Hasn’t he called? Or texted?
Well, yes. But I haven’t written back. How can I, Tina? What is there to SAY?
True. But if he apologized, wouldn’t you forgive him?
He’s not going to apologize, Tina. He doesn’t think he did anything wrong!!!
But this can’t be IT. I mean, it can’t be OVER between you two. You love each other too much!!!!!
Michael himself said—in one of the e-mails he sent—that maybe it’s better this way. You know, that we see other people while he’s gone.
HE SAID THAT????
Well, he didn’t say HE was going to see other people, but that it was okay with him if I wanted to.
Wait—he really SAID that?
Yes. He did. Well, he said he guessed it HAD to be okay.
Oh, Mia! I don’t know how to say this but—do you think maybe Your Precious Gift is wrong? Because in my favorite romance novels—The Sheik and the Virgin Secretary and The Sheik and the Princess Bride—none of the sheiks were virgins, and it all turned out okay for them and THEIR girlfriends.
I didn’t want to write what I wrote next. Really. It HURT me to say it. But someone HAD to. Because Tina just can’t live in Tinaland for the rest of her life. She just can’t.
Tina. Those are BOOKS.
But Tina wasn’t backing down.
Your Precious Gift is a BOOK. How come it’s right, and not the sheik books?
Tina. None of the sheiks in those books Did It with Judith Gershner and then LIED about it, okay? None of the sheiks in those books invented a robotic surgical arm and are leaving for Japan for a year. Or mo
re. And if they were, they’d take their virgin secretary princess bride WITH THEM.
I know. I just think maybe you should give Michael another chance.
How can I do that? Every time I think about him now, all I can picture in my head is Judith Gershner with her tongue in his mouth. And that is the LEAST disgusting thing I picture the two of them doing.
Yes. I felt that way when I found out about Lilly and Boris. But it goes away after a while, Mia. Really. In a few days you won’t see Judith Gershner in your head anymore when you think about Michael.
Thanks, Tina. I see what you’re saying. I really do. But the problem is, in a few days—no, in a few HOURS—Michael will be gone. Possibly forever!
Mia! Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you cry!
It’s not you, Tina. It’s me. I just—I just—
Mia, it’s okay. You don’t have to write another word. I’ll shut up now.
God. How can it have come to this—me sitting in English class, CRYING???
In a way I wish Michael WAS a sheik, and I was his virgin secretary or princess bride. I know it’s not very feminist of me to think that.
But if he whisked me off to his tent in the desert instead of moving to Japan, at least I’d know he really cared.
Friday, September 10, French
Mia! Is it true?
Yes, Perin. It’s true that Michael admitted he had sex with Judith Gershner and he’s moving to Japan and he and I are broken up. I feel really terrible about it and I don’t want to start crying in French, so can we not talk about it?