I knew my friend Richard had had his way with her, but what I didn’t know was how deep their relationship went. While hitting on and flirting with her, she whispered, “Do you know I was once with your friend?” I answered, “I do, but what has that got to do with anything?” She replied, “He would be mad if he finds out, and you guys won’t be friends again. Doesn’t that worry you?”

I answered firmly, with a stern face, “Leave that to us. We are men. We always know how to resolve issues like that.”

She said yes. Richard found out and got maaad. He told a friend of ours, “Let him have her. If only he knew how many abortions she had done for me.”

That friend cared so much about me that he came to tell me: “Leave her. She’s a broken record. Do you know how many abortions she did for Richard? What if in the future you don’t have kids?”

Nine and a half years into the future, we have three kids—two boys and a pretty girl who looks brownish like her mother.

One day in a conversation, Richard came up. I asked her, “So how many did you do with Richard?” She burst out laughing. “So you knew about it and didn’t ask me? I confronted him, and he chickened out. It never happened.”

The truth is, I heard about that confrontation too. I was waiting for her to talk about it, but she never did—just like I also didn’t tell her what I’d heard.

Someone Who knows What It Means To Be In Love

Guys talk. Women do too, especially when it comes to their exes, and it’s understandable. Richard reacted the same way I would have reacted, but along the line, many years later, we made up. He asked, “How is Jane?” I answered, “Our third child is in. She’s doing very well.”

His eyes lit up. He was no longer angry. He replied, “My greetings to her.”

That greeting also never got to her.

—Jude

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