Chapter 24
twenty-four
. . .
Violet
I start to unpack my overnight bag when my mom calls me. She doesn’t bother with pleasantries and gets right to asking whether I’ve spoken to Mason. Evidently, her and Melissa had already started prepping for our annual Christmas dinner and need to know whether we had made up so they could plan accordingly. I could practically see her jump up and down with excitement as I relay the news that Mason and I had indeed talked.
“So, you two fixed everything then?” My mom screams into the phone over the sound of customers and espresso machines in the background.
“Yeah, we’re friends again.” Just friends I reiterate to myself. It was a necessary reminder given I had a not-so-PG-13 dream about Mason last night. One that featured him laying me out on the dining room table while he…enjoyed his meal. An d I’m not talking about the frittata he made for us this morning. I woke up covered in sweat from the words dream Mason had whispered in my ear, dazed and confused about what the hell had just happened. I had no explanation as to why my brain chose to plague me with such dreams. I blamed it on the fact that he was sleeping a couple hundred feet away. And that I was touch deprived.
“ Friends? ” The disappointment in my mom’s voice leaks through the phone. “You’re really telling me you don’t feel anything else?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that…” A part of my heart has always belonged to Mason even in the years we were apart. “We just don’t want to rush into things, so we’re testing the waters as friends.”
“So should I tell Mel to expect you both for Christmas?”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I wasn’t the only reason he was avoiding Castle Harbor.” Monroe had hinted that Mason’s reluctance to go back home was spurred over a bad fight between him and his dad, at the time I figured she was exaggerating. Mason and his dad were practically inseparable and always had been…or at least that’s what I had thought. But when Mason chose to move to Boston instead of Castle Harbor following his retirement…I realized another thing we now have in common next to our shunning skills —strained relationships with our fathers.
“You can put me down for sure though.”
“Sounds good. Everything else going okay?”
“Yeah same-old same-old. Busy with teaching. Trying to keep my head above water in my stats class. Scrambling to find time to analyze the data I’ve spent hours collecting.”
“You sure you’re doing okay?”
“I’m being pulled in a million different directions, but that’s the standard grad student experience.” I shrug though she can’t see it. ”Nothing, I can’t handle.”
“And Bethany…she’s good to you?” There’s a protective ed ge in my mom’s voice. I’ll never forget how enraged she was when I told her some of the things I had endured my first year.
“Yeah, she’s great. She supported me in applying for this big fellowship. Hopefully I’ll hear back about it soon.”
“Well, I’m crossing all my fingers and toes for you…I gotta run, but I love you loads, aziz .”
“Love you too, Mom.”
I feel the sudden urge to call Mason and debrief my day. In addition to it being way too soon to resume bff behavior, I also realize I had lost his contact when I changed my number a while back. Apparently, Mason had also realized this.
Today, 4:13 p.m.
To: Violet Amin ( aminv @westchesteru.edu )
From: Mason Hayes ( mhayes @westchesteru.edu )
Subject: Phone Number
I figured friends should have each other’s phone numbers 617-993-1670 (or you can just unblock me).
p.s., Penny has spent the last hour rotating between staring at the door waiting for you to come back and glaring at me as if I’m the problem.
-M
--
Men’s Ice Hockey Assistant Coach
Westchester University
I skip the email response and text him instead.
Hey it’s Violet. Relax, I would never block you. I just changed my number.
Mason
Well damn
Some poor stranger’s out there reading SOS messages about me being mauled by a cat
Followed by images of said mauling
You two seemed fine when I left this morning
Yes, but now the little menace realizes you’re gone
So, she’s decided to take it out on me
Wow you went from demon cat to little menace. Maybe Penny will turn you into a cat person
Unlikely
Btw are you free Friday night?
I should be, why?
We have a game against Boston College. Any interest in cheering me on?
Can you cheer for coaches? Is that a thing?
You can totally make it a thing
Sounds fun. I’m down
Great I’ll drop the tickets off at your office