Sunday Afternoon Trial Prep

You thankfully arrived at your place before Eric was supposed to get there. Imagining the awkwardness between Eric and Mosche if Eric had to wait for the three of you was almost painful and you couldn’t imagine the damage to the universe that would be caused. Would Mosche be convinced by Eric to join his slightly misogynistic red pill stuff, or would Eric think that doing standup would be a good idea?

Mosche was home when the three of you got in, but Iris wasn’t with him. He said she had ‘family stuff’ on Sundays and you didn’t ask about him going to said ‘family stuff’ if he was Iris’s boyfriend - either it was too early, or she didn’t want her family to know about him. Both options seemed pretty valid. Mosche did, however, ask if he could hang out with you guys after you told him you were having a final study and prep session for a big work thing.

“Um,” you said. “I… don’t think so, my man. This is a really big deal for us and we need to stay focused.”

“Oh, OK,” he said and then let out a long sigh. You knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose - Mosche was just too simple to be manipulative on purpose, he’d only accomplish it through not thinking about what he was doing - and yet somehow you still felt a little guilty about him being lonely.

“I’ll tell you what,” you said. “We’ll probably order some dinner in, and what shows up you can join us for a bit to eat.”

“OK,” he said. “I guess I’ll do some joke writing, and then I can try them out on you guys.”

“....Sure,” you said, already regretting the offer. “That should be fun.”

Gemma and Sabrina had headed to your room rather than having a big interaction with Mosche. Even after the multiple times they’d interacted with him since the fallout with Tasha they were holding a bit of grudgey stance against him.

“OK, we need to talk about something,” you said as you entered the bedroom.

Gemma was sitting on the edge of the bed sorting files she’d pulled out of one of the bags you’d carried everything in, and Sabrina was at the desk doing the same. They both looked up at the tone of your voice, frowning slightly. “What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked.

“I need to get clarity on something here,” you said. “And it’s how we feel about holding onto grudges. Which isn’t healthy. I mean, it would be one thing if Mosche had actively hurt one of us, or was continuing to do so - a great example of which is Joy. But Mosche isn’t… malevolent. He isn’t acting out. And I’m not saying you have to like him, or even go out of your way to interact with him, but you two barely grunted hello before you disappeared back here. So I need to know if, as we go through life, this is the sort of stuff I need to expect?”

“John, he hurt Tasha badly,” Gemma said.

“Did he do it on purpose?” you asked back.

Both of your girlfriends made slight faces at that.

“Seriously,” you said. “Do you think he did it on purpose, maliciously and with intent, or do you think he did it because he’s a gross cocktail of anxiety, self-deprecation, low confidence and weird sexual questions? Because if it was malicious I can see putting up some major walls, because that’s some evil shit. But if it wasn’t malicious, then I’m not saying we need to forgive and forget, but we should probably figure out a more mature way of handling it than what’s happening now because you two are the ones coming off as rude and catty.”

Sabrina was clenching her jaw, and she looked from you over to Gemma and then back at you. “Can we… have a minute? To talk?” she asked you.

You exhaled, realising you’d been holding some anxiety of your own in your chest. “Yeah, of course,” you said. “Here, I’ll take those files out to the table and get them set up. Just text me when to come back.”

Taking the files, you left them in the bedroom and did exactly what you said - while trying your damnedest not to think about the confrontation you’d just kind of sprung on them. It didn’t feel like a fight, but it felt more like a fight than one of your usual little arguments that were good-natured and full of teasing or ribbing and could lean lawyer-y. Those were always about superficial things and you all knew it.

You had finished with the files and were starting to wonder if Eric would get there before the girls called you back, but the text came through first. You headed back to your bedroom and found both Gemma and Sabrina sitting on the edge of the bed now.

“OK,” Gemma said when you closed the door. “So, we talked. And… you’re right. We were kind of being dicks to Mosche when we came in. And you’re also right that holding grudges isn’t healthy.”

“But we also don’t want to be friends with him anymore,” Sabrina said. “We’re firmly on Tasha’s side of things, even if he didn’t do it on purpose. We don’t want to be friends with someone who acts the way he does, whether it’s on purpose or not. Mosche isn’t an evil guy, but he became a bad guy to us through his actions. We don’t want to do the same back, so we’ll make sure we’re being civil.”

“Thank you,” you said.

“And you were right about grudges in general,” Sabrina continued, then took a breath and let it out. “It’s not healthy. But Gemma and I agree that somehow we have, like, actual enemies from this summer. Joy and Lucy are both more than just people we don’t want to associate with. But we can’t let everything going on make us feel like it’s OK to be…”

“Cunts,” Gemma said bluntly. “We can’t start acting like cunts to just anyone.”

You had to take a breath, not sure how to respond. “I…” you said, then exhaled and shook your head. “Thank you,” you said again.

They both got up and came to you, and the three of you had a long hug as you held each other.

You’d brought up something important, even if it was critical, and they’d absorbed it, talked about it, and processed it.

Was this being an adult?

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