“I know it might be weird for a while, but we’ve been friends for so long and this was just a little detour, so I’m sure our friendship will survive,” she said, patting his arm and looking into the distance.

“What did I do?” wailed Derek into the phone to Diane that night.

“I knew it was a mistake,” she replied.

“It wasn’t. It’s not. She’ll come to her senses.”

“Whoa! Derek! I hope you never say that to Michelle.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“That she’ll ‘come to her senses . . . and be with you.’”

He was quiet.

“No? Seriously? You already said it?”

“It’s just a phrase. I was joking.”

“That’s not how it comes across. It makes you seem controlling.”

“Controlling?”

“Yes. And it’s not the first time you’ve revealed this side of yourself to Michelle.”

“What do you mean?”

Diane said nothing.

“Tell me, Di. What are you talking about?”

She sighed. “Remember when we were in grade eleven and you told Michelle that you were worried about her because you’d overheard someone say her outfits were slutty? And then we called you on it later, after we’d confronted the guys you had accused and they denied it. You backtracked and claimed you never said it. Tried to tell us that we were imagining things.”

“I was an idiot,” mumbled Derek.

“Yes, but the thing is, you were trying to control Michelle. At least that’s how she saw it and I wouldn’t be surprised if that isn’t what she feels now.”

“That’s ridiculous, Di. I’ll explain it to her. I was joking.”

Derek tried to speak to Michelle but she fobbed him off. It wasn’t long before she and Geoffrey began dating and shortly after that, Derek introduced them to Faye.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of it for Derek and Michelle. Although he never mentioned it to anyone, not even Diane, Derek believed that he and Michelle would end up together. She would, he told himself, “come to her senses again.”

When he and Faye, who’d been dating for several months by then, were invited to a braai at Michelle’s parents’ home along with their other friends, Derek suspected nothing. He’d thought of their house, not far from his parents’ place, as a second home. So, when Michelle’s father produced a bottle of sparkling wine and Geoffrey stood up after they’d eaten and told the gathering that he had proposed to Michelle and she had accepted, Derek was dumbfounded.

“Are you okay to drive?” Faye had asked as they walked to their car later.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You haven’t said a word since the, erm, news.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re imagining things.”

He drove her home without saying another word.

A few weeks later, Derek proposed to Faye.