Elsie
Chapter Thirty
The first week of November brought colder weather, ten thousand added words to my manuscript, and a new dynamic with the man who served me coffee every day.
I hadn’t even been aware of the shift until I noticed it in my characters, who, despite my initial denial, I had to admit were following Mine and Will’s story a lot more closely than I’d intended.
Somehow, despite Hugh and Ellie’s initial hatred of each other, they’d somehow grown into friends. I didn’t really know what type of story could come out of their friendship, but I consoled myself that I’d find the direction along the way.
“You’re here all the time,” Theo noted one morning while I was working in the café.
He slid into the seat across from me.
“Yeah, well, coffee and a show, who can beat that?” I said, gesturing behind the counter where Ava and Will were currently involved in their fourth face-off of the day.
I couldn’t quite hear what they were arguing about from where I sat, but their facial expressions were perfectly adequate at telling a story.
Theo turned and snorted, watching for a minute before turning back to me.
“They’re getting worse lately,” he agreed.
I bit my lip, wondering how much of an overstep I was about to take, before deciding to plunge headfirst anyway.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah?” His eyes lit up.
I leaned forward, not wanting my words to be heard by anyone other than our own table. Theo matched my pose until our heads were close together.
He smelled like spearmint gum and aftershave, different from the earthy scent that lingered on Will, which I noticed after taking a nosedive into his armpit on Halloween night.
I stared again toward him and Ava, watching as they stomped off in separate directions.
“Can you tell me the deal between the two of them?” I pried, nodding my head in their direction. “There seems like there’s a lot of background I’m missing.”
Theo’s expression changed, going from curious interest to discomfort in a moment.
“You know, I never really figured it out for sure,” he said, scratching his head as he leaned back in the chair.
“Oh, it’s fine. It’s none of my business, anyway.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just, well, anything I could say would just be my best guess, because they really never told anyone what happened…but—” He cut himself off, and the journalist in me couldn’t help but press him on.
“Yes?”
“Well, the thing is. Will and Ava…and Matthew, too. They all grew up together. Best friends, close as can be,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “Ava’s parents weren’t really around a lot, so the Hughes sort of took her in unofficially.”
I stared in her direction, sleek blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, makeup immaculate despite how hard she’d been working all morning.
“You never saw one of them without the other two. It’s just how it was.
And they stayed that close their whole lives.
Then, in our early twenties, Matthew shocked everyone by proposing.
I guess we should’ve seen it coming, but we were so used to the trio that we really just thought of them all like siblings. ”
I mulled it over, not pointing out that it was only human nature to fall in love.
“Anyway, things were great, the whole town was excited. Will was excited, too. So I thought.” Theo paused, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Then, the day of the wedding happened. I don’t know what happened, but all I know is, everything was fine before the ceremony, and after that, Will and Ava could hardly stand to be in the same room together.”
“What?” I gasped. “It all changed during the day of the wedding? Didn’t anyone ask?”
“They wouldn’t talk about it. Pretended everything was fine.
That everything between them was how it always was.
” Theo shrugged. “Load of bullshit, but no one wanted to piss Will off by pressing him about it, and clearly no one wanted to ruin Ava’s mood when she’d just gotten married and was supposed to be basking in her newlywed bliss. ”
If only I’d have been here, I could’ve pulled it out of him. Other people might let him get away with not talking about it, but Will was human. He needed to talk about his feelings same as anyone else.
“So, what do you think happened?”
“Like I said, I have no idea, but more than a few people had the theory that he confessed his love and begged her to run off with him before the wedding. And, seeing as she married Matthew, she clearly turned him down.”
“You say that like you believe it,” I said, the weight of the rumor sitting heavily on my thoughts.
Will Hughes confessing his love for someone? Begging them to be with him? I just couldn’t picture it.
“It sort of tracks,” he said. “I mean, he’s never really shown interest in dating too seriously. Just a few casual things in high school and college, but nothing more than that. Which would make sense,” Theo sipped his coffee, “if you’re carrying a torch for someone you can never be with.”
“But if he loves her,” I nearly choked on the words, “wouldn’t he, I don’t know, not look so miserable every time he has to interact with her?”
“I mean, if she rejected me and married my brother, I might have a hard time being around her, too,” he pointed out.
“I guess.” I shifted uncomfortably. “But couldn’t it be something different? Maybe they argued about something else.”
I sounded too hopeful even to my own ears, and I couldn’t come up with a good reason I was so bothered by the idea of Will secretly pining after Ava all these years.
Theo looked like he were about to say something, but then changed his mind.
“I don’t know,” he settled on. “All I know is, something happened before the ceremony, and afterward, they went from best friends to…whatever it is you want to call them now.”
“And now? If that were true, you don’t think Matthew would want them to be happy?”
“You can only be happy in a relationship if both people want to make it work, and from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t look like that’s the case.”
I turned to find Will, to observe his behavior in this new light, but when I found him, he was already staring in our direction.
Our eyes locked, and I looked away before he could see the blush coloring my cheeks, revealing something I wasn’t ready to admit.