21. Twenty-one Freya
Twenty-one: Freya
I opened the front door for Hannah, arching an eyebrow at her as she beamed at me and ushered me aside. She was carrying a giant mood board and gestured to it with pride. “I present to you—our project.”
Crouching down to gaze at it, I smiled. Hannah and I had spent the past four days cooped up in her room completing it, and after I’d left hers late last night, she’d called me to let me know she was just applying the finishing touches.
We hadn't got around to sticking everything onto the cardboard, so she had generously volunteered to do that before she called it a night.
I proofread our final essays, and they were pretty good—besides Hannah’s awful spelling.
“Now we just need to work on presenting it.” I sighed, and Hannah flung her arm over my shoulder as she propped our project against the wall.
“Don't you worry about that. We all know I'm the chatty one in this friendship, and I have no issue taking the reins.”
Hannah loved talking to anybody and everybody. If there was an excuse to do so, she was going to find it, and I swore if you were to look up the word chatterbox in the dictionary, a giant picture of Hannah's face would take up the entire page.
Kaleb waltzed into the room from the kitchen, glowering as he mumbled into his phone. “We're handling it.” His voice was rough—scratchy. He sounded tense. “He's suspicious, but until we see the situation as too dangerous, we'll keep digging.” A pause. “No, that's fine, Frederick. I'll talk to Brent and keep you updated.”
Hannah was too busy fussing over our project that had fallen over to take notice of Kaleb's conversation, and he watched her carefully for any sign of interest as he spoke. His shoulders were strained, and he glanced at me with a down-turned mouth.
After my confession in the car, he'd cooked me some spaghetti and cream sauce—my favourite dish—and ordered me to get an early night. He hadn't spoken to me much about Will and what was going on with the investigation, and I had a sneaky feeling that my tears had deterred him from involving me further.
Excusing herself to the bathroom, Hannah disappeared.
“Who was that?” I asked Kaleb, testing the water.
“My chief’s boss. He’s one of the top dogs in the organisation,” he said flatly, avoiding eye contact with me, tapping away on his phone. Yep, he still didn't want me involved.
“Sounded tense.” My attempt to lighten the mood fell flat.
He ran his hand down his face, groaning as he took a seat on the couch. Even when he was stressed, he was gorgeous. He'd failed to shave over the past few days, and I couldn't help but notice his accumulated excess stubble.
“What was he saying?”
Kaleb swallowed. “He’s pushing. He wants Will arrested within the next week. I don't know if we'll be able to gather the information we need without coming across as brazen, though. It's risky.”
I nodded at his admittance.
“What fucking now?” Kaleb glared down at his beeping phone, reading the text that had just come through and turning the screen toward me.
Brent: Kaylee really enjoyed spending time with Freya. She was wondering if you guys wanted to go on a double date tonight?
I smiled, and Kaleb shook his head.
“No.” His tone left no room for persuasion.
I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest. “Why not? It's the weekend. It'll be fun.” I fancied getting out of the house—having been working hard and in need of something to perk me up.
Watching me with cautious eyes as I leaned up against the wall, my breasts slightly pushed up in my burgundy tank top, Kaleb's frown faltered. “I don't have time.”
I laughed. “Really? What are you doing tonight? Sitting at home being grumpy?”
“It's a full-time job,” he quickly retorted back.
“See?” I kicked at his foot. “You can be fun when you want to be.”
Huffing, Kaleb surveyed my pleading expression, lolling his head back and grumbling to himself. “Jesus, why can't I say no to you? Alright, fine. We'll grab a drink with them.”
Hannah re-entered the room, wiggling her phone at me, causing me to arch a brow. “What?”
“You're all set for your date with Ty.”
I almost choked on my saliva at her words, and Kaleb’s eyebrows flew into his hairline before he quickly composed himself, taking a deep breath.
“What? No,” I said, and my best friend glared at me, taking a fleeting look at Kaleb before smiling.
“Yes. He'll be ready to meet you for lunch in thirty minutes. I thought I'd give you some time to freshen up since you look…” She took in my sloppy outfit and hair that was pulled back into a claw clip, humming in disapproval.
Kaleb's hands were clenched, his jaw was taut, and his grey eyes bored into mine—as if daring me to agree. His phone rang, and he frustratingly swiped it up and swiftly exited the room, his pissed-off voice sounding from the kitchen
“Hannah,” I whisper-yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders. “What the hell are you doing?”
“We said you were going to go on a date with Ty. I didn't want Kaleb to think that we were bluffing, so I organised it for you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “No. I'm not going on a date with Ty.”
Not only was Ty just a friend, but I didn't want to be flaunting a date in front of Kaleb. We weren’t together. We hadn’t even spoken about our feelings for each other, but whatever we had going on, I didn’t want to ruin it by ‘dating’. The sexy, sweaty jogging plan had been funny, but I didn't like this.
“I mean, I didn't specifically call it a date to Ty, so if you want to just meet him as friends, then fine. Sometimes, guys just need a push, and Kaleb could use a big one. Occasionally, you have to force their hand.”
I knew Hannah thought she was doing the right thing, and there were no malicious intentions when it came to her. She was impulsive and reckless, though, and often didn't think things through.
“Trust me,” she said. “Just go and meet Ty. Kaleb will rethink all of his priorities. Also, you could use another friend. Ty is a good guy and sounded excited to see you again.”
I huffed. I had a shortage of friends right now. Most of them had been real partygoers, and I’d lost contact with them all once I decided I didn’t want to spend five nights a week drinking.
Hannah had been one of the only people to stick around, and even though she still loved to indulge in more than enough glasses of wine on a weekday, she had definitely toned it down. In her words, you could take the girl out of the party, but you could never take the party out of the girl .
Throwing my hands up in the air in frustration, I agreed. Ty and I had gotten on well in high school, and there was no harm in reconnecting with him. As a friend.
Glancing at the kitchen doorway, I refrained from going in and explaining to Kaleb that meeting up with Ty was going to be nothing but platonic. His seething tone towards the person on the phone was enough to warn me off.
After changing into a pair of jeans and a cardigan and letting my hair down, I grabbed my car keys and headed for the front door. Kaleb had left the house while I was upstairs—most likely to sort some shit out with Brent about the investigation. That, or he wasn’t happy about my date with Ty.
Why did I have to get so turned on by Kaleb's apparent jealousy? My abdomen tightened at the blaze in his eyes, my upper lip sweating, my heart pumping a mile a minute.
Hannah had explicitly told me not to feel guilty about having Kaleb think I was going on a date. She claimed he just needed to rot in his own jealousy for a few hours until he started thinking straight, but I wasn’t too sure that was going to do anything.
We were wrapped up in our little flirtatious bubble right now, but once he left, there was a fat chance that I was never going to see him again. He’d be moved to a different base to begin new work, and not only could it be states away, but it could be countries away.
Driving to the coffee shop Hannah instructed me to, I parked up and peered through the gleaming glass. Ty was sitting patiently in the corner with a cup of coffee. His dark hair had been cut a little shorter, and he was dressed in navy—his favourite colour from when we were close.
“Hey,” I said with a smile as I made my way into the shop. I gave him a hug, his muscular arms wrapping around me, before I ordered myself a decaf mocha.
He beamed. “I have to say, when I received a text from Hannah about meeting you, I was kind of confused.” Ty's tone was questioning, and he raised one of his eyebrows as we settled into a booth.
I didn't know what to say. There was no way that I was going to tell him that Hannah had arranged for us to meet because she wanted to make a guy who Ty thought was my boyfriend—even though he wasn't—jealous. I was here because I wanted to see Ty, not because I wanted to piss anyone off.
“My phone’s broken,” I lied through my teeth, making a mental note to keep my phone in my pocket while here. "We used to be close, too. It's sad that we lost contact." My heart panged. It was so strange how someone could go from being one of your best friends one day, to an acquaintance the next.
He nodded in understanding. “So, working on any new pieces recently?” Ty was nowhere near flirty—which was something I'd always appreciated when it came to him. He truly believed that men and women could just be friends. There were far too many people out there who didn’t have the same view.
I shrugged. “To be honest, I haven't had as much time as I would like to draw. College is a bitch, but I’ve managed to get a few pieces in.”
“I'm glad I didn't take that route.”
“How is hockey going?” I sipped my drink, mentally cursing myself for taking too big of a gulp and almost searing my tongue off.
“I mean, it looks glamorous on the outside, but training is tough. I'm on the second team right now, but the coach says that if I really work this season, I could make it to the first.”
“That’s great, Ty. You always did belong on the ice.”
Time went by quickly, and we slipped right back to how we used to be back in high school. Ty told me about how he was staying with his aunt and uncle while he saved up for his own place since his parents now lived halfway across the country, and I told him about my parents' divorce. He'd laughed, letting me know he'd seen it coming from a mile away. We all had, really, but I’d been in denial at the time.
Bringing up my father pulled hurtful thoughts to the forefront of my mind. I hadn’t expected him to change his number, and when I'd informed my mom, she’d scoffed and rolled her eyes, proceeding to curse his behaviour.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. “We should definitely do this again, but I have to head back. I've got a shit tonne of college work to get on with.”
“Sure. I’ve got work at the restaurant in an hour, anyway.”
Watching Ty make his way to his car, I pulled out my phone, having felt it vibrate in my pocket throughout our conversation.
Kaylee: Hey, Freya. It's Kaylee. Brent gave me your number. Kaleb booked a table at the Dirty Parrot for seven tonight. I just wanted to check what you were wearing. I've never been there before and don't want to overdress.
I’d thought that with Kaleb believing I was going on a date with Ty, he'd be too pissed off to go out tonight, but it seemed that wasn't the case.
Kaleb needs to believe you have other options. He needs to know that you have the attention of other guys. Then he'll drop this cocky act and stop bullshitting about not wanting you.
Hannah's words echoed loudly inside my head.
I hadn’t been out in a hell of a long time, and I was actually looking forward to it. However, I couldn’t help but feel like the volcano was due to erupt tonight, and I didn’t know who was going to end up burned.