Chapter 13 Hazel
THIRTEEN
Hazel
“And you’re just playing house with the guy?
” Zoe asked, sipping her smoothie on the other end of the video call.
She had giant sunglasses on, despite the partially cloudy Michigan weather.
She always claimed her blue eyes were extra sensitive.
From the looks of it, she was parked in her car, probably right outside the smoothie place, heaters blasting to counteract the cold beverage.
We hadn’t caught up in ages, and I’d just filled her in on all of the miserable details of my life lately.
Zoe had oohed and ahhed in all the right places and expressed proper outrage over Vermont and the thief.
But even with that whole ordeal, she was hung up on one detail in particular. Which didn’t surprise me in the least.
“What does he look like? Do you have a picture?” she asked.
“I don’t have a picture.”
“What’re his socials?” The video paused as she exited out of the call to pull up an app.
“He doesn’t have any,” I said.
“Red flag. Who doesn’t have social media?”
“He’s private.”
“That’s what they all say.”
I rolled my eyes at my friend. Zoe had always seemed larger than life to me.
She marched to the beat of her own drummer, but somehow, it was a beat everyone else wanted to follow.
I didn’t mind living in her shadow, not really.
It had gotten me through high school, and those shaky, formative years after.
She hadn’t gone to college either, and though we never lived together, I’d spent more late nights at her place than my own.
We only really started to drift apart once I started dating Paul.
And even though Paul and I were long over, Zoe and I had never quite found our way back.
She had plenty of other friends to fall back on, after all; friends I’d never clicked with.
“Reid is a good one, I promise.”
“Hazel, I totally believe you, but I’m gonna need a picture of the guy you’re shacking up with, like, immediately.”
Even with the sunglasses on, I could visualize the glint in her eyes.
I minimized the video chat to pull up a browser.
I searched his full name. Reid Mitchell.
A ton of results. I searched again, this time with our location, but there was nothing.
Not even an article about that cold case he and his group solved.
It didn’t surprise me that he wouldn’t have wanted to be mentioned by name.
“I just googled him. There’s nothing,” I said, bringing the call with Zoe back up. “I’ll try to sneak one when he gets home.”
Reid had left the townhouse around five, right as I was getting back from work, to help his dad with something at his house.
Cleaning a dryer vent? Something with a radiator?
I’d zoned out when he explained it to me.
It was certainly something I had never done, and I could promise Gran had never done, in our old house.
But so far, living at his house was going pretty smoothly.
This morning, I’d had that initial moment of waking up in a new place and momentarily forgetting where I was, but other than that, it had been pretty normal. When I’d stumbled into the kitchen, Reid had already been sitting at the dining table, drinking coffee and scrolling his phone.
I pulled a mug out of the cabinet and poured myself a cup.
“Oh, there’s milk in the fridge if you want.”
I held up the cup. “I’m good with black.”
Then he’d given me a strange look when I grabbed a cold slice of leftover pizza and plopped down next to him.
“Pizza for breakfast?” he’d asked, like that wasn’t a perfectly valid thing to do.
But then he’d smiled, and I forced him to have one too. He’d insisted he didn’t like cold pizza and I’d promptly told him that was impossible. I’d said it was basically like a pastry. He ate the slice. Maybe just to appease me, but it was the best breakfast I’d had in a while.
Zoe slurped loudly, drawing my attention back to the call at hand. “Have you guys hooked up?”
“No!” I was getting a little fed up with this line of questioning.
“Really?” She lifted her shades, eyes searching mine through the phone screen.
“Really! We met last week.”
“So? That’s a perfectly reasonable amount of time to know someone before having sex. Hell, I’ve waited a lot less.”
“We’re friends,” I said, surprised to find I actually believed the words.
“And friends don’t sleep together?” Zoe asked.
“You’re impossible. You don’t even know what he looks like.”
“I can tell from your red cheeks that he isn’t hideous.”
That just made me flush even more. It was true, Reid was far from hideous. In fact, seeing him waltz about his house in sweatpants last night and this morning had just fanned the flame of my growing attraction.
“He’s cute,” I admitted.
“Knew it.” She smiled triumphantly, settling back into her seat. “So how are you doing otherwise? I mean, you know, with everything.”
The question caught me off guard. I loved Zoe, but deep conversations weren’t really her thing. She was more the queen of distraction. She’d get your mind off something, not pick it apart.
“I’m doing okay. Better now.” A part of me should probably analyze why I’d only started to feel better since meeting Reid, but I didn’t want to delve too much into it.
“Seems like you could use a night out,” she said. And there it was. That was the Zoe I knew.
“You know I hate bars,” I said. Which was true. They were loud, too crowded, and the floors were always suspiciously sticky.
“I’m coming into town next weekend to visit Kiara. We’re going out for my birthday.”
I sucked in my lips to try to hide my surprise.
She’d already made plans to visit? She hadn’t even mentioned it to me.
In the few years since I’d moved, she hadn’t visited me once.
Granted, I used to live with Paul, and he wasn’t her favorite, but still.
We’d met halfway between our places a couple of times, and I’d spent a few weekends at her house, but that was it.
“Sounds fun.” I forced my tone into one of indifference.
She laughed, clearly missing my shift in mood. “You don’t have to lie. You just have to come out with us. I insist.”
“Alright.” My voice sounded strange. Fake to my own ears.
We caught up for a while longer, mostly talking about her failed online date the night before. Then we ended the call.
My inferiority complex was flaring up, big-time.
Zoe had been my only constant friend throughout the years, but to her, I was just one of many.
She collected people like some people collected handbags.
Her visit to Kiara just confirmed what I always knew, deep down.
They were closer. I hated how much that stung.
Especially since I’d tried so hard to get it right.
I showed up. I was fun. I hung out when she needed company, played wing woman when she needed backup.
But clearly, something about me didn’t stick.
I never quite fit. I was always a little too much, or not quite enough.
Easy to overlook, even when I was trying my hardest to be seen.
“Hazel, you home?” A voice echoed from the front entry. I sat up straight on the couch, pulling my feet off it. Which was ridiculous. Reid wouldn’t care if my socks were on his couch. Nevertheless, I wanted to appear to be the perfect house guest.
“In here,” I called.
Reid rounded the corner, cheeks red from the cold outside, talking a mile a minute. “The post we made on the Neighborhood app. Remember? About Vermont? Someone replied. They said they found an orange cat two blocks away from your house the other day and dropped it at the animal shelter.”
“Is there a picture?” I asked, springing up.
“No, and it might be nothing, but we have to at least check it out.”
The orange cat stared up at us as it bared its fangs, giving me what could only be described as a crotchety hiss. He looked almost like an old man: long whiskers, slightly gray eyebrows, and lazy eyes that were simultaneously annoyed and tired.
Certainly not the familiar, friendly face I was hoping for.
“That’s not Vermont.” I frowned, looking at him longer, willing him to somehow transform into the cat I remembered so vividly.
“Damn.” Reid shot me an apologetic look.
The concrete hallway was lined with plastic windows, putting the cats that were there on display like some sad zoo.
The smell of litter and disinfectant sat heavy in my nostrils.
I hadn’t really expected it to be that easy, but during the drive over, a small, stupid part of me had let the fantasy play out.
Maybe this would be it. Maybe Vermont would be here.
I’d walk out with him, the money would land in my account in a couple of weeks, I’d pay off my debt, stash the rest in savings, maybe even buy myself something nice for once.
But life didn’t work like that. Not mine, anyway.
“It was worth a try,” Reid said. He put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. The comfort of his gesture was quickly swallowed by the flip my stomach did at his touch.
I slumped against the glass, taking in the other cats lounging about the room.
“Would you like to go in and meet them?” A worker in a blue apron asked as she walked past us.
“I’m okay,” I said at the same time Reid said, “Sure.”
I raised my eyebrows, looking at him.
“Oh, uh. I mean, not if it’s too painful or something like that.” Reid cleared his throat and shifted from foot to foot, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his dark blue hoodie.
“Are you trying to do a side quest and adopt a cat right now?” I asked.
“No, I, uh. I mean, we’re already here.” He shrugged. “I just like cats.”
I turned back to the worker who still had a smile plastered to her face.
“I guess we would like to go in.”
She reached past me and unlocked the door. “Just ring the bell when you’re done and someone will be in to help you.”