“I thought they were your friends.”
“Kind of. Not really.” I blew out a breath. “Zoe was always my friend, and they were her friends. We hung out in high school and a bit after graduation, before I moved. But I never fit in. I thought Zoe and I were still good, but we’ve definitely been growing distant for a while. I think tonight I finally came to the realization that we aren’t that close anymore. Kind of sucks, is all. It’s okay, nothing has changed. Just my perception of our relationship.”
Reid nodded, taking in my words. “You know that saying. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or forever. Maybe your season is just coming to an end.”
Tears formed in my eyes as soon as he said the words. That wasmysaying. How many times had Gran said those exact words to me?
Reid seemed to register my crumpled face andbackpedaled. “I’m sorry. Was that the wrong thing to say? Crap. I didn’t want to make you feel worse.”
“No it’s f-fine.” My voice shook. “It’s just…every person that has ever come into my life has been for a reason or for a season. I’ve got no forevers. That was Gran, and now she’s gone. I thought Zoe was a forever, but she’s not. Or even if she is, she’s a distant forever. Like maybe we’ll always talk but we’ll never be that close, y’know? Not ‘sleepover, going on trips together, talk about everything and anything,’ close.”
Reid continued to study me.
“You’ll find your forevers, Hazel.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I’ve made it twenty-five years without much to show. Some people aren’t that likable.”
“You’re likable,” he said.
“And you’re kind.” A few tears fell but I was beyond the point of being embarrassed by them. If I trusted anyone to see me in my most vulnerable state, it was Reid.
“I’m not saying it to be kind.” His finger and thumb brushed my chin. He gently pulled my face around so that I’d be forced to look at him. “I’m saying it because it’s true. I’ve never met anyone like you, Hazel.”
“Exactly the problem.” I lifted my hands as if to say, ‘see.’
“You wear your emotions on your sleeve. You go through life like every day is different. You don’t take anything too seriously. You look for beauty where there is none, and you create adventures out of nothing. You don’t have a way you take your coffee.”
“Coffee?” He’d lost me.
Reid sighed. “I like to pick up on the little things, like how people take their coffee. I store the information away and use it to be thoughtful in the future. But you take it differently every time. Sometimes black, with sugar, without. You bought some weird nut creamer last time we were at the grocery store. Sometimes it’s vanilla and sometimes it’s hazelnut.”
“So what? It’s all delicious. Life’s too short to drink my coffee the same way every day.”
“Exactly.” He pinched my chin lightly before dropping his hand. I missed his touch as soon as it was gone. “That’s how you live life. Fuck routines; you make the ordinary into something new and exciting.”
“It’s coffee, Reid.” I shook my head. “I’m not adventurous. I’ve never even been out of the country before.”
“But you inject life into the ordinary. That takes a special person. Traveling and money can make anyoneseeminteresting. But you actually are.”
We sat in the silence for a few moments as I let his words wash over me.
“Forget those so-called friends,” he said, finally turning in his seat and putting the car into reverse. “Real friends don’t make you question whether you’re enough.”
He pulled away, the lights of the small city blurring as I gazed out the windshield.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Of course.”
“Not just for coming to get me, and for the pep talk. For everything. For helping me when you didn’t have to. For letting me stay at your place…for being a friend.”
I spoke the last word cautiously, hoping I didn’t cross some hypothetical boundary.
Reid smiled. “I got you.”
The simple sentiment branded itself right onto my heart.
To lighten the mood, I turned the radio up as a throwback song came on. I sang along, loudly and badly, using it as some sort of cathartic release. Reid drove, not singing, but also not dropping his smile. A few miles away from his house, something caught my attention.
