Melissa
One Week Later
It was Friday night, and for the first time in a long time, I looked forward to going out for the evening.
Corey had texted me a few days before, asking if I had an interest in joining him out tonight. I’d asked Hailey what I should do, and she said make it a double date. She seemed almost a little too enthusiastic about the idea as if putting us together would somehow lead to a wedding or something, but I liked the idea. If things got awkward, Sam—or Satan, whatever—would keep Corey in line. And Hailey could do the same for me, I suppose.
“It’s going to be great,” Hailey said. “The two of them are best friends, the two of us are sisters; we’ll keep each other in check, and who knows? If things go well—”
“Let’s just let the night unfold however it may,” I said, trying to keep things tempered. “Remember, we broke up for a reason.”
But every day that passed without Corey getting annoying and without me feeling like I needed to distance myself was a day that put that reason further and further into the rearview mirror. It hadn’t disappeared from view completely—it probably never would, to be honest—but that it was retreating instead of advancing said quite a bit about where things were.
“Just give it an open shot,” Hailey said.
“Just remember whose side you’re on.”
“I’m on the side of good things happening.”
It was perhaps the most honest she’d been about everything.
“Good things take time.”
“I know, but we could use some good news.”
I grimaced. Hailey saw it, and it was as if the facade crumbled all at once. She didn’t start crying, but I suspected that was because the last month had taken up all of our tears. She looked exhausted, beaten down, almost like she’d change her mind at any moment.
“We have each other, Hailey,” I said, “and that’s the good news. We still have family. You still have Sam, as weird as I still find that to be. We don’t have to have any more good news.”
But I understood her concern because I shared it, even if I didn’t explicitly say anything. It was one thing to remain grateful for what you still had. It was another to have a deep-rooted fear that negative momentum would compound, and the downswing would turn into a downward spiral. What next? YouTube would dry up? Sam and her would break up? I’d leave?
“Let’s just enjoy tonight as best as we can,” I said. “We’ll make a rule for tonight, in fact. No talking about the last month, only anything that happened before then. And no talking about the future. Only about what is going on now or way in the past. OK?”
Hailey sighed and nodded.
There was zero chance we’d actually follow that rule. I just thought saying something to that effect would help Hailey out. And judging by the smile forming on her face, it seemed to do well enough.
Strange, wasn’t it, how a night out that was supposed to test how Corey and I might be now was now shifting weight. But that was why Hailey and I were so close—whenever one needed help, the other picked them right back up.
“Now then, let’s say we call that Uber and head on out?”
* * *
Hailey and I got to the bar first, which was just as well since we were able to procure a booth relatively removed from everything. We sat across from each other, talking about what it would be like if I actually moved here. Despite us violating our rule to not talk about the future, it was as light a conversation as possible—there was no mention of Corey or anything like that.
And in any case, just when it seemed like the conversation might shift to serious topics, I looked over Hailey’s shoulder and saw the two biker men approaching.
Two thoughts hit me simultaneously as I saw them approach. One, it was surprising how I suddenly saw Corey as handsome again. For some reason, maybe because we were in a familiar setting, he seemed older than before. Not necessarily like an old man, but he just seemed more grizzled, more put together, more mature. It was certainly much sexier.
The second thing was that he and Sam didn’t exactly look thrilled to be with each other. Sam seemed much more tense than Corey did, but both of them were walking with some distance between them, and Sam looked like he’d just gotten in a bar fight. Not so much that he was bloody or bruised, but he had a scowl that suggested something was off.
One thing was for damn sure—I wasn’t going to say anything as long as either Sam or Hailey was around.
“Gentlemen,” I said with a nod as Corey took a seat next to me, his leg brushing up on mine and sending goosebumps and shivers all up and down my body.
“How have things been?” Hailey said as she kissed Sam, a sight that I tried to avoid as much as possible—it would always be weird, seeing her with someone like that—but couldn’t completely dodge.
“We’re not here to talk about work. We’re here to have fun, so let’s get a round of shots in.”
