Chapter 2
Hazy
Hazy shut the door behind the woman and trotted back to the kitchen where he found his childhood friend had returned to her cereal.
“You didn’t have to stop on my account,” she said.
“What are you doing here?” he repeated his question.
Livy shrugged. “My options were stay home and watch my boyfriend fuck another woman, or come here and watch you fuck another woman. This hurt less.”
Hazy stole her bowl and set it aside, pulling Livy into his arms. She looked like shit.
Livy was the brightness in his world, but everything about her seemed faded and dull.
Gone were her pink hair and rainbow nails; a sad, mousy topknot and raggedy nails bitten to the quick in their place.
Dark circles lined her eyes; her skin was splotchy from crying.
It took her several seconds to respond to his hug, but then she clung to him, her body quaking with sobs.
“What happened?” he asked.
Crying too hard to respond, she wiped snot on his shirt. He hated seeing her like this. Stepping further into her space, he tightened his hold around her waist. She wrapped her legs around him so he could carry her to the couch. This was not their first rodeo.
He loved being the person Livy came to when she needed comfort.
It’d hurt like hell when she basically disappeared from his life despite living so close.
He’d assumed it was because of her asshole boyfriend, and her showing up unannounced felt like confirmation.
He sat on the couch and let her melt into him.
It took a long time for her to calm down, but he had all the time in the world for her. When her tears dried and she slid off his lap to sit next to him, he spoke again.
“Tell me what happened.”
Livy rubbed at her soaking, splotchy cheeks, smearing snot and mascara up her palms and wrists. She sniffled.
“Sorry. I thought I had run out of tears, but apparently not.” She let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
She’d always done that. Apologized for crying. He loathed it, but he remained quiet and let her gather her thoughts.
“I left work early because my stupid uterus hates me, and when I got home, I caught Lance fucking our coworker,” she said.
Hazy reached out and wiped his thumb across the black streaks on Livy’s face, only succeeding in smearing the makeup around further.
“That fucking sucks.” There wasn’t much more to say. It was a shitty situation.
She sniffled again and offered a one-shouldered shrug. “I shouldn’t be surprised. We never saw each other.”
Hazy stood, moving to the kitchen. He dumped Livy’s soggy Cocoa Puffs in the sink and rinsed the bowl, creating a task for her so he could get cleaned up.
The snot and makeup on his shirt and sticky fluids in his sweats were going to drive him crazy if he waited too long.
He poured a mountain of chocolate cereal into the bowl and followed it with a generous amount of milk.
“He seemed like an asshole, anyway,” he said as he handed her the bowl.
“We were going to get married and have babies. Our careers are finally stable. We were doing well financially. I had our wedding planned and everything.” She pulled a long, rattling breath in through her nose and blew it out through her mouth before starting in on her cereal again.
Tears continued to flow down her cheeks as she chewed. His heart ached for her. She’d always loved hard and hoped big. It made everything so much harder for her when her relationships ended.
Unable to tear himself away from her while she was still crying, he tucked a damp strand of hair behind her ear.
“But do you really want all that with someone who doesn’t love you as much as you love them?
Do you really want to spend your life catering to a man who strayed after you uprooted your entire life to move across the country with him? ”
“No,” she whispered. “I don’t. But I want kids. It could take years to get pregnant. My body doesn’t work how it’s supposed to. If I’m going to have kids by thirty, I need to have already met the person I’m going to be with. And now I’m starting over.”
Livy had struggled with her reproductive system for as long as he could remember. But she should still take her time finding a decent man. He worried she’d rush into marriage with a terrible person because she was terrified of fertility issues.
“You’re only twenty-six; you have plenty of time. We’ll get it all figured out,” he promised, kissing the top of her head.
He left her with her cereal and took a few minutes to straighten himself out, preparing for a long night. After rinsing off, he dressed in a pair of clean sweats and a t-shirt. Then he ran a washcloth under cold water and squeezed out the excess.
In the living room, he found Livy resting in the dark, the empty cereal bowl in her hands as she stared off into space. He relieved her of her bowl and set it aside, using the washcloth to wipe her face in gentle strokes.
The makeup and crusty tears washed away, he pulled the hair tie from her bun and rubbed slow circles into her scalp with his fingertips.
She relaxed into his touch, the tension in her body disappearing.
When she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, slouching into the sofa, he stopped, grabbing the remote and joining her on the couch again.
He propped his feet on the chaise and queued Phineas and Ferb. Livy sang the theme song with a sad smile. When the episode played, she sighed and lay the opposite way on the couch, her head resting in his lap. He stroked her hair to soothe her.
Hazy woke with a crick in his neck. He rubbed at the knot there and groaned. He reached out to squeeze Livy’s shoulder, but his hand fell through the open air. Squinting through the bright light coming in an open window, he searched his surroundings for her, but came up empty.
He stretched and searched his house, calling her name. She was gone. No note, the bag she’d abandoned in the kitchen the night before missing. Like she’d never been there at all. Disappointment filled him as he began his morning routine, starting with a smoothie.
He’d hoped she would stay awhile. When she moved to Seattle, he expected to see her all the time.
Nobody from back home had visited him in ages, and though she followed her dipshit of a boyfriend out here, Hazy looked forward to spending time with her.
And he’d hoped maybe she would draw her brother in.
He’d been trying to coax Jayden into moving closer for years.
Hazy didn’t visit his hometown often, and he missed his friend.
His parents were amazing, but they paraded him around whenever he visited, showing off their NHL player son.
If he said he didn’t want to talk to a bunch of relatives who never bothered to keep in touch unless they needed money, his mom would get this hurt expression on her face that broke his heart.
For the first few years, he’d endured weeks of family get-togethers and barbecues during the off-season.
As he’d gotten older, it became more reasonable for him to set boundaries that let him avoid listening to his middle-aged uncles pitch “genius investment opportunities.” He’d seized the opportunities to vacation in the summers with Lover and other teammates instead of spending them at home.
But that freedom also meant seeing less of Jayden and Livy.
When she’d shown up the previous night, his first reaction was absolute horror.
He’d assumed it was Lover invading his home and raiding his fridge.
He’d registered someone entering his house, but Lover would mind his own business until Hazy finished.
When he’d seen Livy, the panic had been immediate.
And then she asked that poor girl’s name, and he couldn’t remember.
Livy may as well be Hazy’s sister. She shouldn’t see him getting his dick sucked. No wonder she’d disappeared first thing that morning. He probably scared her away forever.
But she’d let herself into his house. She was always welcome, but what had she expected?
He poured his smoothie into a cup and pressed the cold glass against his cheek before rinsing out the blender, finding his phone, and firing off some texts.
The first went to Livy.
Where’d you go? Are you coming back?
Then, for good measure, he texted Jayden too.
You should check in with Livy. Her boyfriend sucks ass.