That wasn’t really an answer. But I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t interested, with a hook like that.
Chapter 6
Jade
Iwasn’t built for other people. I was built for a quiet home in nature where I didn’t have to worry about who thought what about me. I was built to live for myself, dammit.
But I felt rotten. Guess there was no winning.
I hadn’t meant to tell off Alyssa the way I had, I’d just been so… overstimulated, so antsy knowing everyone in the bar wanted me out. But I did what I went in for, and I didn’t have any good reason to worry about what Alyssa of all people thought of me.
She was friends with Daniela. And from how it looked at that party, friends with everyone right away. Why wouldn’t she have been? I’d been like that once… friends with everyone, the center of a thriving community. But my time had come and gone. Now it was Alyssa’s spot, and if she was falling in alongside everyone else, I was on her chopping block, too. Better I was the one to push her away instead.
But no matter how much I tried to convince myself I didn’t care, I still hid it from Cat how much I’d been in and out of the party.
I gave her a couple of Cat’s cakes and her number—knowing what both of them were like, they’d probably be able tohit it off. And maybe if Alyssa was outside of the drama, she’d be able to make friends with Cat before she was turned against her. It was as good an approach as any to get Cat some links back into the group, get her some meaningful friendships again, before I jumped ship.
But I glazed over at work all day the next day. And when I was almost finished, I groaned at a message from Cat.
getting coffee at five-thirty at Sleepy Hollow! come join me, I’ve got stuff to share
I was of half a mind to say no. But I did have to face up to what had happened at the party and explain why I gave Alyssa her number without asking. So I grudgingly agreed, and when I finished, I got back to my house to spend my in-between time testing my scent throws. I had one with a peach scent I was trying to get balanced, and I’d paired it with a sandalwood and cinnamon, but it was being obstinate—it was either cloying and unbalanced, or the peach was completely gone, and I sat frustrated at my candle-work table when I burned the sample and found it just smelled like sandalwood again. Nayla had a birthday coming up, and she loved peach, but… why was I even bothering so much? It wasn’t like she’d be looking for a birthday present from me anyway. I found it was hard to justnot,though. Maybe a force of habit. Or maybe I was in denial.
I was in a foul mood that was about more than just the candle as I got out of the house and took my car to the café around the corner from the town center, Sleepy Hollow, complete with a cartoon Rip Van Winkle on the sign clutching a cup of coffee. I pushed in through the front door, bell tinkling overhead, and into where the smell of coffee and caramel syrup wrapped around me like a sweet cookie, and I got a cold flush at the sight of Cat in the plush booths of the corner seat, together with Alyssa. Neither of them seemed to notice me coming in, and I froze, watching the table warily.
I’d expected them to get on well… but that was an understatement for this. I had not anticipated they’d be going out for coffee together not even twenty-four hours later. Alyssa seemed to be… trying to pick up on the signs Cat was using. She was clumsy with it. Trying, though.
“Hey, Jade,” the barista said behind me, and I jumped. Alyssa turned with her brow furrowed, and she caught me in the last instant of me staring at her before I turned to the barista, my cheeks flushed. Seemed like she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. That was typical Cat for you… I shouldn’t have been staring.
“Hey—I’ll do an almond milk iced latte, please,” I said, pulling out my card before I’d even finished ordering. Maybe part of me wondered if I could just grab my coffee and run, but no dice if I even did decide to chicken out—Cat came up next to me with her hand on my shoulder.
“There you are,” she said. “I was wondering if you were going to join us.”
I turned and gave her a wary look, tapping my card to the reader and putting it away before I spoke just in sign. “Why did you invite her?” I said, using just the sign for A for her name, and she grinned.
“Don’t worry, she got a name sign.”
“Oh… lovely. What is it?”
She bit down on a big grin, and she made the sign fortree—her elbow planted on her palm, hand up, and brought the tree falling down. She whispered. “I told her it means blonde.”
“You’re evil,” I said.
She stepped around to face me as I moved towards the handoff plane waiting for my drink, and she signed, “You didn’t talk to people at the party, you gave her my number.”
“I know. I meant to apologize.”
“Why?”
“I thought you two would get along well.”
She raised her eyebrows. “But you wouldn’t get along well with her?”
I looked away, fumbling with the signs. “I… said we won’t be friends.”
She dropped her hands by her sides, staring at me for a second before she said it out loud this time. “Why?”
“Because,” I said, responding out loud before I switched back to sign, resigning to using the falling-tree name sign for her. “Alyssa and Daniela are friends. Daniela’s mad at me because of… everything. I don’t think Alyssa will like me. If she doesn’t mind me now, she will later. Best to remove myself from that and not get in your way.”
