Chapter 16
Jade
“You know,” Daniela said, sitting back on the rock ledge next to me, holding her tea in one hand, her eyes out on the vibrant orange sunset breaking over the valley. “I’ve missed doing stuff like this.”
I glanced at my phone. Alyssa still hadn’t opened the message with the flowers. My mind circled the anxious thoughts wondering if she was all right. “You haven’t been doing dinner parties?” I said, and she snorted.
“Ma’am, you’ve met me. If I go without feeding somebody, I’ll shrivel up into a raisin and die. Not the house party.”
“Okay, we’re being cryptic today. Do I get to ask for clues what you mean? Maybe 20 Questions?”
“Hanging out like this. You know, just you and me. I missed being able to drop by your house and harass you while you’re trying to make some candles and fulfill some orders.”
This was so… loaded. Cat had insisted Daniela was interested in me.
My stomach sank. Daniela was perfectly wonderful—I’d had some feelings for her for a minute, built on a solid foundation of friendship.
Everything I would have wanted from a relationship.
But the thought of her trying something with me made me feel like a cornered animal.
“Well, you’re always welcome to come around,” I said.
“You can come hang with me and Cat, assuming you’re not holding a grudge with her. ”
She sighed, pursing her lips. “I feel like I put my foot in my mouth whenever I end up discussing that with you.”
“You can say it. I’m actually asking this time.”
She sipped her tea slowly. “I just don’t know why it had to be a big deal.”
“Cat didn’t want it to be a big deal. She just wanted to work things out with Drew. And he made it into a personal attack.”
“A personal attack?” She frowned. “I mean, he shut down her event plan pretty hard, and maybe he should have been more flexible, but it wasn’t personal.”
A hot sensation bubbled up in my throat, and I lost my temper and snapped. “The personal attack was calling her a self-righteous bitch riding someone else’s hard work.”
She gave me a wild look. “Drew did? Are you joking?”
“Self-righteous bitch, I can look past, as a pretty self-righteous bitch myself,” I said, “but Cat’s been doing half the work for the community for almost three years. But it’s classic for a man to discredit a woman’s help. Especially a disabled lesbian.”
“That’s not what literally anybody said about it. Matt and Skye told me—”
“Yeah, because he’s the one with the whisper network and the benefit of the doubt,” I said. “When he tells people Cat was harassing him, people believe him. When she tells people he was harassing her, people think she’s being a gossipy bitch talking about him behind his back.”
“Well… it’s just…” Daniela blinked fast, her face scrunched up in disbelief.
“I mean, Christ, the whole thing he was saying about her was that she’s a disrespectful asshole because she’s talking shit about him behind his back. But the very act of him telling people about that is him talking shit about her behind her back. But it’s okay when he does it?”
“I… but…” She shifted, looking down. “So what are you saying, he’s actually a bully and everyone in town is his collaborator?”
“No, I think—” I sighed, raking my hand back through my hair.
Daniela wasn’t his collaborator either. She was just caught up in his shit as much as everybody else was.
I forced myself to push out a long breath, trying to consciously relax the tight muscles in my back.
“I think the people close to him give him the benefit of the doubt. And then they repeat his side, and then you have a dozen people telling his story, and so it spreads, and so everybody wants to believe it can’t be that all my friends are wrong in the exact same way, you hear it from everyone, everywhere.
And I think Drew knew that and was counting on that.
And I think that’s why he’s more pissed off at me than he is at Cat, because I’m a self-righteous bitch enough to not play along. ”
“That’s… a lot to put on someone.”
“It’s a lot to put on Cat, too. Assuming the best from him and not from Cat isn’t neutral ground.”
“No. Yeah, I guess it’s not.” She made a frustrated noise, looking up at the sky, and she took a long sip from her tea. “I’m gonna have to sit with that.”
My first instinct was to snap again, tell her that she’d already had damn well enough time to look at it as an independent adult. But somehow, I didn’t want to, and after a pause, I said instead, “Well, no time’s too late to stand up for someone.”
“I just can’t believe Drew would do something like that,” she said quietly. “He’s always been so… good. Compassionate. I mean, he spends all his time running this place that barely makes him any profit, just so the community can have a place.”
“He does,” I said. “And I’m not saying it’s not a good thing or that he hasn’t done a lot of good. But that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of doing harm, either.”
“Yeah, no, I guess… I guess it doesn’t.” She finished her tea, and she screwed the lid back on the cup before she slid it into her bag. After an eternity of silence, she spoke quietly. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For telling me. You know, coming around and saying all that.”
“Oh.” I shifted with a sudden nervous sensation. I wasn’t used to people thanking me for dragging them and their friends through the mud. “I’m just doing it for Cat.”
“There’s nothing there, is there?” she said with a small laugh, giving me a careful, measured smile. “Between you and Cat.”
“She’s just my friend.” I didn’t want to know why she was asking. I was about to find out, anyway.
“It’s good she has you to stick up for her,” she said. “I guess… even if it’s not that simple, if she did something wrong too, it still wouldn’t be fair for her to shoulder all the blame. You’re a good friend,” she said, smiling sweetly at me. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Yeah…” I hunched my shoulders. “Thanks for, you know, hearing me out.”
“You can thank Alyssa,” she laughed. “If it hadn’t been for her, I’d have kept on thinking you wanted my head on a platter and never wanted to talk to me again.”
I looked at my phone again. Still nothing from Alyssa. I was never the type to send a girl a text and keep checking it compulsively. Alyssa was genuinely ruining me. “Yeah, well… she’s pretty special.”
“I’m glad she came to stay here,” she said.
“She’s always talking about how she owes me and wants to do this or that for me, but honestly, just having her here is good for my sanity.
I get so in my own head when I’m left to my own devices, shut up in my house with no one around.
I know she’s mostly looking at jobs back in Boston, but I kinda wish she’d get something here and stick around. ”
“I’m sure you’d find a way to pull her back in even after she’s gone.”
She winked. “Because I’m irresistible, you mean.”
“That’s not what I said, nor is it what I meant.”
She laughed, relaxing. “Should we head back?”
“I thought you’d never ask. My ass is killing me from sitting on a rock.”
“Not one for appreciating the sunset, huh?”
I laughed, standing up slowly. “You know me. I hate laughter, sunshine, and smiles.”
“Uh-huh. Woman of the darkness. Speaking of which,” she said, standing up with me, stretching her arms out over her head, “we should go stargazing sometime.”
Stargazing sounded nice, at least on the surface. I knew how to read between the lines, though. “That’d be fun,” I said. “We can invite Alyssa and Cat. Maybe Kaitlyn would want to come around too?”
“Oh, uh…” She laughed nervously, dropping her arms by her sides, and she plastered on a smile.
“Yeah, maybe. We’ll figure it out. Ah, my feet are killing me,” she said, turning and starting on ahead of me, down the path back towards the house.
“Being on my feet cooking and everything is going to be the death of me.”
“You’re the one who suggested a nature walk.”
“Are you criticizing me? Me? The one who’s always right?”
“I think somewhere I’ve managed to find the audacity to do just that.” I checked my phone, and my heart jumped at the sight of a notification, a response from Alyssa.
Awww I love them!! I can’t believe I’ve gotten you taking pictures of blue flowers too, I should apologize for ruining you
Daniela made a noise, and I looked up and flushed under her attention where she was looking at me.
“What are you smiling like that about?” she said, her voice teasing, and I felt like I’d disappear into the ground.
I wouldn’t be able to handle it if Daniela caught onto my feelings for Alyssa and started having fun at my expense.
“Just got a new order,” I said, putting my phone away.
“You get that giddy little look over a candle order?”
Did I look giddy? Dammit. “Just thinking about what I’m going to use those ten thousand dollars on.”
She laughed, clapping a hand on my back. “All right, you filthy capitalist. Try to stay in the present and not trip over your own feet.”
No guarantees on that front, apparently, not as long as I was going to look giddy at texts from Alyssa.
And sure enough, it got worse when we finally made it back and I saw Alyssa sitting on the couch, her legs folded up into the couch with her, looking perfectly soft and romantic in the low amber lighting of Daniela’s living room, laughing herself breathless while she signed at a breakneck pace with Cat, who was laughing just as hard, a board game set up messily on the table between them.
Alyssa really did pick up sign language quickly.
“Oh, who’s winning?” Daniela said, leaning into the living room while she peeled off her boots. Alyssa looked up, and Cat followed her gaze, jumping up to her feet at the sight of us and speaking even though I found myself locked on the spot with my eyes on Alyssa’s.
“Well, well, if it isn’t our local photographer,” Cat said, and my stomach dropped. Alyssa clasped a hand over her mouth, laughing.