4. Haley
1621 Words
4
HALEY
I hugged Lily long enough that the other patrons in Shadow’s Lounge started to stare at us through the dim lighting, but I didn’t give a s**t. I’d missed my bestie while she’d been back east. She was the only person besides Garrett who loved me unconditionally, and the second she had walked in, my eyes and nose had burned with the need to cry.
“Sit your a*s down and tell me everything,” I demanded, finally stepping out of her arms.
As always, she smelled like vanilla and chocolate mints, her eyes twinkling with light and happiness.
“Chardonnay?” she asked about the drink I’d ordered for her while settling into the chair across from the one I’d been sitting in.
“Mmm hmm. So should I ask why you were late?”
“My boys were feeling horny, and I was hungry.”
“You’re a c*m slut.”
“Only for them,” she stated rather than offering an apology for keeping me waiting ten minutes longer than our agreed upon meet up time.
I rolled my eyes, the ugly green giant of jealousy and depression rousing in the back of my mind. If I had the kind of love and affection that she did at home, I would have been late too.
Lily sipped, eyeing me over the rim. “So, which do you want first? The courtroom s**t or the dinner shenanigans?”
“f**k the Quell/cult fuckery. I saw enough of that on the news, and I’m ready to put it all behind me as I’m sure your men are—but how are Blaine and his sister doing after everything?”
“Better than I’d expected. I thought for sure that seeing Quell again would stir up s**t in Blaine’s head, but he hasn’t had a single nightmare about his childhood. He’s just relieved to finally be able to move on entirely from the whole situation. His sister Sarah is still at Franklin’s grandparents with him and his siblings.”
Lily enjoyed another swallow of wine.
“They’re getting married at the end of the summer on the farm in Maine,” she continued. “Nothing major, no big celebration, but she wants Blaine to walk her down the aisle they’re going to mow in a grassy field.”
The thought of such an intimate ceremony tickled all my happily-ever-after dreams and poked at the enviousness I tried to keep caged up. “Aw! That’s so sweet.”
“Right?” Lily let out a sigh. “I’m so…full to overflowing it’s almost sickening.”
I wouldn’t know the feeling she spoke of, and that truth brewed the s**t in my mind some more. “Okay, now give me the goods about that dinner Grey set up with your ex and his husband because I’ve been dying.”
And I needed a change of topic from weddings and happiness.
Lily laughed, her voice like a tinkling bell. “So, the second Levi opened their front door, I went flying up their walkway and jumped into his arms, leaving Grey and Blaine behind.”
I smirked and enjoyed a healthy swallow of my wine while Lily recounted forgetting all about her two lovers for the sake of hugging Levi again—but how she noted that any s****l attraction she’d once had for her ex-fiancé had completely disappeared. She’d just missed the friendship they’d carried beyond their engagement ending.
All four men had greeted each other without any sense of jealousy or hostility, keeping the situation from being awkward.
“Just sitting there while they shot the s**t at the dining room table, thinking about how each and every one of them had at one time put their hands on my body made me fantasize about having my own harem.”
I snorted, almost choking on my drink.
“Just kidding.” Lily laughed. “I don’t want Levi or his husband’s hands on me ever again. Grey and Blaine are all I need.”
“Greedy dickmonger.”
“You’re just jealous.” She fake-simpered and winked.
“Damn right, I am.” I didn’t mind admitting that truth to the one person who knew me better than anyone—Garrett included.
“So, how’s your dating life going the past couple of weeks?”
I flagged down our waiter, ready for another drink. “Nonexistent.”
“Are you at least trying?”
“Why bother?” I glanced over those drinking at the bar to the left of our high table but found nothing of interest worth a second look. “I’m doomed to just pick up another narcissistic asshole who will only try to manipulate his way under my skirt.”
Lily’s gaze bored into me with concern furrowing her eyebrows.
“What?”
“How are you doing, Haley?” She was well aware how depression often attempted to grab me by the pubes and hold on for dear life.
Maybe it was time I started to wax on the regular. “I’m okay, but everything kind of sucks right now.”
Just not me…
I clung to the buzzed thought since it wasn’t gloomy, then tacked it on out loud to my last sentence to get Lily to laugh.
She did. “And how about Garrett?” she asked rather than helping bemoan my lack of action.
“He’s still got a sucking fixation—just not on me.”
We both busted into laughter.
Fuck, had I needed a night out with her. I felt lighter already.
“Seriously, though,” Lily said once we settled down, a smirk still on her face. “Are you still crushing on that sexy roommate of yours?”
“Bad. Like, really bad, but maybe it’s just because my love life is in a serious drought, and I’m dying for kisses that will curl my toes.” I sagged into my chair, leaning onto our table with my elbow, chin propped in my hand. “It doesn’t help that he walks around in nothing but sweats, showing off those abs and that V I would pay to lick.”
“He is fine.”
“f**k fine,” I snorted my disagreement. “He’s divine perfection.”
“DP.”
We laughed our assess off again, and I knew I’d be changing Garrett’s name in my cell to DP.
“It’s a lovely thing, isn’t it?” I asked, knowing it was my tale of a threesome I’d had a couple years earlier that had enticed Lily into moving to California and seeking out two lovers instead of one.
“Sometimes it hurts like a motherfucker,” Lily said quietly, leaning toward me, that light back in her eyes, “but watching my men fall apart together inside me while they’re sucking on each other’s tongues…yeah.” She shuddered and sat back, fanning her face.
“Bitch.”
Lily flipped me the bird while grinning.
The waiter arrived with new drinks, and we clinked our glasses together. “To Haley getting her man.”
“Two men would be better,” I said, “but at this point, I won’t be greedy. Finding one is hard enough.”
“They’ll both have to be hard to—”
“God, Lily!” I barked out, dissolving into laughter yet again.
One thing about my cousin, I could count on her to take the heaviness away even if we acted like immature dorks.
Same as cuddling with my sweet koala…
I sagged again, letting out a sigh. “Do you think Garrett knows how hot I am for him but just ignores it since he’s gay?”
She shrugged and sipped. “It’s possible, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you too. He adores you…you’re definitely his safe place, and he wouldn’t ever do anything to f**k that up.”
“Why can’t he be straight?” I whined, something I rarely did.
“There’s such a thing as gay for you. Maybe you could talk him into being straight for you?”
“I wouldn’t ever attempt it. He’s like…my platonic person, and I can’t jeopardize our friendship.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, I wish. Over the back of the couch, against the door…” I let out a heavy sigh. “He’s the perfect a guy…almost everything I want. He doesn’t have a manipulative bone in his body, and while he lacks in direction like I do, that bulge of his I catch tenting his sweats when we’re watching hot guys on TV…fuck to the yes, please, fill me up and wreck my mouth with your tongue.”
Lily lifted her wine again and held it toward me. “Then let’s make a vow—we’re going to find you your man—or two—both hotter than Garrett who will love you unconditionally and hold your hand through life. Oh.” She giggled. “And may they have a bigger, thicker d**k than your roommate’s too.”
I wasn’t sure I would want anything more than what Garrett packed between his muscular thighs, but desperation had begun to creep its way into my core. “And how do you propose we do that?” I asked, clinking my glass against hers.
“Missing Link.”
A half hour later, I had an active profile on the latest poly dating app.
The wait began, fingers and toes crossed for luck, something I’d been shortchanged on since birth.
It was about time fate gave me a break and offered a path different than the one my mom had gone down.
- Writer
