Chapter Thirteen
“How’s your aunt doing?” Hayley asks me.
After I fill her in, I ask her about her editing project.
“My deadline’s not until next week. You want to get drunk?”
After what happened with Jenson today, I can hardly wait. “I’ll meet you in ten minutes.”
* * *
The Tap & Pitcher, the tiny bar on Main Street, is packed with people like us who left the fair early.
Hayley nods as the bartender delivers our drinks. “We have no cars parked out front, thanks to the taxi, so there’s literally no incriminating evidence if we come staggering out at two a.m.”
I laugh as we click shot glasses, and I swallow my whiskey and feel that comforting burn in my throat.
“So what’s up?” Hayley asks me. “You look upset. You’re dressed in your upset outfit.”
I look down at the faded blue jeans and black top with the half-open back I only ever wear when I’m down.
“Things are going so well,” I say to her. “But you know me—I’m a born pessimist.”
“What worries you? That he’ll leave again?”
I shrug. “Last time, he left for college, which was nothing unexpected. But then, he left forever to my teenage brain. I was just so young; it hit me harder than it probably would have as an adult. I didn’t get over it easily. And it’s like this reflex within me—I equate things going well between Jenson and me as the prelude to the end.”
“I understand.” Hayley pats my arm. “But you’re grownups now. And he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere. It will work out, Olive.”
“We’re too flawed people, Hayl.”
“Everybody comes with something,” Hayley says.
“It’s not because he has kids,” I say. “I love them. A lot. We just have this whole long screwed-up history together. Two divorces between us already, and we’re not even thirty.”
“Maybe you need to stop seeing Jenson as eighteen and see him for the man he is now,” Hayley suggests. “You’ve known him at every age, but you’re both grown up now. Maybe you wouldn’t have been happy together before this and before all you both went through to get here.”
I feel tears prick my eyes.
“I say this harshly only because I love you: stop avoiding your heart, Olivia. Tell Jenson how you feel, and don’t hold back. Do you really want to give up what could be with him just because you both come with a past?”
Before I can answer her…
“Olivia,” comes a flirty voice from behind me.
Hayley raises her eyebrows, and I whip around to see Will smirking at me.
“Will here, from the cook-out,” he says to break the silence. “Remember me?”
I really wish I hadn’t turned around. “Hi. Yes, of course.”
“Right,” he says confidently. “So, too bad about your relative there. Rolling down the hill and all.”
“Yes. Rolling down the hillwastoo bad.” My God, this guy is an idiot.
“How about we have a drink together?”
“No, thanks,” I say immediately. “I’m here with my friend…” I turn and quickly introduce Hayley to Will. “If you’ll excuse us.”
