16. 16 #2
Looking her dead in the eye, I respond without hesitation, “Yes.”
Annabelle sputters at my blunt honesty. “Oh. Umm, well, I met him at that holiday festival y’all played last weekend.”
“That was you?” I blurt out.
“What do you mean?”
“I saw you and yelled your name, but you didn’t turn around. I didn’t have time to go after you because we were about to perform.”
“I heard you!”
“Damn, Yankee. If you’d turned around, I could have saved you from what was surely a horrendous date with Josh. Right? It was terrible, wasn’t it? Please say it was.”
A laugh erupts from her mouth. “Hayes!”
“What? I’ve already admitted to being jealous. The least you can do is allay my fears, Annabelle.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t interrogated Josh about it yet.”
“We have dinner plans tonight, so I will later. But I’d enjoy hearing your version.”
“It was fine. It was nice even, but… it was nothing like this.”
“I can live with that.”
“So, next question. Tell me about the upcoming album. Josh mentioned it last night.”
I stare off into the horizon, pulling on my bottom lip with my fingers before turning to Annabelle again.
Now would be the perfect time to tell Annabelle that most of the album was inspired by her, but that’s stalker level weird, and I don’t want to scare her off by coming on too strong.
So, I don’t. “The timing of it could be better. After the holidays, I’m going to be busy with the launch, so I won’t be able to see you as much as I’d like. ”
Her sunflower eyes drop from mine. Her voice barely above a whisper, she asks, “What does that mean?” She glances up at me. “What do you want… this to be?”
“I want this to be whatever you want it to be, Annabelle.”
“I need more than that, Hayes.”
“I want to see you again. Last night, I wished I’d gotten your number or asked you out, but I was still feeling a little shell-shocked.
” I grab her hand, threading our fingers together.
“I’ve never felt this way before, so I don’t really know how to define it.
And honestly… I’m not in a rush to label whatever’s happening between us because I don’t want to overwhelm you and have you run away again. ”
“Oh.” She clears her throat. “That was not what I was expecting you to say.”
“What were you expecting me to say?”
“Umm, well,” she squints her eyes, scrutinizing me. “You see, Laura mentioned that you have a reputation in the press for being a… prolific dater. So, I just sort of assumed that we’d reached the end of,” she waves her hand wildly between our bodies, “whatever this was—”
“Annabelle.”
“And I get it. Like I said last night, we live different lives, and I come along with the responsibilities of two small children—”
“Annabelle,” I interrupt again, this time more forcefully. “Stop, Yankee. Take a breath.” I pause before continuing, “Let me back up and explain my side of things, so you have a better understanding.”
She nods for me to go ahead. I’m nervous. I hate admitting that the rumors in the press are mostly true, but I won’t lie to Annabelle.
I need to tell her more specifics about my past, so she doesn’t hear about it from someone else.
I still remember her confession after we slept together—I was only the second guy she’d had sex with.
Meanwhile, the best I can do is ballpark approximately how many women I’ve slept with.
It’s not something that has ever bothered me before, but it does now.
I wish I’d been a better person before I met Annabelle.
And after. Especially after.
“When I woke up and you were gone, I was…” I trail off, searching for the right word before finally settling on, “crushed. So, I dedicated myself to finding you. I even hired private investigators, but when every lead came up empty, I figured the best way to get over you was to start dating again. I was trying to forget you, but I couldn’t. ”
“You couldn’t?” Her eyes are wide and hopeful, and a tinge of pink has swept across her cheeks.
“Annabelle, it’s impossible for me to forget you; you’re unforgettable.
I’m not proud of my behavior, and I wish I’d reacted differently.
I was trying to fill the Annabelle-sized hole in my heart, but no one else could ever measure up to you.
I don’t know if that night we shared meant as much to you as it did to me, but it meant fucking everything to me. ”
Whispering, she replies, “It meant everything to me too, Hayes.”
“So, you’d be open to seeing me again?”
“Definitely, but…”
“But what, Annabelle?”
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that I’m a single mom and I work full-time, so I need to take things slowly. You’ll need to be patient with me, Hayes.”
“Hell, Annabelle, we can take it as slow as you like. Just don’t cut and run again. That’s all I ask.”
Her apprehension melts away and a wide smile breaks out across her face.
When I amble into the private room at the rear of the Mexican restaurant, the conversations stop, and eight eyeballs stare my way.
“Hey man,” I say as I greet Rowdy, clapping him on the back before nodding to the others. When I reach Bailey, I bend down and kiss her cheek.
“Sit down next to me, Hayes,” she says, patting an open chair. Rowdy rolls his eyes.
Josh sits across the table from me, looking sheepish. “I really am sorry, Hayes. I never would’ve asked her out if I’d known she was your Annabelle.”
I like the possessive sound of that. Your Annabelle. My Annabelle .
“Josh, it’s cool, man. Honestly, it weirds me out to think of y’all going on a date, but if you hadn’t taken her out, I might not have seen her again.” I shrug. “I mean, it was only a first date, right? It’s not like y’all had time to do anything.”
A look flits across Josh’s face that makes my hackles rise. “Dumber, what aren’t you telling me?”
“After we got the good news about the new contract, I was stoked and I… I kissed her.”
“You kissed her?” I repeat, dumbfounded.
I didn’t even fucking kiss her last night! Or today.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment celebration. No big deal. Besides, you probably got a lot more than kissing last night anyway, right?”
I hesitate. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, the table grows quiet, awaiting my response .
Rowdy leans forward. “Hayes? You closed the deal, right? Tell me you didn’t pine for that lady for a fucking year and then fail to seal the deal.”
Bailey elbows her husband, shooting him a pointed glare. “Rowdy! Let Hayes talk.” She turns her attention to me, placing her hand on my forearm. Growing impatient when I remain silent, Bailey repeats Rowdy’s question. “Dammit, Hayes. Did you seal the deal or not?”
Tugging on the collar of my shirt, which is growing inexplicably tighter around my neck, I explain, “Well, not exactly. With the album launch coming up, and Annabelle being a working single mom and… it’s a complex situation. We decided it was best to take things slowly.”
“Holy shit!” James slaps Josh on the chest and hoots, “Hayes got friend-zoned!”
“Damn, son. Even I landed a date with her."
Too soon, Josh. Too fucking soon.
Rowdy looks pleased as punch. “Has that ever happened before?” The apparent glee in his voice is annoying as shit.
“I did not get friend-zoned, you dickheads. It’s more complicated than that.”
God bless the server and his impeccable timing when he arrives to take our drink orders, saving me from further harassment. I order the largest margarita they serve.
“I think it’s great you’re taking it slowly, Hayes,” Bailey smiles at me. “It shows maturity that you’re proceeding with caution. I imagine it's hard for single moms to do casual.”
Rowdy slings his arm around the back of Bailey’s chair and leans around her to speak. “Since you weren’t dicking her down, fill us in on what happened.”
“Rowdy!” Bailey elbows him hard in the gut. Hearing him grunt in pain makes me feel a little bit better .
“We talked. Caught up with what’s been happening over the past year.”
“Did she talk about Kyle?” James asks.
I don’t want to break Annabelle’s trust and share too much, so I just nod and answer simply, “Some.”
“Shit,” Josh mutters. “That had to have been fucking hard on her, especially since they have kids.”
Charlotte waltzes in just then, mumbling her apologies for getting held up in traffic.
“I thought this was a celebration, not a pity party.” Sitting down in the lone empty seat at the round table, she immediately grabs a handful of tortilla chips and starts munching.
“So?” she asks me, her eyes expectant, as she pushes her unruly hair out of her face.
But as soon as she tugs a lock of hair into place, another errant curl springs loose from her messy bun.
The differences between Charlotte and Jane are striking.
Whereas Jane dresses as if she’s having lunch with the president, her older sister usually looks like a college student who just pulled an all-nighter.
Char pushes her glasses from the tip of her nose onto the top of her head and gestures impatiently for me to spill the beans.
Before I can answer, Rowdy jumps in, lightening the mood from our earlier discussion about Kyle’s death. Of course, he does this at my expense. “Bambi got friend-zoned by Annabelle.”
The whole table bursts into laughter, and I want to strangle each of them.
“Josh, I guess you can ask her out on a second date then,” James winks.
After our earlier conversation at lunch, I know Annabelle hasn't friend-zoned me. What I told her was true. I'll wait and go as slow as I need to, but I'm going to keep moving the chains.
Fuck the friend zone. We're making it to the end zone.