Chapter 15
COURTNEY
I managed to slip out of my husband’s office without either of them catching up to me. I know Beckett gave chase, because I heard him before the elevator doors closed. Whether Flynn came after me or not was a mystery. I couldn’t believe he taunted his cousin with our sex life, like it was some soap opera and only existed to provide drama to weaponize against people.
And he calls me Nemesis.
I scoffed at the thought of my recent nickname. Then, I pulled my phone out and sent a text to my best friend.
Courtney: I need you. Are you home today?
Hadley: I’m here and yay for three-day weekends that start on a Friday.
Courtney: Be there soon.
It took longer than I wanted it to, but eventually I managed to get to Hadley’s apartment.
“Hey bitch! Get in here.” She yanked me inside her place and locked the door behind us. “Which one of the men in your life put that sour look on your face?”
“Both of them.”
“Both?” She asked as she took a glass down and poured a healthy amount of wine.
“What is that?” I asked, not recognizing the bottle.
“This is the finest Moscato less than $10 can buy.” Hadley chuckled as my lips turned down and I scrunched my nose.
“Why?”
“Not all of us can afford to be wine snobs, babe.”
“Not all of us can afford to drink shitty wine, friend.” I called back. It had been a bitch of a day though, so I took the glass from her and didn’t bother to do anything other than gulp that shit down in a way that probably made all the other wine snobs in the world cry out for the injustice of it all.
“That tastes like the time you made me drink Boone’s Farm straight from the bottle when we were in high school.”
“In my defense, you refused to steal wine from your house,” Hadley reminded me.
“Because my parents would have noticed even if a fifty dollar bottle went missing, never mind the more expensive stuff.”
Hadley shrugged. “Well, that’s why we had to resort to having Edwin Milton buy a couple bottles.”
“Oh my God! You got that shit off a legitimate crackhead?”
Hadley giggled. “It’s not like he opened it and dumped a rock in there or something.”
“I feel like I need to brush my tongue all these years later.”
“Aw, stop making fun of poor Milton. He was good to us.”
“To you, maybe.”
“Feeling calmer now?” Hadley asked as I plopped down onto her sofa. My best friend had always been a master at distraction techniques.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“Now, tell me what happened.” I watched as she pulled her midnight black hair up into a big fluffy ball on top of her head. To call it a messy bun would have been a disservice to all the artfully cute and messy hairdos out there. My best friend didn’t care if it looked good. She just wanted all of it out of her face for a bit. I chuckled as the elastic band she used to secure it popped.
“Damn it!” She huffed. “I think that was my last one.”
“Sorry about your thick hair problems. I’ll buy you a new pack later.”
“Fine. Tell me about your boy troubles.” She seemed to think about that for a minute. “Is it weird that all your boy troubles stem from one family?”
“Hadley!” I whined.
“Okay, okay, tell me all about it. What happened today?”
“Well, the thing is, I have to back up and tell you what happened yesterday, first.”
“Oh shit, why didn’t you call yesterday.”
“I did. You didn’t answer.” Hadley glared down at her phone as if it personally offended her.
“I don’t see any missed calls.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I sighed and then told her everything that happened, starting with the disaster of a dinner meetup and all the way until I ran from my husband’s office straight to my best friend’s house.
“Wow. That’s…” She sighed and then turned to face me. “Can I be honest?”
“I didn’t come here to get you to tell me how I look in a new pair of jeans. I came to you with boy trouble. That requires honesty.”
“Fair.” Hadley took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before she spoke. “I suspected Beckett of screwing around on you before too.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Same reason as Flynn. I didn’t think you would take it too well if I didn’t bring you proof. All I had was a feeling and the weird way he didn’t want you to move in with him once you both graduated. It never made sense to me.”
“Hindsight is a bitch, because looking back, there are a lot of things I overlooked.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still a shitty friend for not pointing them out, but Beckett’s been in your life longer and I didn’t want to lose you if I was wrong.”
“I understand. What made you think he was cheating, though?”
“I overheard some women talking about being with him, but everyone knows we’re friends. I had no way of knowing if they were just trying to plant a seed to break you up or if it was the truth.”
“You believed them though?”
“Yes, I did. Beckett has always given off a slimy vibe. He’s charismatic, so most people ignore that and focus on his charm. He never charmed me, though.”
“Yeah, you have always hated him.”
“I don’t hate him. I just didn’t like him for you and didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. I’d have to care about the asshole to hate him.”
“What am I going to do?” I asked her after we both sat there quietly for far too long.
“About Beckett? You already married another man, I say ghost his ass and forget he ever existed in your life.”
“Obviously,” I rolled my eyes as I said that and then smiled at my friend. “I meant about the mess with Flynn. It feels like no matter what I do, everything is going to come out wrong. I know he was mad at me, and I think it was because when Beckett asked me not to sleep with Flynn, I didn’t tell him that it was too late.”
“I’m sure that did hurt Flynn. It probably felt like you were ashamed to have gone there with him.”
“I’m not. I wasn’t. That’s so wrong.”
“Maybe so, but I guarantee that’s how he felt.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s how I would have felt if I were in his shoes.”
“Dammit, how do I fix this? I’m angry that he was so cavalier about our intimate moments. They’re supposed to be private between the two of us only.”
Hadley took her time before she answered me. “What you have is a little communication problem. I’d bet a lot of money that Flynn doesn’t know that you never talk about your sex life.”
“I kind of did with him after our first night.”
“Well, that’s new. I guess that makes it harder for him to understand why you didn’t tell Beckett.”
“Yeah, I suppose it does. I’ll talk to him, but for now, can I spend the night with you? I don’t want to deal with the adult relationship stuff right now.”
“You are always welcome here, but only for one night, because any more than that is wallowing and wallowing leads to festering, and then things start to deteriorate further.”
“I get the picture. I promise, one night only, then I’ll go home and talk to Flynn.” I turned my phone off and lounged back on Hadley’s couch as she moved closer to me and hugged into my side.
“It’s going to be okay, bestie. You just need a night to clear your head and gain some perspective.”