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the need to burden you with my screw ups the day you get home.”
    “I’ve been burdened with your screw-ups from the day I first met you,” Camille said with a half-cocked smile she hoped would ease the tension that was beginning to fill the room.
    Julia’s quivering lip let her know the tactic hadn’t worked.
    “Bad joke. I’m sorry.”
    “Hey, it’s not like you’re lying.”
    They had first met as roommates during their second year at the University of Colorado. As a way of ushering in their newly minted friendship, Julia invited Camille to a house party for the sorority she wanted to pledge. On her first night as Julia’s roommate, Camille not only bore witness to drunken outbursts that would make a sailor blush, she also had to endure the indignity of being thrown out of the house after Julia decided she would rather steal a Delta Gamma pin than pledge for it. If the sorority president hadn’t been wearing the pin at the time, Julia may have actually gotten away with it.
    When they finally stumbled back to their dorm room, she spent the entire night apologizing. But Camille was far from upset. In Julia she saw the rebellious free spirit that she could never be; the yin to her yang. And though on the surface they appeared to have little in common – Camille played basketball on the cracked asphalt of the Skyline recreation center while Julia played golf on the pristine greens of the Cherry Hills Country Club – they quickly realized that theirs was the recipe for a perfect friendship. Camille needed someone to show her what it was like to walk on the edge, and Julia needed someone to pull her back when she went too far. Sixteen years later, the recipe may have changed, but their friendship was still perfect
    “Jules, you may be a lot of things, but you’re far from being a screw-up.”
    “Don’t be so sure about that.”
    “Fine. I’ll reserve judgment until I actually hear the story, is that fair?”
    Julia nodded, her eyes cast down at her feet. “Fair.”
    Several beats of silence passed between them.
    “That was your cue to tell me the story,” Camille finally said.
    “Not now.”
    Camille clenched her jaw in an attempt to fight back her mounting frustration. “What is the big deal? You’ve never held out on my like this. Did you kill someone or something?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Then it couldn’t possibly be that bad.”
    Camille expected a quick answer, but was instead was met with silence.
    “Could it?”
    Julia’s cell phone chimed with the sound of tubular bells. She anxiously read the text message then turned the phone off and pushed it in her jacket pocket. “I hate to do this to you, but I have to go.”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    Julia quickly rose to her feet and started for the door. “Unfortunately I’m not. Something’s come up at work and I have to go put out the fire.”
    For reasons she couldn’t explain, Camille didn’t believe her. “So we’re just leaving this up in the air?”
    Julia stopped short of the door. “Why don’t we do dinner at my house tomorrow? I’ll grill some steaks, we’ll open a couple of bottles of wine, and I’ll totally spill my guts.”
    “No more holding out on me?”
    “No more holding out,” she answered with a smile that Camille could only hope was sincere.
    “It’s a date then.” 
    “Good. I’ll write down the address. Do you think you can get a ride?”
    “Now that I’m finally old enough to drive maybe my dad will let me borrow his. By the way, do still have those dogs?”
    “Of course. Those are my two babies.”
    “They’re Dalmatians, Julia. I doubt there’s anything baby-like about them.”
    Julia shook her head. “You dealt with the world’s most hard-core killers on a daily basis, yet you’re still petrified of dogs. I’ll never understand it. But if it will help, I’ll make sure they’re in the backyard when you come.”
    “Thank you,” Camille said. “And by the way, I’m not petrified