Chapter 10 - Reid #3
My jaw ticked. Obviously she had seen her ex-boyfriend naked, but I didn’t like hearing her talk about it.
I took my phone back and hit the “follow” button for Paul’s account.
Then I popped over to an app I had for generic stock images and picked a random one of a cat sitting on a sofa that looked like the one from some of her other pictures.
I added it to the AngelineRox profile stories, then went back to Paul’s profile and hit “message.”
“Alright. What should our opening line be?” I asked.
“Tell him he looks unreal in his last gym selfie. He eats that shit up.” Hazel rolled her eyes as I typed out the message and sent it. I added a wink emoji for full effect.
“Nice touch,” she said with a smile. “Now what?”
“Now we wait and hope he answers.” Before closing out of the app, I went back to her friend-of-a-friend’s profile. Kiara. “You sure there’s nothing here? I think we at least need to look into this girl.”
Hazel bit her lip. Self-consciousness practically glimmered in her eyes.
“I guess I can broach the subject of hanging out again. Or potentially use Zoe as a buffer.” She said it like the idea was the most painful thing she could think of.
“If we were in the same room, maybe I could get a read on her.”
“Good.” I looked at her expectantly while she shoved a crab rangoon into her mouth, a crumb falling onto her sweater.
“Time is of the essence,” I pushed.
She looked to the ceiling before wiping her hand on her pants and firing off a quick message on her phone. “There, sent her a text. Don’t hold your breath, though. Even if she isn’t the culprit, the chances of her responding to me are still low.”
“Worth a shot,” I said. “We can think of something else if she doesn’t end up answering.”
And then what?
I was in over my head here. My ideas were limited.
I loved combing through details of an old case, obsessing over theories and doing internet sleuthing.
But when the stakes were live? When there was hardly anything available to go on?
This wasn’t what I was used to at all. I probably should have done a better job of setting Hazel’s expectations.
I couldn’t stand the idea of letting her down.
“I’ve got my friends working on it, too,” I said, wanting to offer her something else. “Obviously we don’t have much to go on, but if they think of anything they’ll let me know.”
“This is your crime fighting group?” she clarified. “The one you do the blog with?”
“Those are the ones,” I said, cringing at how lame “crime fighting group” sounded.
“How does one get involved with something like that?” Hazel asked.
“One spends about fifty hours too many on a cold case thread and gets on a first name basis with other commenters.”
“That’s fun,” she said, without even a hint of sarcasm. “Good idea for meeting people.”
I straightened up. “Will you tell my family that? They just think I’m pathetic for spending so much time online.”
“Any time you spend doing something you love with people you like isn’t wasted. Besides, you’re even helping people. It’s honorable.”
My chest warmed at her words. It was exactly how I felt.
Hazel picked up the remote and switched on the TV. “Down for a movie? I could use a break from thinking about all this stuff.”
“Whatever you want.” I scootched over on the couch so she could join me.
She pressed play on an old romcom I’d seen at least a dozen times. It was one of Ruby and Regan’s favorites.
“Is this okay?” she asked. “Paul used to hate this movie.”
I waved off her comment. “I have two sisters. I can probably quote this movie better than you can.”
That got a smile out of her—a real one, genuine and unguarded.
Since the day I’d met Hazel, I’d sensed that the truest parts of her were buried beneath a quiet sadness.
She still shone through; her spirit wasn’t something that could be easily extinguished.
But there was always a part of her that held back, like she was moving through the world slightly numb.
“You seem close with your family. Ruby talks about you all a lot,” she said while the opening credits played.
“We’re kind of obnoxiously close,” I said. “No boundaries, or personal space.”
“That sounds nice.”
I chuckled. “Nice, suffocating, some days it’s hard to tell the difference.”
She laughed. “They sound sweet.”
“I guess. They’ve just been extra in my business lately. They worry about me.” My eyes met hers before drifting away. It would be easier to put this fact out there, get it over with. “I-I got divorced last year and I think they think I’m struggling to move on or something.”
“Oh,” she said casually, but I could see the subtle shift in her expression. Mentally calculating my age. I was only twenty-nine, and some people were surprised I already carried the title of divorcé. “Are you? Struggling to move on, I mean.”
“We were together since college, it’s a long story,” I explained, hoping to wrap this up quickly. “Well, I guess, not really. Long relationship, short marriage. Probably should have realized we had issues before walking down the aisle. Whatever. Despite what my family thinks, I really am over it.”
She nodded, her lips parting but no sound coming out.
She probably wanted to ask about the details.
What happened? What was she like? I didn’t really like to talk about it.
I worried it didn’t paint me in the best light, since, after all, she had dumped me.
For whatever reason, I didn’t want Hazel to think I was damaged goods.
“You don’t have any siblings, right?” I asked, shifting the focus back to her. Guilt seeped in for continuing to prod into her personal life without really sharing much of mine.
“Just me and Gran,” she said matter-of-factly. I wanted more. I wanted to know about her dynamic. She’d mentioned a few times that her grandmother was her only family, but never why.
She eyed me, and as if reading my mind, said, “You’re curious about my parents.”
“I didn’t say that,” I said quickly.
“You didn’t have to.” She sat up straighter, tucking her legs underneath her.
“It’s alright, everyone is always curious.
My mom was a bit of an alcoholic—I think, at least. I practically had to drag details out of Gran.
She ended up getting pregnant with me a few months before she turned thirty, with no idea who the father was.
She was still living with my grandma at the time.
Gran had always been there for her, tried to support her, but when I came around, things changed.
At least, that’s what she always told me.
Suddenly there was a new baby in her life, and she couldn’t make as many excuses for her daughter anymore.
They had no money, and once I came along, there was even less.
My grandma was determined to break the cycle.
She wanted better for me. I guess my mom liked partying more than the idea of being a parent.
She left me with Gran when I was just a baby. ”
“We don’t have to talk about this,” I said, feeling awful I’d even asked. I had no idea Hazel had been through all that. Her story made me want to tuck her into my side and keep her safe.
“No, it’s okay.” A ghost of a smile haunted her face. “It’s nice to talk about her. Maybe not so much the other stuff, but it’s been weeks since someone has asked me anything about Gran.”
I felt a little stab in my chest then. The pain was all over her face. She wasn’t just dealing with losing a pet or being extorted. She was dealing with the loss of the most important person in her life.
“So your mom was never in the picture?” I asked hesitantly.
“No. She died when I was only three. I don’t really know all the details. Something with a car accident. Gran never wanted to talk about it. We never talked about her much at all.”
“Shit, Hazel. I had no idea.” I sat up, eyes locked on hers. “I can’t even imagine.”
Even though she was looking at me, she had a far-off look in her eyes and I wished I could reach out and hold her.
“It’s strange…sometimes I wonder if I remember my mother at all.
I have this hazy memory of her coming by one time and taking me to get a donut.
I think it was winter. I was all bundled up and excited because we never got treats like that.
But at this point, it’s hard to remember if it’s real or if it’s just something Gran had mentioned to me once. ”
“That must be hard. To never know your mom.” This time I did reach out and squeeze her arm.
I had to do something. I felt like a heel for not having anything insightful to say about the situation, but I had nothing to offer her.
No wise words. I’d grown up in a stable household, overflowing with love.
Any words of empathy out of me would sound fake.
“It was harder when I was younger. Gran always did her best to make it feel like we were a complete family, but the stigma stuck to me. People would whisper about it at school. I was the girl being raised by my grandma, as if that was something to be ashamed of.”
We sat in silence for a minute, the movie playing forgotten in the background.
“Your grandma sounds like an amazing woman,” I finally said.
She smiled. “Oh, she was. She was kind of a tough woman, but she had a good heart. She’d spend all Friday night out at a poker game, then knit me a sweater the next morning.”
“A true woman of the world.”
She laughed melodically. “Exactly.”
“Are you…are you okay?” I asked. What a stupid question. Of course she wasn’t okay. I wanted to hit myself.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked from the TV back to me. “With how I grew up, or…?”
“Without your grandma,” I clarified. “When you mentioned she passed, I hadn’t realized how close you two were.”
She nodded, eyes glassy. “I’m doing better now.
She’d been sick for a while, so theoretically I should have been preparing myself for it.
She smoked and drank my entire life. She was never the picture of health.
But she was still so vibrant. The day before it happened, I was at her place having lunch.
We had plans for that weekend…” Her voice trailed off, causing my chest to squeeze tightly. Fuck, I wanted to hug her.
“Preparing for something hard usually doesn’t make it hurt less when it happens,” I said.
Hazel gave me a small smile. “The part that was the hardest was just how mundane it all was. A few sympathetic frowns from the nurses, and then it was straight to filling out some paperwork. People get old, they pass away. Once you reach a certain age, no one even asks why. It’s just life.
But for me, it was like losing everything.
“Anyway, that’s why Vermont is so important to me.
Obviously I love him, and I’d want him back regardless, but he was really her baby.
She got him from the rescue a few years ago and he was her companion.
By her side right until the end.” She nearly choked on the last word, that far-off look back in her eyes.
“Which is why I need him back, under any circumstances. Ideally, not by paying for him, though. That money might not seem like a lot to you—”
“It’s a lot of money,” I said gently. I did okay for myself now, but I grew up securely lower-middle class. My parents stretched each paycheck as best as they could. I understood what money could mean for someone.
“It is. I’m…” she bit her lip. “I’m not in a great place right now. I have so much credit card debt, and—”
That snapped me out of my trance. “Hazel,” I scolded. “How could you let yourself rack up credit card debt? That’s the biggest scam there is.”
“I know, I know. But it wasn’t like I did it on purpose.
It wasn’t like I woke up one day and thought, you know what, I’ll go on a shopping spree and charge it all to the Visa.
I wasn’t in a good place, Reid. My grandma’s assisted living home was more than I could afford, but I wasn’t about to ask her to move.
Her comfort was the most important thing.
And it’s just my luck that as soon as the luckiest thing in the world happened to me, the unluckiest thing would too. ”
“I get it,” I said, still mentally reeling about the credit card debt, but biting my tongue. If she’d needed to do it, she’d needed to do it. Who the hell was I to judge? All I could do now was help her.
I could tell Hazel had had enough of the heavy talk, as she nestled back into the couch.
We managed to refocus on the movie, for about two minutes. Then Hazel went off about how ridiculously the main character was acting, and just like that, we were back to chatting.
We stuck to lighthearted stuff this time. We talked right through the rest of the film as we finished off an absurd amount of Chinese food. Joking about how unbelievable it was that the heroine gave the first guy a chance. Laughing at the terrible wigs. I even quoted a few of my favorite lines.
Eventually, Hazel’s breathing deepened, and a weight shifted onto my shoulder. She’d fallen asleep with her legs curled up at her side, leaning into me.
It was incredibly uncomfortable, yet I had absolutely no desire to move.
My eyelids drooped with heaviness. I took off my glasses and set them on a coffee table, allowing myself to slowly drift off as the familiar movie played in the background.
Hazel was cuddled into my side, warm and close, and I let sleep start to pull me under.