'The Golden Rule'

The 2 day rule. Exactly how important is this rule Melody was wondering, as she was sipping her Starbucks skinny latte, and checking her iphone for messages for the 100^th time that day from her latest date.  Melody’s  best friend Tara, has long been an advocate for the 2 day rule, and seemed to believe that it is her duty upon this Earth to uphold it, and educate others of its importance.

 

Melody and Tara had been best friends since they were 12, and had shared the highs and lows of the dating game together for the last 13 years.  Neither of them had ever had a long term relationship, or fallen in love �" though back in 2008 when they were on their annual girly holiday in Ibiza, Tara did meet a German man called Stephen, and decided in 5 days that he was ‘the one’, and flew back to Germany with him. 

 

Unsurprisingly, within 24 hours of being back in the UK, Melody gets a call at 2 am from a very distressed Tara, crying that her and Stephen had split up as she had refused to try to learn German, and that she was now standing outside Gatwick airport, and could Melody possibly come and pick her up.  Which, of course, Melody did, as they had always been there for each other, and always would be.

 

Back in Starbucks, Melody was playing back in her mind every second of the recent, and in her eyes, very successful date, and wondering why Liam hadn’t made contact to ask her out again.  Just as she was about to check her iphone again, Tara walked into Starbucks.

“Sorry I’m late Mel, the bloody bus was late again. Hmm, I really need to learn to drive!” The thought of Tara behind a wheel of a car put the actual fear of hell into Melody. “Better late then never hun”, Melody joked as she leaned forward to give Tara a hug.

“So…” questioned Tara as she arranged herself in the chair, “how did the date go with Liam?”

“Yeah it went really well; we went to a pub for a couple of drinks, then onto Zizzis for a meal. We literally didn’t stop chatting the whole evening, and just as I was getting in the taxi to go home, he gave me a hug….AND a kiss!” beamed Melody.

 

“How exciting! I had a feeling you and Liam would get along, he drives me crazy at work, but socially he is fabulous.” Tara exclaimed.  Melody smiled to herself. Of course Liam drove Tara crazy at work, they were Nurses and he was a Doctor.  It was a well known fact that Doctors go out of their way to irritate Nurses, but then could be enjoying a pint with them down the pub after shift ends.

 

“ There is just one thing.” Melody embarrassingly confessed. “what?” asked Tara. “It’s just that I haven’t heard from him yet and it has been 24 hours since the date, and I haven’t seen him around work which is unusual.  Maybe he is avoiding me! I think that he was just pretending that he liked me so much all evening. It’s a damn shame, as I really felt comfortable with him.” Melody sighed.

“ Mel, Mel, Mel, how many times to I have to tell you about the 2 day rule?  You know that you have to wait for 2 days to contact a guy after a date, or you look too keen, and it will scare him off. It’s the golden rule of dating hun.” Explained Tara.

 

Melody pondered over her skinny latte like a genie over a lamp, hoping something would appear in a puff of smoke to end all this dating confusion. Then. Something struck her (a thought not a physical object).

 

“Know all these dating rules you keep to and especially this 2 day rule thing Tara, if it is the golden rule, and you follow said rule, then can you please explain why the actual hell you are still single after going on many a successful date?”  Tara looked down, leaned back into her chair,  and started playing with her golden hair, seemingly in deep contemplation.

 

Melody waited for an answer after the normal ‘pause after someone has stopped speaking’, then realising that Tara is not willing to kiss and tell, picked up her iphone again, and went to her text inbox hoping that somehow in the last 30 seconds since she last checked, a message from Liam inviting her on a second date will magically be waiting for her.

 

“I’m scared, that’s why.” The words hung in the air like the trail an aeroplane leaves when it is shooting though the sky to foreign lands.

When Tara looked back up, her eyes were filled to the brim with tears, and her chin was wobbling.  In all the years that they had been best friends, Melody had never heard Tara say anything like this before. Although they were extremely close, Tara was a very private person and tended to deal with her feelings and experiences on her own, whilst Melody loved to share them with anyone who was willing to listen.

 

Melody got up and moved her chair so she was sitting right up close to Tara, and put her arm around her. She was now so close she could smell the salt of Tara’s tears, and feel the heat from her burning cheeks.

“What, what do you mean you are scared Hun? What are you scared of?” whispered Melody.

Tara took a tissue from her Paul Boutiques Handbag, and dabbed gingerly at her eyes, taken great care in not disturbing the make up that had taken her an hour to apply.

“When we were at uni Mel, loads of our close friends went off and got boyfriends, and after that we hardly saw them again. We were always the only ones who were up for going out clubbing or on random road trips.  Since then I have created these rules in my head that I can’t break when it comes to dating and men as I don’t want to be one of those girls who dumps her mates for a man.    

To start off with the rules were really simple, like, let him pay for the meal, don’t sleep with him on the first date, and don’t cancel plans with mates for a date. But then as time went on I have been making the rules more and more complex, and it is getting ridiculous. So much so that I have almost made it impossible for myself to date men as I have too many rules that could be broken.” 

Tara exhaled heavily, and looked up from her foundation smeared tissue expecting to see Melody smiling back at her, laughing even.  Instead, Melody was poker faced, sitting far back in her chair staring at Tara giving her the creeps.

 

Melody felt a surge of anger shoot up inside her.

“You’ve not only made it impossible for you to date. You have made my dating life near impossible too! I thought these rules of yours were there to help me, but actually they were to stop me from finding a man and being happy, so you could always have me to yourself! What would have happened if suddenly you are like, screw the rules I want a relationship, and go sailing off into the sunset with a man only 24 hours after a date with him, leaving me wondering why the rules suddenly don’t apply to you?”

 

Tara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had never been this honest with someone before, and Melody was the one person she thought she could trust, and here she was chastising her.

“Mel, I didn’t make up these rules to hurt you. I made them up to protect me. To protect us” Tara sobbed.

 

But Melody had heard enough. Every time she had gone on a date with a guy and it went well, Tara was always there to ‘remind’ her of the rules, and always turned up the heat, the minute Melody said that she really liked a guy, and thought that this might actually be the start of a relationship.  At the time Melody believed Tara when she said things like “he gives me the creeps”, and “he is clearly just not that into you”, but now, it was crystal clear exactly what Tara had been doing.  Instead of ‘protecting her’ as Tara put it, she had actually been sabotaging her change for future happiness.

 

This time it was Melody who was in tears. She looked up at the face that she had trusted for the last 13 years to look out for her and always be there.  

 

Then in that moment in that small Starbucks coffee shop where many a date had been dissected over skinny lattes and cake, Melody decided that it was time for her to find another face to trust, and hopefully in time, give her heart to.

 

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months but Melody refused to answer any of Tara’s texts, Facebook messages or phone calls. She had been able to move to a different department at work, and had met a Nurse called Ben who had asked her out on a date.

 

Melody’s first thought was to phone Tara and tell her about the date, as she always had done, but no, Melody wanted to do this on her own. As scared as she was to be going into the dating game again on her own with out Tara, she could never forgive her for breaking the golden rule of friendship.

 

‘If it’s safe, let her go.’

Author's Note

It's my first short story!

Reviews

[hannahjchin]

good job!

[Alicka]

I think you did a good job, on this short story. Keep up the good work!

[Lemontine]

it's great!