“Of course!”
She swung the door the rest of the way open, and ushered me aside. Her husband stood up from the couch, a half-full glass of wine in each hand. Immediately I felt embarrassed.
“Rick?” Amy said sweetly. “Pour one for our guest?”
Rick shot me a reassuring smile, then disappeared quickly into the kitchen. Amy led me to the couch, but not before grabbing the remote and pausing the reality show they’d been watching together.
“I’m so sorry,” I told her. “I just… I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Hayden, it’s okay.”
“No, no it isn’t. Nothing’s okay. And I—I was going to ask if…”
God, why was this so hard? It shouldn’t be. Not after all we’d been through together.
“I was going to ask if I could stay here tonight.”
I braced myself, expecting her to hug me again. To assure me that of course it was okay, and I could stay as long as I wanted.
Instead, Amy cleared her throat.
“Here?”
“Yes.”
“Tonight?”
I blinked a few times, wiping my cheeks clean with my coat sleeve. For some reason, Amy hadn’t yet taken my coat.
“Yes,” I repeated again. “If—If it’s okay with Rick, of course. I just can’t bear the thought of going home tonight. Shit, I don’t even know where ‘home’ is right now.”
“What happened with Cole,” she said quietly. “Tell me about that.”
I went into it briefly, without mentioning too much about what Cole had done in regards to the guys. I told her I’d left them for good, but that Cole wasn’t getting it through his head that we were over as well.
“What else did he say?” Amy was asking.
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Some stupid crap about still being in love with me. After everything he put me through. After—”
“Well… maybe he is.”
I stopped crying altogether and looked up at her.
“What did you just say?”
Amy looked more nervous than I’d ever seen her in her life.
“I—I’m just saying,” she stammered, “if he told you he loved you, why wouldn’t you believe him?”
“Because he’s a fucking lunatic!” I snapped. “Cole doesn’t love anyone but himself! And even if he did, whocaresif he still loves me? He lost any shot of—”
“You really wouldn’t give him a second chance?”
My shocked expression drove her eyes instantly downward. Not only couldn’t she meet my gaze, she actively avoided it.
“Amy, what thefuck?”
“I know, I know,” she relented. “It’s not that he hasn’t done things that were wrong, but youdiddate him before, and you did tell me you had good times with him.”
