There was a story there, but Cole didn’t seem to want to tell it. And Elena wasn’t exactly what you called a “sharer,” so they would all probably wonder forever.
After they got their drinks, Hailey asked her usual: “Who wants my cherries? I got two this time.”
Two hands shot out toward her quickly, one being Cole’s, and the other Abby’s on the other side of the table. She dropped a cherry in each of their hands and enjoyed the burst of excitement that flared off each of them. After Cole ate his and dropped the stem on his beverage napkin, Elena cleared her throat.
“Don’t you want to keep that to practice with, Cole? You could use it.”
Cole looked like a deer in headlights for a moment before a devilish grin took over his face. “You worried about my skill level, Bubbles? I’m happy to show you anytime, sweetheart.”
If Hailey ever owned a house with a fireplace, she would never use matches or a lighter to get a fire going.She would just get Elena to come over, because the glare she was sending Cole absolutely had to burn.
It didn’t help that no one knew why he called her Bubbles. Those two were an enigma.
The blond guy felt the tension and Hailey supposed he had enough awareness to see a subject change was needed, but he picked the wrong direction.
“Speaking of cherries, how come you guys call yourselves the Cherry Stems.”
Hailey and her teammates looked around the table at each other and laughed, giggling like twelve-year-olds that just heard a dirty joke for the first time.
Avery responded to him first. “We all went to Cherrywood High, and we’re the red team so we figured it was logical. But, we also had way too many cherries at a party right before we all left for college and things got … competitive.”
Josh doubled over in laughter while Cole’s face seemed just a little bit redder. Meanwhile, Elena somehow looked both smug and irritated at the same time.How did she do that?
Luckily, the server showed up at that point to take food orders so the conversation was forgotten by the blond guy. By the looks of it, he seemed interested enough in Elena that she might see him again off the soccer field.
As people put in their food order, Hailey glancedonce more between Elena and Cole and realized that night with the stems was the last night where things seemed … civil between those two. Maybe something happened that night she didn’t know about. She’d save that question for Elena during their upcoming travels, but she couldn’t help repeating the events of that night in her head to see if she missed something.
24
Eleven years ago…
A GROUP OF FIFTEEN or so from the boys and girls soccer teams were gathered in Cole’s basement. His parents were out of town for the night and he wanted to take advantage, especially since it was the last night before half of them left for college the next day. He got his older sister to score him two bottles of vodka. Everyone brought over their favorite mixers, which included Hailey bringing two jugs of Sprite, some grenadine and more maraschino cherries than anyone needed.
Her favorite drink to order when she was feeling fun was a Shirley Temple, so mixing that with vodka seemed like a genius plan, but when she pulled out the cherries, people’s minds went in a different direction.
“Oh my God, has anyone ever tried to tie the stems in your mouth like they do in movies?” Abby asked, looking around to see if anyone has tried it before. Apparently, no one had enough experience to brag about it, but, unsurprisingly, a bunch of them were up for the challenge.
“I’m sure I can do it. I’ve got many talents,” Cole said as he sent a flirty smile Elena’s way. Her skin was so tan it was hard to see the blush, but it was obvious on her high cheekbones.
Cole grabbed a cherry out of the jar and tapped it against the glass so he wouldn’t drip it all over himself. He took a minute to eat the cherry first, because priorities.
A few others that were gathered around the floor took a cherry for themselves to see if they could tie them.
Hailey turned to Avery who was sitting beside her, the jar in her hand to offer them around. “Want one, Avery?”
Avery took a second to think about it and reached up to grab a cherry before seemingly talking himself out of it in his own head.
“Nah, I think I’m better off not knowing. I’ll just be disappointed if I can’t do it.”
“Oh, wow. I never even thought about that. That’s a good point, and I don’t even like cherries. I just like cherry-flavored things.”
They both laughed as they looked around.
Cole seemed to be struggling and working really hard to tie his stem. Elena was the first to finish and triumphantly pulled the knotted stem out of her mouth, which immediately prompted Cole to choke on his own stem. Avery reached over and gave his back a couple slaps until the choking stopped, but that was enough for Cole to give up on the stem and turn his focus to Elena instead. That man was a goner.
The night continued to be a bunch of antics and drinking games, until someone suggested a round of spin the bottle.
There was no way this would end without drama, but Hailey guessed it was a good thing then that half the people in this room would be states away tomorrow, although she was only going just over the bridge to Philly. Still, they all would see each other a lot less after that night.
