Arthur in Israel

Arthur followed her to Israel

Where he looked for monuments

Letting him know

He was two steps away

From a picture she posted last week

With the caption ‘Change is <3 p="">

His best friend rode a bicycle alongside him

Every so often playfully pretending

To ride into him

With only a minor rebuke

From Arthur

Lance has the body of a cyclist

And the unfortunate distinction

Of being named Lance

He plays tennis

And golfs

But he only gets on a bike

When Arthur calls and asks

If he wants to go to Israel

And bike to some remote town

Where Gwen is living

With a man twice her age

‘A man who steals love is a heart’s dragon,’ said Lance

‘Right, uh huh,’ said Arthur, shoving a t-shirt into a duffel bag,

‘Does that mean you’ll go?’

Now here they are

Riding past a café

Where Gwen had taken a photo of herself

And captioned it ‘Sweet Eats’

According to her friendly message to Arthur

The town she was in

Was an hour from the café by car

Which meant by bike—

‘Watch out!’

Speaking of cars

One nearly hit Arthur

But Lance shoved him out of the way

Then veered to the side

Narrowly avoiding getting hit himself

‘You okay, Arthur?’

‘Yeah, I’m great’

Why was he doing this?

Gwen had broken up with him five years ago

And he had agreed

That it was for the best

For five years, they’d been the best of friends

And both of them had serious relationships with other people

That didn’t rankle or upset

The bond that had formed between them

One time they’d even gotten drunk

At a Halloween party

Where they inadvertently showed up

Dressed like Batman and Catwoman

And decided they had no choice

But to make out

Two minutes into it

They started laughing

And couldn’t stop

That was all the proof they needed

That anything but camaraderie

Was no longer in the cards

But when Gwen first started talking about Robin

Something in Arthur turned over

And never quite settled

The feeling only grew worse

When Gwen texted Arthur at 1am to tell him

That Robin was taking her on a spontaneous trip to Israel

They were leaving later that morning

And they would be gone for at least

Three weeks

Arthur didn’t say anything at the time

But two days later

The thought of her alone with Robin the Divorced Guitar Teacher

In Israel for three weeks

Was enough to make him realize

That he loved Gwen

Would never love anyone else

And needed to go tell her so

That’s how he wound up in a field

Somewhere in Israel

Where he didn’t even know they had fields

Laying on a blanket next to Lance

Wondering what would make him think

That he wouldn’t get lost

Once his GPS stopped working

And his phone died

That was when he should have turned around

And headed back towards the café

But Lance said ‘Adventure is given to us as a gift’

And he put down a blanket

And suggested they rest for the night

As if sleeping in fields in foreign countries

Was the most normal thing in the world

As they lay there

Arthur rolled over

To look at Lance

His best friend

And the only guy he knew

Who would understand

His fascination

With Gwen

He wanted to ask him

If this trip was a mistake

Not in the grand scheme of things

Because in that sense

Lance didn’t believe in mistakes

But a mistake for Arthur

A misstep on his part

Should he just go home

And never let Gwen find out about this?

Let the thing with Robin run its course

And then confess his feelings to her

Provided they were still there?

Lance reached out his hand

And took Arthur’s

And they stayed that way

While back home news of heroes

Was hard to find

And harder still to believe

Two men who were friends

Fell asleep

While, unbeknownst to them,

The girl they were looking for

Was laying in a bed with a man

She knew she could never really love

And wondering how she could tell him

That she needed to go home right away

And see a boy

Named Lance