More Than That - Chapter 35: Friends In Need (Gwen/Luis)
 by Jamie Witter
 
 

Chapter 35: Friends In Need

Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don't say.
-- Unknown

Jeff had finally dragged Luis out of the bar and told him to walk home, confiscating his car keys and promising to return them to him in the morning. He sat down on the curb, holding his head between his hands, hoping that someone would stop the ringing. Hoping that the world would stop spinning.

He remembered one night when he’d gotten this drunk. The night he broke up with Sheridan.

That night he went from her cottage to Jeff’s bar and had gotten completely wasted. Antonio had been the one to drag him out of the bar. His brother had taken Luis to his apartment and dumped him a bathtub full of cold water, fully clothed.

“Where’s Antonio when you need him?” Luis mumbled desperately.

“Luis?” a familiar voice called to him.

“Tony?” he asked confused, his head still ringing.

“It’s Beth, Luis,” she answered as she sat down next to him on the curb.

“Aren’t you married?” he asked, his words slurred.

“Yes, I am,” she replied giddily before narrowing her eyes in his direction. “Are you drunk?”

Luis lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Yes, I am.”

“Beth, I found it!” Hank said as he appeared near the curb. Luis turned to see his best friend, disheveled and looking happy, coming out of the all night convenience store. “Hey Luis.”

“Hi buddy!” he greeted enthusiastically. “Your wife and I are just chatting.”

Hank raised an eyebrow and then sighed. “How many beers?”

Luis shrugged and held up two fingers. “I don’t know. I lost count after the third.”

“Oh boy,” the woman beside him said. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Luis, sweetie, do you think you can make it to my apartment? It’s just down the road.”

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Luis exclaimed as he stood up. Blood rushed to his head and his vision blurred causing his arms to flail. Hank grabbed him by the shoulder to keep him from falling. “Thanks buddy. You guys sure I won’t be intruding? I can just mosey on over to Antonio and ruin his night.”

“Mosey?” Hank laughed. Luis put one arm around Hank’s shoulders and started to walk down the street. “Oh boy, I haven’t seen you this drunk since…I’ve never seen you this drunk!”

“Let me tell you something buddy,” Luis slurred happily. “Being drunk is great. All your problems just melt away. They’re gone. Like that!”

“And tomorrow morning those problems will be right there and you’ll have a headache when you’re puking in the toilet.” Beth complained as their apartment came into view. “Men!”

Hank and Luis turned to each other with identical grins. “Women!”

Ten minutes later, Luis was sitting on Beth’s couch, moaning again as his head started throbbing. The sound of the blender was grating on his nerves and he feel against the comfy pillows in agony.

“Buddy, you are so wasted,” Hank informed him from a chaise nearby. “What’s up, man?”

Amidst the confusion and headache, he remembered his problems. “Sheridan left for Europe.”

“Oh. Why?”

“Because she knows.”

Beth entered the living room, with a glass of maroon liquid in her hand, a horrified expression on her face. She rounded the couch and came to sit beside Luis. “Tell me she found out about the time you and Hank ditched us for the Super bowl.”

“Of course not. Duh!” Luis laughed. “I mean she found out about me and Gwen, stupid.”

Hank pursed his lips as Beth handed the glass in her hands over to Luis. “Okay, I don’t think you should be insulting the two people who are taking care of your sorry ass. So Sher left for Europe. Was she angry?”

“Pretty much.”

“Was she crying?” Beth asked biting her lower lip.

“Not when I was there,” Luis answered with a sigh. “I lied to her. I’ve never done that before. Why would I lie to her?”

“Because you didn’t want to hurt her,” Hank supplied.

“Sh*tty reason.”

Beth put a hand on his thigh and patted him comfortingly. “Maybe hiding the truth from her would somehow made it easier to admit the truth yourself.”

“Or maybe I’m just not good with relationships,” he countered, not wanting to entertain the idea or the truth behind Beth’s words. “God Beth, you know how I am in a relationship. It was the same with Sheridan. Gwen and I would never have had a relationship…no! There was no relationship there. It didn’t matter.”

Beth gave him a small, sympathetic smile after glancing at her husband for a second. Then she gestured for him to try her concoction. “That’s Mom’s secret recipe. Works every time. Then I’ll set you up in my guest room.”

“Beth!” Hank whined and gave Luis a regretful smile. “No offense, buddy.”

“He’s right,” Luis said lifting the glass closer to his lips. “I won’t intrude on your newlywed time. I’ll take a cab to Tony’s. He’s not married.”

Then, tentatively, he took a sip of Mrs. Wallace and then made a face. “That’s the most awful thing I have ever tasted! What the hell is this?”

Beth smiled warmly. “It’s a secret.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Gwen’s hand hit the ringing phone on the side table beside her couch with force as her eyes opened. Rubbing sleep from her eyes and sheltering them from the brutal onslaught of light, she reached for the receiver, checking the time on her watch. Who would be calling at two a.m. on a weeknight?

“Hello?”

“Did I wake you?” Sheridan’s voice came through fuzzily.

Gwen sat up fully, completely awake clutching the phone to her ear, hoping that she wasn’t dreaming. “Sher! Yeah, you did. That’s okay.”

“Okay,” she replied and then paused for a minute. “You’re probably wondering why I am calling. I waited for you to call – expected you to. You never did.”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted to talk to me,” Gwen whispered, straightening out her work clothes that she hadn’t bothered to change out of. “I thought you’d probably hang up.”

Sheridan let out a mirthless chuckle. “Yeah, I would have. But I was thinking, if I were ever feeling as hopeless as I do now, who would I turn to for support? And the only person I could think of was you.”

Gwen felt her heart constrict and heat rise up her throat. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that,” Sheridan sighed heavily. “It makes it difficult. I can’t handle that now. At least I don’t think I can. I’ve been focusing on my anger, right now. Not just on you.”

“Where are you?”

“Paris.”

“C’est tres jolie au printemps,” she answered in French, a small smile on her face. “It’s always beautiful.”

“I can see the Eiffel Tower from my room. It’s still never ceased to amaze me.” She heard some rustling and then Sheridan’s wistful sigh. “Do you remember one of the first summer’s we spent here?”

Gwen smiled, glad that they were reminiscing. “Of course.”

“And that night we went up to the top at midnight, completely drunk?”

“Ethan was with us,” Gwen added laughing. “He was the designated driver. Completely in control. He wouldn’t even take one sip of champagne. Always was a Mama’s boy.”

“I know!” Sheridan was giggling at the other end. “Then we went to the top and sang the national anthem.”

“We screamed it,” Gwen remembered embarrassed for some odd reason, but laughing at the memory all the same. “Then you left Ethan and me alone. That was the night he first told me he loved me.”

“I remember,” the blonde answered and Gwen knew she was smiling. “I was the one that told him to confess. I said, ‘Ethan, you’ll never find a girl more beautiful – both inside and out for you than Gwen Hotchkiss.’ Years later, he told me that I was right.”

Tears spilled down Gwen’s cheeks. “Sheridan - ”

“We’ve had some great times together, haven’t we?”

Gwen composed herself and bit her bottom lip to keep from weeping. “Yes, we have.”

“I’m going to miss them.”

A sob escaped and she had to hold the phone away, to prevent Sheridan from hearing. When she placed the receiver against her ear again, she made sure her voice was sincere but in control. “I will miss them very much.”

“Do you know what I spent last night doing?”

“What?”

“Watching my brother fall in love with his wife,” Sheridan let out a disbelieving laugh. “After years of treating her like crap, I watched him yesterday look at Ivy while she was getting completely sloshed – really look at her and realize he was in love with her. Maybe he always had been.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Not in so many words, but he didn’t have to. I saw it in his eyes. I didn’t think it was possible. And I realized that he wasn’t like my father. Not in the least.” Sheridan explained with a chuckle. “At least he got a second chance. Love like that – we can’t let it go can we?”

She knew Sheridan wasn’t talking about Julian and Ivy anymore. “No, we can’t.”

“What if we have no choice?” She let that statement hang between them, as an uncomfortable, unbearable silence passed between two longtime, best friends. Her next words came out strained. “Do you love him?”

Gwen closed her eyes. “Yes.”

“I thought so.”

“Sheridan?”

“Yeah?”

After another overwrought pause, Gwen decided to change her original question. “When are you coming home?”

“In two days,” she responded. “We need to talk.”

After they hung up, Gwen looked at the phone, replaying the entire conversation in her head again. Tears filled her eyes. Things were far from being solved. Sheridan had told her that much.