“Really? How so?” I ask her.
I’m not usually this nosy or impatient. I let her get around to whatever she wants to say. Usually. But this time, something in her voice made me curious.
“Well, I have a reason for calling you… I’m getting married and I want to invite you to the wedding,” she explains.
I’m speechless for a second and almost drop the phone in shock.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so happy for you!” I squeal in excitement.
We both burst into giggles.
“So, who’s the lucky guy?”
“His name’s Andrew,” she says.
I start wracking my brain for anyone named that in our class, but nothing rings a bell, until she says, “You don’t know him. He’s definitely not from here. A recent transplant from Silicon Valley. He owns a tech company.”
“Nice,” I whistle. “Sounds like our little hometown of Bloom, Idaho is really moving up in the world.”
“Yeah, they opened a second branch here and injected a lot of money into the economy, and… oh, enough about me. You’re the one who’s studying abroad in Ireland! And I really want to hear how that’s going. Sorry I’m yapping so much.”
“It’s fine!” I tell her, and it really is, since my life here isn’t very exciting and now I feel kind of stupid about having only bad news to share with her when she has had such big things going on.
“I’m really glad you’re happy,” I say. “You are so lucky to have finally found love. I keep hoping that will happen to me while I’m here, but I’m having as much luck with that as I did back in Idaho.”
Sheila laughs, “Yeah, a lot of the dates back here were pretty awful.”
I have to agree with her.
“You’re right about that. I mean, I know the skating rink isn’t the most exciting place to have a date but all of ours sure made it really boring,” I say.
“Yeah, remember how many times we were asked to couple skate by all those dorky guys, when you and Tammy and I would show up?” Sheila asks, mentioning her best friend from high school.
She had a lot of friends who were close seconds, and I was one of them, but she and Tammy were always super tight.
“Of course, there’s no way of forgetting things like that.”
I laugh. My conversation with Sheila has made me forget about all my worries momentarily, at least.
“What’s wrong? You got quiet,” Sheila says.
I want so badly to cry. I take a breath, before I start telling her about my problems. I hate to rain on her parade after her big announcement.
“I’m just pretty sad today. I got some bad news earlier that they are increasing the costs at my school. I won’t be able to pay for it, so I’ll probably have to go back home,” I admit.
“Oh, no. That’s a shame. I’m sorry. There has to be some way to fight this! What about your jobs? I thought they were going really well?” Sheila asks, sounding concerned.
I sigh again.
“The guy I was working for died, so his daughter let me go,” I explain.
I try to fight back the tears that have been building up all day, to no avail.
“Ohhhhh….” Sheila says, then gets quiet.
We share a moment of silence.
Eventually, Sheila coughs quietly.
“I should go. I have things to do before the family gets home,” I say softly.
I don’t want to burden her anymore with my problems.
“Wait, before you go, there’s something I want to tell you,” Sheila says.
“Oh, ok, sure,” I reply.
I’m a little distracted now after being reminded about my financial situation.
“I think I might know of a way that you can make some money,” Sheila explains.
This catches my attention, so I listen quietly.
“This is sort of like my little secret. I haven’t told anyone else about it,” Sheila says softly. “But I found a way to get both love and money, and you can, too.”
Now I’m very skeptical.
Was she planning to have me join some cult or something?
“Ok,” I reply, the skepticism evident in my voice.
“Now hear me out before you start judging or doubting,” she insists. “I know this might seem like an unconventional way to do things for most people, but there is an auction club that hosts auctions in which billionaires buy virgins. This is how I met my fiancé. Obviously, I don’t tell many people that, so keep it on the downlow. But if you want, I can ask him if it’s international and if any are in Ireland?”
I’m shocked by what she just told me and have no idea what to say in response. Even though she’s my one of my best friends, I can’t help but feel a little bit weirded out by it all. After all, it’s not every day I hear about something like this.
“Well, that’s very interesting, but I’ll have to think about it,” I’ll finally respond.