13. Chapter 13
thirteen
W illow opened her eyes to a room filled with dim sunlight. It took her several disoriented minutes of staring at the bedside clock before she realized it was five in the afternoon, not morning. She’d been sleeping for . . . holy shit balls. Fourteen hours.
She sat up, reached for her phone. Before passing out, she’d told herself that she would call Shane in the morning, but she’d missed morning. By a lot. She dialed his number as she pulled her hair from its tie and reached for her brush.
“Hey.”
“Hi!” she said. “I miss you.”
“You too. I can’t talk. I’m at work.”
“Oh,” she said, taken aback. He always talked on his phone at work. Maybe he was having a bad day. “Everything okay? ”
“Yup.”
Willow rolled her eyes. She didn’t know why she expected anything different from him. He wasn’t really one to talk about feelings or ask her how she was. He’d never asked her about her day. She should have been happy that he wasn’t asking questions that would just force her to tell more lies, but it would be nice if he at least gave a shit about her life.
“Okay,” she said, dropping her chin to her chest.
“Talk soon,” he said and hung up.
She stared at the phone as the call disconnected. What the fuck was that? They hadn’t talked in two days, and he just rushed her off the phone? Maybe it was unfair to expect otherwise. He would normally work all day, then come home, and they would spend some time together. If she hadn’t lied and left, she’d be there with him, so the breakdown in communication was probably on her.
She shook it off, trying to focus on the positive. And there were plenty of positives to focus on. She’d called Jer and offered him the position, which he enthusiastically accepted. And she now had a proper brew schedule that she’d created before she fell asleep, as well as four test beers that she would brew on Jer’s first day for the soft opening.
Everything in her work life was going along nicely, unlike her personal life. But it wasn’t the end of the world that she and Shane had hit a rough spot. They’d been together long enough that this sort of thing was bound to happen. She’d get them back on track once she returned.
She fixed her hair, got dressed, brushed her teeth, and headed downstairs, where she found Cara, Chelsea, Ben, and another girl she hadn’t met yet sitting at the big island in the middle of the room.
“Morning!” Cara said.
Willow laughed. “Morning, sorry I slept so long.”
“You can sleep as much as you want,” Chelsea said with a smile. “This is my sister Natalie. She’s married to Ethan.”
“Oh,” Willow said, shaking Natalie’s hand. “I met Ethan a couple of days ago. He gave me an idea for a beer I’m going to test out.”
Natalie nodded, a wry smile on her face. “I know. He hasn’t shut up about it for days.”
Willow laughed. “He seems great.”
“He’s the best,” she said with a dreamy look. Willow wondered whether her face ever did that when she spoke about Shane, but she refused to think too deeply about it.
Chelsea smiled. “Newlyweds,” she said.
“Ah.” Willow nodded. Maybe that was it. She needed to actually marry Shane before she felt that way about him. The thought depressed her, so she shook it off and turned to Cara.
“You must have moved in while I was sleeping,” she said.
“Yup. Max said you worked through the night, so I didn’t want to wake you up. He was annoyed.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “Is he ever not annoyed?”
“Doesn’t seem to be,” Cara said.
“He’s driving me wild,” she said, turning to the cupboard for a glass and filling it with the tap. She let out an exhale, remembering what he’d told her about his childhood. “At least I understand why he’s so controlling now, though. It must have been really hard for him to take on the responsibility of raising you when he was only twelve. And no offence, but your dad sounds like a huge asshole. Do you remember him at all?”
Silence fell over the group, and she took in the faces of the other women in the room and realized she’d put her foot in her mouth.
Again.
Cara stared at her in shock, her jaw nearly on the table in front of her. Chelsea’s pretty smile had disappeared, and her eyebrows were sky high. And Natalie glared at her with slitted eyes, as if she were inspecting her under a microscope .
“Sorry,” Willow said. “I didn’t mean to get so personal.”
Silence continued, making Willow shift between her feet. It hadn’t been that bad, had it? Maybe she just felt more at ease talking about shitty parents than everyone else.
“He told you about our dad?”
Willow met Cara’s eyes and realized that she wasn’t offended. She was shocked.
“Yes.”
“Holy shit,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “He’s never even told me about our parents.”
Willow shuffled her feet, feeling incredibly awkward about the whole situation. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I forced him,” she said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have.”
Natalie raised an eyebrow, then gave a quick glance to Chelsea and Cara before zeroing her sharp gaze on Willow. “Max wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to do, even if you tied him down and peeled back his fingernails. You didn’t force him.”
She looked over at Cara. “What did he tell you about your parents?”
She shook her head. “When I was younger, he’d say our dad wasn’t worth talking about and that I should forget about him. He’s always been very good at controlling his emotions. Probably a little too good at it.”
“So, he was, like, a dad to you?” Chelsea asked.
Cara nodded. “He was at all my math tournaments and space science competitions. He even taught me how to throw a punch. Now he just lectures me about Cooper.”
“Is Cooper the reason you were heartbroken and watching Friends ?” Willow asked.
“Yeah,” she said, looking down.
“What happened?” Natalie asked.
Cara blew out a tortured breath, making Willow’s heart squeeze. She knew how hard breakups could be.
“Why don’t we all go out for dinner?” Willow asked. “You can tell us about it.”
Cara perked up a little. “Really?”
Willow nodded. “Yeah. It’s easier to talk when there’s food and drinks and we don’t have to cook. Are you guys free?” she asked Chelsea and Natalie.
Natalie nodded. “I can come, but I can’t stay long. I’m leaving on tour early tomorrow.”
“Adam’s coming over after hockey,” Chelsea said. “But Ben and I can come for a bit, too.”
Willow beamed. “Perfect! Is there a good place around? ”
Cara shrugged. “Well, the best place for a drink was the place Max bought. Unless you wanted beer. Their beer was disgusting.”
Willow laughed. “I’m working on it.”
“There’s a cool dive bar two towns over with a good vibe. The Misty Moose. I think they have karaoke tonight, and I won’t run into any of my friends.”
“Why don’t you want to see your friends?” Chelsea asked.
“Cooper kept them in the breakup. My whole life is a disaster.”
Willow nodded. “I know the feeling all too well.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ll tell you about it later,” she said, then looked down at her thick old jeans and flannel shirt. “Do you think I could borrow something to wear?”
Natalie nodded. “I have just the thing,” she said. “As soon as I saw your hair, I thought you’d look gorgeous in purple. I have the perfect dress.”
“Dress?” Willow asked, then remembered it was warm in Mapleton. “Sounds great. I was actually hoping to go shopping while I was in town. And maybe do some fun stuff, like go to a concert or something. I’ve never been to a concert. ”
Cara’s smile doubled. “I don’t know about a concert, but we could go see a comedy show. And I’m down for shopping anytime.”
They made their way up the stairs together while Chelsea and Ben went to get ready, and Natalie ran home to change her clothes. Willow couldn’t stop smiling.
It was great having other women around to have fun with. Back home, she had Nikki, but it was different. They never did anything together without Shane and Kyle.
With a shake of her head, she pulled her thoughts away from her problems back home and focused on having fun.
Willow walked through the crowded restaurant behind a hostess and slid into a booth, careful to keep her short skirt down. When Natalie said she had the perfect dress, she should have mentioned that it was really half a dress, and more revealing than anything Willow had ever worn in her life.
Still, the attention she got as she passed by tables made her feel pretty good. She mentally slapped herself for thinking that. It was demeaning, and she was engaged .
But she still smiled when she looked up and found a dude two tables over that nodded at her and mouthed, “Hey.”
She looked away from him, down at her menu, and scanned the drinks.
“All right,” Chelsea said as she unpacked some crayons for Ben and he got to work colouring his menu. “Spill it.”
Cara took a deep breath, then unloaded.
She told them how a mutual friend introduced her to Cooper, and he quickly became a part of their tight-knit group. And how they moved in together so quickly because her lease was up and he insisted she move in with him. And how they’d only been together a few months before he told her he was moving in with a friend who was looking for a roommate instead, so she had nowhere else to go and moved back in with Max.
After finishing, she chugged down half of the fishbowl of margarita she had ordered and fought back tears.
“So, did he break up with you?” Willow asked.
Cara shrugged as she sucked on the straw. She made a huge swallow, then blew out a breath. “Not technically. I told him I was upset that he was leaving, and it felt like his friend was more important to him than I was. Then he called me crazy and said that maybe he didn’t want to be with me at all. So I said fine and broke up with him and left.”
“Ugh!” Natalie said. “What a f—” She stopped, glanced at Ben, who was staring at her, wide eyed. “Crumb bum.”
Chelsea nodded. “The crumbiest bum,” she said, as Ben giggled.
Cara gave Ben a smile, but after a moment, it dropped. “I don’t know. He probably has a point. It all happened so fast, and he’d known his friend since they were kids. He only knew me for eighty-three days. I think I made a mistake.”
Willow cocked a brow at Cara knowing the exact number of days but shook it off. “He didn’t treat you well enough.”
“I know, but I still love him. He was my first everything,” she said, heartbreak etched on her features.
Willow’s shoulders drooped. She wanted to say more, but anything she’d say at that point would be far too hypocritical.
“You’re young,” Natalie said. “And you’re beautiful, and brilliant, and fun to be around. You’ll find someone better.”
Cara lifted one shoulder, then turned to Willow. “Tell me why you said you understand.”
Willow gulped at her own margarita before speaking. “I took back my fiancé after I caught him sort of cheating on me,” she said, glancing at Ben and wondering whether he understood what that meant, but he was far too engrossed with his colouring to be paying attention.
“Wait a minute,” Cara said. “You’re engaged?!”
“Yeah, his name is Shane. I lied to him about coming here,” she said, dropping her head in her hands.
“Damn,” Natalie said, as she sat back and sipped her drink.
“What’s he like?” Chelsea asked.
“He’s a typical northern guy, you know.”
They all looked at each other, then back at her. “No,” Natalie said.
Willow shrugged. “He’s tough, into hunting, doesn’t bat an eyelash when he comes face to face with a polar bear, stuffs the things he kills, and hangs them on our walls.”
Chelsea pulled back, shocked. “Wow. Sounds kinda hot,” she said, whispering the last word with a grin.
“He’s like Gaston.”
Willow’s face snapped over to Ben, who was looking at her with a smile, his crayon suspended in the air.
“I didn’t think you were listening, small one.”
Ben giggled.
“He’s always listening,” Chelsea said .
“He uses antlers in his decorating, like the song,” Ben said.
“We watch a lot of movies, as you can tell,” Chelsea said with a flourish to her son.
Willow considered the Gaston thing, then nodded to the cute little guy. “Yeah, I guess he’s like Gaston. But unlike Belle, I said yes to marrying him.”
Ben’s jaw dropped, and she cringed, realizing that Gaston was the villain in the story.
Natalie cleared her throat, drawing Willow’s attention. “Now you’re jonesing for the beast?” she asked with a smirk and a raised brow.
“Oh, God,” Cara said, picking up her glass and chugging the rest of the drink as Chelsea laughed.
And then Willow finally realized what she meant. “Max?”
Natalie nodded.
“No,” she said with a laugh, shaking her head. “Absolutely not.”
She got three looks, all indicating her new friends thought she was full of shit.
She had to admit that Max was incredibly good looking. He had the widest shoulders she’d ever seen, and those eyes that saw so much more than anyone else. And if she was being honest, she actually kind of admired the guy. He was smart and determined, and he’d stepped up and been an amazing constant in Cara’s life. She would’ve killed to have an older brother to look after her when her mom overdosed. She’d had her dad, but he wasn’t all that present. For the most part, she had been alone.
Until she’d found Shane.
“How did he propose?” Cara asked.
Willow’s eyelids dropped closed for a moment as she took a breath. “We’d broken up after I found hidden messages on his phone that were . . . you know . . .” she said, glancing at Ben.
“Not okay?” Natalie asked.
“Exactly.” Willow nodded. “I was staying with a friend, and he came over, said he wanted to get back together and that we could get married, which was what I had always wanted. So I said yes, and I moved back in with him that night.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Six months.”
Cara placed a hand on hers. “Well, that’s great, right? That’s what you wanted?”
Willow looked at Cara and breathed out a deep sigh. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s what I wanted.”
The waiter came over, dropped off their food, and they dug in while Chelsea told them about Adam getting tickets to a Leafs game for that weekend, and Natalie told them all about the tour company she worked for and tried to convince Cara and Willow to go on a tour with her.
It was great hanging out with them, but Willow couldn’t shake all the feelings that it brought up. Had she been living in her little cocoon so long that she hadn’t even realized that other people’s relationships were way more normal than hers?
When they finished eating, Natalie and Chelsea took their bills, paid, and left, and she and Cara stayed and ordered one more round.
Which turned into two more rounds.
Then three.
Then four.
Then they lost count altogether.