Chapter 25 - Hayden
HAYDEN
“And you went with them?” gasped Amy. “Just like that?”
I reached across the table and picked a tomato off her salad. Amy hated tomatoes. She wasn’t crazy about salad either, but it was Monday, and Monday was salad day. Always.
“Yes,” I answered her with a smile. “Just. Like. That.”
My friend’s pretty Irish eyes went wide as emerald dinner plates. The freckles on her cheeks danced a little, as she blinked in disbelief.
“All the way to Maine?”
“All the way to Maine.”
“Just you,” she reiterated. “And them.”
“Three of them, yes,” I said proudly, pausing for dramatic effect. “And trust me when I say this: each one hotter than the last.”
It usually took a few days of jumbling our schedules around, to score a lunch date with Amy. This time though, she’d accommodated me immediately. When I suggested coffee, she countered with meeting on lunch break instead. And she insisted on doing it right away, rather than later on in the week.
“So where did you stay?”
“In some cute little cabin they rent every year,” I told her. “They go by themselves, usually,” I added a wink. “But not this year.”
Amy’s face was flush. She blew back an errant lock of crimson hair and grinned.
“Holy shit,” she breathed.
“Holy shit indeed,” I agreed.
“Did you have your own bedroom?”
I paused, pretending to think about it. “Yes.”
“Oh.”
“But I didn’t sleep in it.”
“Hayden!”
She cried my name so loudly, other people in the restaurant shot looks our way. Amy endured them silently, her face getting progressively redder, until she was sure the coast was clear.
“You need to tell me everything!” she hissed. “And I mean everyth—”
“Oh, I will,” I said proudly. “But first, you’ll need to be careful.”
“Why?”
“Because once I give you the details, you’re going to eat that hand off.”
I nodded downward. Three of Amy’s knuckles were already in her mouth. She pulled them out, as if confused by how they got there.
“Was it romantic?” she asked, her voice lower.
Ah, good old innocent Amy. This is why I loved her so much.
“Oh yes,” I told her happily. “Wine. Hot tub. Fireplace…” I continued pretending to count on my fingers, all while watching her reaction from the corner of one eye. “Porno movies…”
“Porno movies!” she choked. Once again she glanced over both shoulders before leaning in close. “You watched porn with them!?”
“Actually, no,” I said nonchalantly. “We never got around to that.”
She tilted her head. “Never got around to—”
“We were too busy doing the stuff in porno movies.”
I’d confided in Amy a lot. As my therapist, she knew my secrets, my desires, my deepest, darkest fantasies. But as a friend, she was privy to even more.
“Before I go into it… how’s mom?”
Amy shrugged, somehow without moving her shoulders.
“The same, I guess. She still won’t eat, but they have her on these supplements now, that stabilized her weight.
She’s always sick, though. Always weak.” She sighed and shook her head.
“Damn, Hayden. She used to be so strong. Seeing her like this, it’s just so… so…”
“Weird?” I offered.
“Yes. That.”
“It sucks watching your parents get old,” I agreed. “No one ever prepares you for that.”
“Or for the burden of taking care of them,” Amy murmured, looking down.
“That too.”
I reached across the table and touched her hand. It was soft, but cold. There were new lines on her face, too. I wondered if she were telling me everything.
“Alright, enough stalling,” she smiled, changing gears. “Tell me about the porno stuff!”
“I will,” I promised. “But first, have you heard from Cole?”
Amy was still in go mode, salivating over the finer details of my whirlwind weekend. At the mention of my now ex ex-boyfriend, she blinked; and gained back some composure.
“Actually, no,” she admitted. “I haven’t.”
“I’m so sorry you had to deal with him,” I sighed. “I know he can be such a pain in the ass.”
“Did you finally talk to him?”
I shook my head. Her mouth dropped open for a second time.
“Hayden, you can’t avoid speaking to him forever. You owe him that much.”
“Are you kidding?” I frowned. “I don’t owe him shit.”
“Do it for closure, then,” she pivoted. “For yourself, as much as for him.”
I didn’t necessarily like the advice she was giving me, but then again Amy had never steered me wrong. It was admittedly weird, not hearing from Cole again after he’d ‘upgraded’ my apartment. Aside from an unanswered text or two asking how much I’d liked it, he’d left me alone.
Unfortunately for me, the boys had pretty much left me alone as well.
Or at least, more alone than I wanted them to.
“Look, I’ll deal with Cole when I’m ready,” I told her. “He needs a cooldown period anyway. And besides, there hasn’t been any time. I’ve been working non-stop since I got back, both at the shelter and the clinic.”
I was in my scrubs right now; my maroon ones, not the blue. On super busy days like today, I had to look down at them to remember which job to go back to.
“And I uh… I’m not exactly staying at home right now, either.”
I glanced up, half wincing, fully expecting her to shout me down and apologize to the restaurant again. Instead, her expression remained unchanged.
“Did you hear what I said?” I smiled coyly.
Amy nodded and went back to picking through her salad. Her reaction perplexed me. She should’ve looked surprised, but for some strange reason, she wasn’t.
“Alright, enough about Cole,” I grinned. “I came here to spill tea.”
In truth I’d been dying to tell someone of my exploits, and Amy was the one person I trusted with such a secret. Best of all, she’d listen without judgment.
“Spill it then!” Amy smiled back at me.
Folding my arms before me, I leaned forward and brought my voice down to a low, throaty growl. “Well then, who do you want to hear about first?” I grinned. “Carter? Sawyer? Or Bodie?”