I Wish It Could Explain Everything
My friends are a fairly close-knit group, or at least we feel that way. We're united by our proximity to the odd, the acceptance of strange things that other people doubt exist. Sure, Carlos and Jen are settling into a nice, comfortable family life, but they know things. They know them in a way that all you folks reading this blog, much as I appreciate you, don't; they've seen it first-hand, had to make peace with the fact that their friends and lovers are something different. It's a bond between us, and I like to think that our relationships are stronger because of it.

I'm sometimes wrong about that.

We were doing a sort of girl's afternoon out thing - me, Kate, Maggie, Jen, and Gertie. It was sort of ad hoc and last minute; we'd only heard about the Brattle Movie trivia fundraiser at AllAsia a few days before. Jen had Eloise with her in one of those sling deals, so we joked about filling a team of six. We got our butts kicked, but the theater raised a little money. The thing is, part of the reason we got our butts kicked was that Kate just wasn't in the game at all, and she's usually really good at this.

We stuck around for a drink afterward, and at first Kate said she didn't want to talk about it, but it was one of those cases where she obviously really did. She hadn't taken but one sip of her drink when she put it down, composed herself a little, and flatly stated that Carter had dumped her.

Our jaws all dropped - none of us had any idea there were problems. Apparently, neither did Kate. It just came out of the blue. She looks at me and Maggie and asks if we have any idea what's going on. I'm like, no, it's been years since we were together, and he was literally a different person then. Yeah, he tried to get back together once he wound up in my old body, but that was just reflex. He hasn't really talked to me much in months. Certainly, there's been no indication that he's still attracted to me.

Oh. My old body. That's why you're asking Mags, right? It's like Natasha two years ago, wanting to know if this is some thing inherent to that body, something hormonal that he can't help. If it's something that came from me, or the old me, sort of. Which is disconcerting and a little hurtful, because Kate's about my best friend and she thinks I could be that way. Maggie assures her, though, that she and I broke up out of typical male potential baby freak-out and her reaction to the same.

Which leads Kate to "do you think he's still Carter"? And we all stop, because we love Kate and really do think that someone would have to be out of his mind to break up with her. Carter not being himself would explain that, but it's hardly sufficient reason to ask the FBI to start giving blood tests.

But, man, I don't get it. I think Carter's going to be at the Waltham office on Wednesday; I'll have to corner him and ask him then.

-Marti
- posted 11:35 PM - - (archive use only)