Page 28 of Pulled Away

“Where’s Aspen?” Hadley’s voice pulls my eyes away from where we’re engaged in a standoff. It burns me that he hit on her, even though I know I can completely trust Aspen. Fuck, why did I say that shit to her?

“Something came up. She had to go.” I keep my voice short, not inviting any follow-up questions. “Is everyone ready to order?”

Fuck the food. I want to get out of here. If it was up to me, I’d settle the tab without eating, but it would be rude. Hadley hasn’t seen Nicole and Benjamin in years, and they drove miles just to see her. But Aspen’s face just before she got in the car… Never has she looked at me like that before. Like she couldn’t get away from me fast enough.

The dinner drags, and the conversation has become stilted. It hasn’t escaped them that there’s something wrong, especially when I shovel my food down my throat at record speed. Hadley keeps throwing me questioning glances, and I try to smile and act normal, but my heart’s not in it.

“It was so nice catching up with Nicole. Makes me miss our college days,” Hadley says, leaning back with a sigh. “We video call all the time, but it’s not the same. Do you miss it?”

“College?”

“Yes.”

“Some of it. Not all.”

“I miss us,” she mutters. “How close we were.”

“You’re the one that upped and moved three thousand miles away.” It’s a joke, but it comes out flat.

“You know why I did.” Her voice is small in the darkness of the car, and we fall silent. It’s not a comfortable silence. It’s heavy, filled with many unspoken things. Things I hope stay unspoken because that’s exactly what it is. The past.

“Anyway,” she says with a slight shake of her head. “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited them over tomorrow for lunch.”

“What? When?” I tear my eyes from the road to frown at her.

“When you were outside with Aspen. They mentioned they were going back on Monday and didn’t have plans for Sunday, so I thought it would be a good idea. See them as much as we can before they go back.”

“Hadley, you should have checked with me first.”

“Sorry. I know I should have asked first. But I didn’t think you’d mind. You haven’t seen them in years, either.”

“That’s not the point. What if Aspen and I had plans?”

And after the fuck up that tonight was, I’m not sure Aspen is going to be all that happy about it. Who am I kidding? She’s going to hate it.

“Sorry, I just assumed. Do you have plans? If you do, I can just meet them somewhere. They’ll understand.”

“We don’t,” I sigh. “But you should have checked first.”

Silence settles between us, my mind wandering to what I’ll find at home. Instead of calling, I sent Aspen a text, checking that she got home safely. I had a strong suspicion that she wouldn’t want to talk to me, and I was right. Her reply was curt. Just a thumbs up.

“Is this about Aspen?” Hadley asks, her voice soft.

I sigh, not wanting to discuss it with her. Our business has nothing to do with her.

“If it is, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been taking up a lot of your time and it must be hard for her.” Her voice hitches and I quickly glance at her, but she’s not looking at me, gazing out the window into the darkness instead. “Maybe it’s better if I find somewhere else to stay. I don’t want to cause problems in your relationship.”

Guilt hits me, and I squeeze her leg. Her whole life, she was made to feel like a burden. An inconvenience, and I vowed to never make her feel that way. And here I am, doing exactly that when she needs me the most.

“Hey, look at me,” I coax, and my stomach clenches when I see the tears in her eyes. “You’re not. You have done nothing wrong. I just handled tonight poorly,” I reassure her. “And forget about finding somewhere else to stay.”

“I’ll call Nicole in the morning and cancel.”

I sigh, feeling like a jerk. “Don’t do that. Everything will be fine.”

And it will be. As soon as I fix things with Aspen and make her understand that there’s no reason for her to feel threatened by Hadley. That she’s all I see. That she’s all I’ll ever see.

It feels like I’ve been up for an age, waiting for Aspen to wake up. My eyes feel heavy, my head sluggish.

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