Meanwhile outside

'So how long have you and Kian been dating?' Sandra asked.

'Not that long. We met in London, where I live, about two and a half months ago. And a couple of weeks later we started dating.' Jenny answered. 'How did you meet Mark then?'

'Anna and I were working in Dublin and got to know Georgina, Nicky's girlfriend you know. He introduced us to Bryan, who introduced us to Shane, who introduced us to Mark and Kian. We saw more and more of each other and soon Anna and Shane was an item. A little later it clicked between Mark and me as well and that's how it's been ever since.'

'Jenny, can I talk to you a little?' It was Bryan who asked me.

I looked at Sandra who seemed a little surprised. I felt a need to explain.

'We met yesterday at brunch here with the others,' I said to Sandra. Then I turned to Bryan.

'Sure,' I said and followed him inside. 'Where are we going?'

'I threw out the people who were in my room so it shouldn't be anyone there.'

We went inside. I sat down on the bed waiting for him to speak. Bryan seemed busy organising his things.

'I know I probably shouldn't say this. Ki's my friend and it's not really fair to put you in this position either but… Jenny, I really like you.' He said and turned to me.

'I don't know what to say. I only met you two days ago so I don't really know that much about you. And as you said, Kian's my boyfriend as well as your friend.'

'So you don't feel at all like I do?'

I needed to be strait with him.

'I like you too, a lot, but I have Kian and it wouldn't be fair to him.' I got up to leave. Bryan grabbed hold of my arm.

'Just one kiss, please.'

I couldn't resist. Just as our lips touched the door opened. And there was Anna. She looked very surprised and disappointed and immediately closed the door.

'I have to…' Jenny said looking at the door.

'Go! I'll catch you later.'

I went out of the room but Anna was already gone. I started looking for her when I bumped into Kian.

'There you are,' he said and gave me a kiss. 'I'm feeling a bit tired so I was thinking about going home. Are you coming too?'

It would seem too strange if I had said no so I said yes and hoped that Anna wouldn't tell anyone until I had had the chance to talk to her.

Kian and I were just going out the door when I saw Bryan standing watching me. I smiled at him and he smiled back. When we were going to bed were all I could think about Bryan and our kiss. Kian got into bed beside me.

‘Goodnight Jenny’, Kian said and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

‘Goodnight Kian.’

At Shane’s house

Anna bursted into Bryan’s room.

‘Bryan! How could you do something like that?’ I yelled.

‘Well. Why?’

‘I….’

‘How could you? You and Kian are friends. How could you kiss his girlfriend? What kind of friend would do that?’

‘We’re just…’

‘Don’t interrupt me, mister. You’re just trying to find a way out of this. If you’re not going to tell Ki about this I am. Well, are you going to tell him?’

‘But we’re….’

‘OK, I guess you’re not. Then I’ll go and call him right now.’

I headed for the door but Bryan was there before me and stopped me from getting out.

‘Get out of my way.’

‘No, not until you hear what I’ve got to say.’

‘OK. What have you got to say for yourself then?’

‘As I’ve been trying to say, Jenny and I are just friends. I’ve got a little thing for her but she doesn’t like me in that way. The kiss you saw was just a kiss between friends.’

‘So there’s nothing going on between you two?’ I asked doubtfully.

‘No, absolutely nothing.’

I looked long and hard at him and decided to believe him.

‘I guess I have to take your word for it then. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Bry.’

‘Goodnight Anna, sleep tight.’

The next day:

I went over to Anna to talk to her.

‘Hi, Anna, can we talk about what happened last night?’

‘You don’t have to explain. Bryan has already done that.’

We went inside and sat down on the sofa.

‘Anna I need soma advice.’

‘About what?’

‘About Kian. I like him very much but I don’t think I love him.’

‘But why are you together with him then?’

‘I don’t know, we haven’t really seen much of each other since we started dating.’

‘Has Kian said that he loves you?’

‘Yes. I don’t want to hurt his feelings but I don’t want to stay together with him.’

At that moment Shane entered the room and said that he wanted to talk to Anna.

Anna asked me if I minded if we continued our talk later because she knew that when Shane had that look it would take a while.

‘I’ll see you later then.’ Jenny said and left.

Shane and I hadn’t had an opportunity to talk about the ‘incident’ last night yet. When I came back from my talk with Bryan Shane had already fallen asleep and this morning we had both been too busy doing other things to have been able to sit down an talk.

‘Are you very embarrassed about last night?’ Shane asked me. ‘’Cause I feel sort of responsible since it was me who couldn’t keep away from you.’

‘It’s OK Shane, really. It’s not like everybody there didn’t know that we’re together. And you shouldn’t blame yourself, I wanted you as much as you wanted me, let’s just forget about the whole thing.’

When Jenny got to Kian’s house she went looking for Kian. She found him in the kitchen.

‘Ki, we need to talk.’

‘OK, it sounds serious,’ he said. ‘What’s it about?’

‘It’s about us.’

‘What, are you dumping me?’ Kian said jokingly. But when he looked at me the smile died on his lips.

‘Are you dumping me?’ This time he said it with a strange voice.

‘Kian, I really like you but I don’t love you. I wish I did but I don’t.’

She saw the hurt in his eyes.

‘Do you think we can be friends? ‘Cause I’d really hate to loose your friendship just because we’re not together anymore.’

‘I don’t know. I need some time to think this over. I thought everything was great between us, but I guess I was wrong.’

‘I never meant to hurt you Ki, you know that don’t you?’ I said and tried to put my hand on his arm but he slipped away.

‘Do you think you could spend the night at Shane and Anna’s. I need to be alone right now.’

‘Sure, if that’s what you want. I’m really sorry Ki.’ I said and went up to get my things.