Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
T he phone call from Warren played on Anna’s mind long after she hung up. Their friendship had never included chatting on the phone, but it had felt wonderfully natural.
After spending the next morning preparing the orders from the previous evening, she set off to hand deliver them, as promised. It took longer than expected since the women all wanted to chat to her – one even insisted she come in for coffee and cake.
Arriving back home at lunchtime, she felt the urge to tell Warren about her morning. That seemed like a bad sign. As did all the time she spent thinking about him. When she contemplated confiding in her friends, she remembered that as far as they were concerned, she was in a relationship with him.
With an urgent need to rectify that, she sent a group message to Kylie and Frannie, asking when they had time to hang out.
Relief washed through her when Frannie suggested they have a drink at her place that evening. Chatting everything through with her friends was exactly what Anna needed.
A few hours later, she hid her surprise when Jake answered the door – she’d thought it was a girls’ night .
“Hey,” he said, kissing her cheek. “How are you?”
“Fine.” She slipped her coat off and struggled to find space for it on the rack. In the end, Jake took it and slung it over the banister.
“I may have too many coats,” Frannie said, wandering out of the living room to greet Anna with a hug. “Don’t worry, Jake’s going out soon.”
“Thanks,” Jake said, mock frowning.
“I was very concerned,” Anna said, while secretly relieved that she could speak to the girls privately.
“Kylie and I are on white wine,” Frannie said, heading to the kitchen. “Is that good for you?”
“Perfect.” Anna went into the living room, where Kylie was sprawled on the couch.
“Everything okay with you?” Anna asked her.
“Thank goodness for wine, that’s all I can say.”
“Work busy?”
“Yes. It’s a hectic time of year in the marketing world. You must be busy at the moment, too?”
She nodded. “I did a wreath-making workshop at a private party last night and spent this morning delivering orders. And this afternoon assembling more wreaths.”
Frannie reappeared and handed Anna a glass of wine. “I’ll bet you’re making time for your new relationship, though?”
Anna gulped her wine. She should probably get the conversation over and done with, but she was aware of Jake being around somewhere.
“Warren’s so lovely,” Kylie crooned. “And it’s great that you were friends first. When you have that foundation for a relationship, it makes it solid really fast. Don’t you think?
You definitely seem very together already.
You’d never know it was a new relationship. There’s no awkwardness between you.”
“There isn’t,” Anna mused, then grimaced. She heard the creak of the stairs and decided Jake was probably out of earshot. “ I actually wanted to tell you something… it’s a bit uncomfortable…”
“We’re sorry again about jumping to conclusions about him and the waitress,” Kylie said. “He won’t hold it against us, will he?”
“No. It’s not an issue.”
“And things are good between the two of you?” Frannie asked.
“Yes.” She grimaced again, then shook her head. “Well, not really.”
“What’s the problem?” Kylie asked, sitting upright.
Anna put a hand over her face. “Before I tell you this, you need to know that I’m truly sorry. I did something stupid, and I’ve been feeling terrible about it.”
“You’re freaking me out now.” Frannie pressed a hand to her heart. “What did you do?”
“I lied about Warren,” she said in a rush. “He’s not actually my boyfriend. I just asked him to pretend for the party.”
Kylie gave a manic shake of the head. “Are you joking?”
“No. It was really stupid.”
Frannie wrinkled her nose. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I assumed Hayden would bring someone.” Anna released a pent-up breath.
“I’m so sick of everyone looking at me like I’m pathetic because I never moved on from him.
And I get it, because it is pathetic. But I got stressed about the party, and I made a deal with Warren.
I went along to a dinner with his parents that he was panicking about, and in return he came to the party. ”
“That was all pretend?” Kylie asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes. I hate that I lied to you.”
“You and Warren aren’t actually together?” Frannie asked, her words filled with disbelief.
Anna shook her head. “Please don’t hate me.”
They were silent for one horrible moment .
“Of course, we don’t hate you,” Kylie said.
Frannie stuck her bottom lip out. “I hate you thought you needed to pretend in front of us.”
The door opened and Jake burst in. “I’m sorry, but I can’t keep out of this conversation any longer.”
“Jake!” Frannie hissed. “Were you listening the whole time?”
“No one was whispering, and in case none of you have noticed, we don’t exactly live in a mansion.
There isn’t a room in the house where I wouldn’t be able to hear you.
But never mind that. Why are you focusing on Warren not actually being her boyfriend instead of asking the important questions?
” He plonked himself on the arm of the couch, body angled towards Anna.
“You’re not over Hayden?” he said loudly.
“I am over him,” she said uncertainly. “Kind of. I just never really moved on, did I?”
“ Didn’t you? ” Jake asked, features scrunching.
Frannie glared at him and hissed his name again.
“You weren’t asking good questions,” he told her. “I don’t understand what’s going on.” Again he looked at Anna. “You’re telling me you’re the one who hasn’t moved on, and you think we pity you? ”
Anna shrugged. “It always feels awkward when we’re all out together. That’s why I invited Warren.”
“But that makes no sense,” Jake said.
“I just thought if it looked as though I was with someone…”
“Yeah, yeah. I understand that bit.” He leaned forward, jutting his chin out.
“What I don’t understand is how you got to the conclusion that we feel sorry for you.
Because as far as I’m concerned, it’s Hayden who never moved on.
” He looked at Frannie. “It’s Hayden we feel sorry for, right?
I feel as though I’m in some weird parallel universe now. ”
“Why would you feel sorry for Hayden?” Anna asked, eyes flicking between Frannie and Kylie while she waited for them to tell Jake he was confused .
“Because he never got over you,” Kylie said, as though it was obvious. “He’s practically a workaholic, and whenever we all meet up, he has to bring some random woman as a buffer.”
“No,” Anna said, her brain firing wildly.
“ Yes! ” Frannie argued. “Whereas you always turn up as though you haven’t got a care in the world.
You even chat with his random dates as though it doesn’t bother you to see him with someone else.
Plus, your business is booming, and you’ve been doing great since you two broke up. He’s just been a sad mess.”
Anna shook her head, trying to make sense of the conversation. “He was the one who broke up with me,” she pointed out. “He didn’t want to be with me any more.”
Her three friends stared at her, and she had the feeling she was missing something.
“But when he realised he’d made a massive mistake, you refused to take him back.” Kylie’s eyes sparkled. “Which I think is awesome, by the way. I wish I were that strong.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Anna said.
“He never wanted to get back together.” Her mind flashed back to the party and him saying he wished they’d never broken up.
That was the first time she’d had any inkling that he regretted the breakup, and she’d put that down to alcohol and a spark of jealousy over seeing her with Warren.
“The girls told him not to say anything,” Jake said.
“You seemed to be doing well again,” Frannie said, a hint of apology in her words. “We didn’t want him to mess you about and hurt you all over again.”
“Okay,” Anna said slowly, not sure whether to be annoyed with them for interfering.
“But he spoke to you anyway, right?” Kylie asked, looking about as confused as Anna felt.
“Sort of. Maybe… do you mean at the party?”
“When you broke up,” Jake said. “Ages ago.”
Anna shook her head. “He didn’t say anything. ”
“He did, ” Jake insisted. “He told us he did.”
“I think I’d remember.” Anna also suspected she’d be back together with him if that conversation had taken place.
Jake stared at her. “He said you wouldn’t entertain the idea of getting back together. That you told him he’d hurt you and you didn’t even want to be friends with him. That you’d just be polite when we were all out for the sake of group dynamics.”
A shiver ran down Anna’s spine. “When is this conversation supposed to have taken place?”
Jake shrugged and looked at Frannie. “Eighteen months ago, right?”
“Probably,” Frannie said. “It was about six months after you broke up. You’d just set up your online shop and seemed to be doing well. That’s why we thought he should leave you alone.”
Silence fell, and Anna took a large swig of her wine as she tried to get everything straight in her head.
“ Did he try to get back with you?” Kylie asked as she watched Anna.
“I don’t know,” she said, rearranging a previous conversation in her head and trying to figure out if she could really have got it so wrong.
“He invited me out for coffee one day,” she said as that morning played out in her head.
“He said he was sorry that he’d messed things up and that he hated how things were between us. And that he missed me.”
“What did you say?” Frannie asked, a frown wrinkling her forehead.
“I thought he wanted us to be friends.” Her voice sounded oddly hollow.
“I thought he missed being friends with me and wanted us to still hang out as friends. That’s what I said no to.
I told him he’d hurt me and I didn’t want to be around him.
I was still so upset, and I couldn’t stand the thought of spending time with him as friends.
And I was devastated that he was so unaffected by the breakup that he thought we could continue being friends. ”
Kylie tilted her head. “He’s been obsessed with you this whole time. We all thought you knew. He thought you knew.”
“I can’t believe this!” Jake threw his hands up and glared accusingly at Frannie. “I thought women were supposed to talk. Did it never occur to you to ask Anna if she still had feelings for Hayden?”
Frannie’s gaze went to Anna. “You never really wanted to talk about it.”
“Because I was so upset and humiliated,” she said weakly.
Kylie’s eyes widened dramatically. “Do you still have feelings for Hayden?”
With her thoughts all over the place, Anna closed her eyes to calm her racing thoughts. “I don’t know,” she murmured.