Page 45 of Unexpected

His glare was cold, and I was sure that without the window between us or his daughter, who had begun grabbing his hand, urging him to continue walking, he would have had more than a few words for me. I didn’t give a fuck, though; he was another abuser that needed to be put in his place.

It looked like he was about to give me an obscene gesture just as Becky came jogging up. She followed her husband’s eyes and saw me standing in the window. I would have thought I looked a little creepy, but she smiled at me and waved eagerly.

I quickly closed the curtains, plunging the dining room into darkness, after givingher a tight-lipped smile of my own.

I found Hazel seated in the middle of the kitchen floor, Sadie sprawled out in front of her, graciously accepting all the belly rubs she could get. I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face and the twinge of emotion in my chest at the two of them. I watched them for a minute before Hazel caught me as I leaned against the counter, whiskey and tumblers still in my hands.

“What is that look for?” she asked as she pushed herself off the floor with another cringe.

“What do you mean? What look?” I asked, grabbing a bottle of painkillers from the cabinet and filling a clean glass with water. I pushed both toward her and she smiled gratefully. I wanted to take away her pain, and what better way to start than Advil and alcohol?

She downed the water, narrowed her eyes at me and leaned on the counter. “I don’t know, it was just an interesting look. Anyway… you found whiskey.” She pointed at the bottle in my hand.

“Yes,” I said, shrugging off her comment about my odd facial expression. “Is diet Coke okay, or do you want it straight?”

“Diet Coke is good. If I drink it straight, I could be drunk before the food gets here and that’s not necessarily how I was planning for this night to go.”

“So is whiskey usually your drink of choice?”

“I’m not very picky, but whiskey, tequila and red wine are my go-tos. Well,” she thought for a moment. “I might be done with tequila for a while after Halloween, but…” She trailed off, not finishing her sentence.

Sensing her hesitation, I quickly changed the subject. “How was Josh today? Hopefully not a total dick.”

She laughed as I handed her the drink, making herself comfortable on one of the barstools. “No, I actually really like Josh.”

The way she said it—hesitant and quiet—made me question the meaning behind it. I raised my eyebrows and peered over the rim of the glass as I took a sip. The whiskey was a welcome burn at the back of my throat.

She recognized the look and question in my eyes. She rolled her own, in a gesture I found endearing, and shook her head. “Not like that,” she scoffed before taking a long sip. “I just mean he’s not what I thought.”

“And what did you think he’d be like?”

She tilted her head to one side in contemplation. “I’m going to sound like a bitch, but… I thought he was irresponsible and lazy, maybe? I just didn’t think he took life that seriously, or at least that’s the way he seemed. But after spending today with him, I can tell that is definitely not the case.”

I nodded in agreement. I wasn’t surprised by Hazel’s admission—most people, when first meeting Josh, had the same impression, when in reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth. He let the nonchalant, carefree parts of his personality cover up the crazy shit going on in his life.

“I didn’t know he had a son and a crazy ex-girlfriend, or baby mama, as he so affectionately calls her,” she continued. “He’s still pretty easygoing, but there’s more there than just that.”

“Yeah, he’s easygoing and loves life, but he also cares about Zach more than anything and would do anything for him. He would even put up with Sam’s shit. I can’t believe he told you that much—he usually likes to keep everything involving them very under wraps. He only discusses it with our friends who were there and witnessed most of it happening.”

She took another long sip of her drink, more than half of it gone already, and ran her tongue along her plump lower lip. The move wasn’t meant to be sexual, but my thoughts had a mind of their own when around Hazel. Watching her tongue lick up the tiny remnants of her drink on her lower lip made me wonder if she tasted as sweet as she always smelled. I felt a twinge of regret about my dirty thoughts when I looked at her eyes once again, sad and rimmed with black.

“I mean, after a while, I kind of figured out what he was doing—I think he was telling me about his personal life, so I’d feel more comfortable…” She cleared her throat as her shoulders tensed. “So, I’d feel more comfortable talking about everything if I wanted to.”

One of Josh’s skills was connecting with people; he really did care about people on a level I never understood hence why I found myself more drawn to animals. Also, being a bartender, Josh was used to listening to people and giving feedback and sometimes feigning interest.

“Did you talk to him about it?” I asked, although I already knew the answer. I wanted her to talk to me, and it seemed like a good way to begin the conversation.

She only shook her head and finished her drink, the ice clinking loudly against the empty glass. Maybe not a good way to start the conversation, so I tried again.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She stared up at me as I leaned forward, my elbows resting on top of the cold, granite surface of the island across from her. I tried to convey through my body language that she could talk to me and that I was ready to listen to whatever she had to say. She didn’t tense at my proximity, and there was a flicker of softness in her hazel eyes.

Her chest rose slowly as she took in a deep breath. “I’m not sure. I think I’m still… processing?”

“I understand,” I said softly. I waited for a moment, giving her the opportunity to say something else, but she didn’t. “Refill?”

She looked at her empty glass, nodded and pushed it toward me. I dumped the old ice and after I finished putting new ice in her glass, and as I popped the top of the whiskey bottle, she began talking.

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