnecessarily. I did miss you all too and I'm glad to hear Tyler is no longer friends with Colin and that Esme and Tyler seemed to have a good time last night.

KYLE

  Yes! How are you? I'm happy to finally hear from you. So what happened? Was it a stomach virus or bad headache or what? Esme was really concerned about you, so she cut her evening short to go home and see how you were doing. I'm glad she did, even though I felt bad for Tyler, but we both understood. You must have appreciated that she did that.

  I looked at that message and started to feel guilty. Yes, I was mad at Esme, but she had a right to be mad at me too. She finally met a guy she liked, but because of my actions, she had to cut her evening short and since I wasn't really sick like Kyle thought I was, that made it a whole lot worse.

OLIVIA

  Yes, it was some sort of stomach bug that came over me. I still don't feel a 100%, but I'm better than last night at least. I made it home ok though, so no worries. Yes, I felt bad Esme had to cut her evening short, but I was appreciative she came home earlier.

  Kyle didn't need to know the truth. It was better to let him think what he thought had happened was actually the case.

KYLE

  Do you think maybe next week or sometime in the near future, I can convince you both to join us at the bar? I know Tyler and Esme would be happy and we'd have so much fun together.

  I hesitated a while before answering that one. That made me think about Fortia's and my conversation about this. I definitely couldn't say yes yet, but at least I wasn't going to say no.

OLIVIA

  Maybe. Can you please ask me again when I feel better? It would be easier to think about and give you a proper answer.

KYLE

  Fair enough. Should I stop by and bring you by something? Maybe some ginger ale or chicken soup? Let me know. I'd be more than happy to do so.

OLIVIA

  You're so sweet. But no, I couldn't risk getting you sick, although I appreciate the thought of you wanting to help me. Feel free though to text me later and we can talk more.

KYLE

  Sounds good. Take care and we will talk later. Feel better. Bye!

OLIVIA

  Thanks again. Bye and have a great day. Talk to you later.

  I felt a little better now that I reached out to Kyle but still a bit guilty about lying to him and having the situation unresolved with Esme. I decided to try to text her.

OLIVIA

  Hi Esme. I'm sorry about how we left things last night. I think we should talk again and resolve things. I feel bad about my part in it.

  I saw the thinking icon on my phone showing that she was going to reply with a text, but all of the sudden it stopped and there was no response from Esme.

  I just sighed and slammed the phone on the end table. I was getting anxious just sitting in the apartment and doing nothing. I figured I'd go out again. I didn't want to go for a walk again, so I thought I'd go to the local coffeehouse and get an herbal tea, which always seems to calm me down a bit when I'm upset.

  I arrived there about 10 minutes later. I ordered my tea and as I sat down, I noticed someone who looked like Esme, who left the coffee house. I stood up quickly but carefully and tried to chase after her. It was difficult with a cup of hot tea. So finally, after a block I gave up and went back to the coffeehouse and sat down.

  I shot Esme another text that said:

OLIVIA

  Hi Esme. I saw that you just left the coffeehouse. I'm here now. I was going to chase after you, but I had a hot tea and it was difficult to run with it. Please come back and we can talk about things.

  Again, it was showing that she was typing something and this time she responded with the following:

ESME

  Olivia, I think it would be better to have our conversation at home and not at a public place. Come back home when you're done with your tea and then we'll talk.

  I looked at the message a few times trying to see if I could sense the type of mood she was in when she wrote it. It didn't seem like her happy go lucky mood though. I finally typed back:

OLIVIA

  Ok, Esme. I'll be home shortly. Bye for now.

ESME

  Bye.

  I wanted to gulp down my tea, but it was still hot, so that was impossible. Finally, I finished the tea and was able to leave. It was actually good that I had time to sit and relax with my tea and calm down a bit. It would make it easier to talk to her. I walked back to the apartment and when I unlocked our front door, I saw that Esme was sitting on the couch watching some cooking show.

  "Oh hi, Esme," I said awkwardly.

  "Hi Olivia," Esme said quietly. She motioned for me to come sit on the couch with her and she shut the tv off.

  I sat down and we both started to try to speak at the same time. Finally, she motioned for me to speak first. "Esme, I felt so bad at the way we left things last night. I know we both made mistakes, so I hope we can both look past what we did and find a way to make things better." I stopped for a moment. I wasn't sure if I wanted her to comment or I wanted a moment to think about more of what to say.

  She took it as a chance for her to talk. "Yes, I was angry and I said some things to you, I shouldn't have said. Granted it was because of how upset I was, but it wasn't right to talk to you like that. It was foolish because if I hadn't lost my cool like that, we may have been able to resolve things last night and not leave things like this."

  "Yes, those hurtful comments you said made me so angry, I couldn't speak anymore, so that's why I shut you down. You have to understand if we did continue, our fight could have escalated into something even worse than it was last night." I said.

  "I regret some of those comments. Let's try to put this behind this. Who should talk first, you or me?" she asked.

  "I don't know. Maybe you can talk first?" I asked.

  "Ok. Here it goes. It was totally wrong to use your phone like that and pretend to be you and put you in an awkward situation with Kyle." I nodded and she paused for a moment. "I should have been honest with you about how I was feeling about finding out that you been hiding the fact that other people have been giving us invitations to go out and have fun. In addition, you failed to tell me that Tyler had liked me. Yes, you were trying to help me in the sense from protecting me from getting hurt, but you were so stubborn in your beliefs, you didn't give Kyle a chance to explain about Tyler and why he was trying to set us up." she said.

  "I appreciate you apologizing for your part. It has put me in an awkward position with Kyle, but I do think I can get out of that at least. I don't know how amenable I would have been to about your feelings about going out to a bar, especially when I told you how I felt about it. However, if I listened to Kyle about what he was trying to say, maybe I would have told you at least to go to the bar yourself to get to know Tyler better."

  "Maybe you would have, maybe you would have not. However, I don't know how I would have felt if you told me to go out to the bar without you. I would have felt guilty and I don't know if I would have been willing to do it. I would have said no, just so I wouldn't have felt bad about leaving you home alone and we wouldn't have been able to watch "A Life's Journey" together."

  "But that in a way is actually what happened and that didn't end well either."

  "I think in part it had to do with the fact you weren't honest with me and you were upset at me for using your phone like that."

  "True," I said. "I appreciate you though apologizing about this. I do agree that if I did say you should go to the bar with Tyler, I probably would have been upset if you actually gone and not said instead that it was ok, that you'd rather stay home with me and watch our soap. So when I told you yesterday you should stay, I was rather hoping you'd say that it was ok and that you would come back home and stay with me."

  "Ah. I realized that might have been the case after the fact. But when I contacted you about it, it was probably too late at that point, right?"

  "I think so. I can forgive you for what you did with the phone and not coming back right away. I may find it a bit difficult to trust you as much, but I think we can still get past that. I do realize that I might have not made it clear that I wanted you to come home and not stay at the bar. I was having mixed emotions about that, because I was very angry at you and I didn't know if I could talk to you at that point and all. I was especially hurt though about the comment you said about my fantasy life and all. I been having a difficult time trying to overcome my fears in trying to change my career and try to find a potential boyfriend.

  "I get that," she said. "I do feel bad about that comment. That was totally wrong. I know how you been feeling about all that and I should have tried to be more supportive and help you instead of making you feel bad about it. I was just frustrated because I felt you were only thinking about yourself and not me."

  "Thank you for apologizing for that comment. That makes me feel better at least that you realized that what you said was wrong."

  "Yes, so it stemmed from the fact that I was feeling you were being selfish and only thinking of yourself. When I found out that you knew all along this guy liked me and he wanted to get to know me and that you were also making decisions for me without my knowledge, that really hurt me. I felt like you weren't talking my feelings into account and that you didn't want me to be happy, maybe because you weren't."

  "That's not true. I really thought I was trying to help you. I thought that it would be totally wrong to go out with a guy whose friends with your ex. I figured it wouldn't end well," I said defensively.

  "Yes, but because you were so set in your beliefs, you shut down what Kyle was trying to say to you and if you listened, you could have avoided some of the problem we had here."

  "I know. Thinking back, I know I was wrong and I feel bad. I made myself look bad and hurt Tyler unnecessarily. I probably hurt Kyle too by not being honest with him. I want to be honest with him, but I'm afraid. I'm not sure what to do."

  "You say you want to be honest with him. Do you mean regarding your feelings about going to bars and clubs? Or about how you feel about him?" she said.

  "How do you think I feel about him?"

  "I don't know. I know you are both friends, but do you think maybe you feel the same way for him, that he feels for you?"

  "How do you think he feels for me?"

  "He likes you so bad, it's so obvious," she said grinning.

  "It wasn't to me until recently."

  "That's because you are so close to the situation, you didn't see things clearly."

  "I guess. I don't know what to do now." I said unsure.

  "Back to what you said before about being honest, is it about your feelings for each other, or about the bars?"

  "The bar is probably the only thing I could possibly be honest about now. And that's a struggle too."

  "Or you could go to the bar next week and you don't have to tell him anything about that."

  "Perhaps. I don't know."

  "You don't have to think about that now."

  "Anyhow, did you have fun with Tyler? I'm sorry I cut that short."

  Esme smiled and said, "Actually I did. He's really nice and well cute. I could see myself going out with him."

  "Well maybe you will have that chance if we go to the bar together next week."

  "Are you saying you will go?"

  "It's still a maybe but I'm leaning towards yes."

  Esme beamed, "That's fabulous. I won't get my hopes up but I will think positive."

  "I'm thinking it may be worth the risk to go."

  "That's great positive thinking. You keep on going down that path."

  "Yeah Fortia helped me realize that."

  Then Esme frowned and said, "Oh, she did?"

  "I'm sorry I didn't go to talk to you. I tried but I didn't know where you were."

  "I admit I'm upset you didn't come to me, but I understand why you weren't able to. I'm sorry."

  "I accept your apology and I accept your apology for what you did with my phone."

  "Thank you and I accept your apology for what happened before with Tyler and the bar."

  "I'm so happy we cleared that up."

  "I also want to apologize for watching the show without you. Would you be willing to watch the episode you missed with me? I have no problem with seeing it again, since I made you miss it."

  "You saw the show without me. That's just plain wrong!" she shouted. But then she took a deep breath and continued, "Uh. I admit I'm upset that you didn't wait for me. I'm not sure we should do that."

  "Oh, it was just a thought."

  "On the other hand, I had really wanted to see that episode, so why not?"

  I smiled and we gave each other a big hug. Then I grabbed the remote control and we put back on the show.