Page 1 of Until Then

ONE

Hayley

What I need is a stiff drink.

It’s only nine in the morning.

The time, in my opinion, changes nothing. With a long draw of breath through my nose, I inhale the spicy aroma of my espresso. If I can’t lose myself in the haze of alcohol, the very least I can do is be well-caffeinated.

“This is the last time, right?” Greer, my best-friend, grumbles into the phone. “I mean, how many excuses does a man need to make before you see through the cracks in his story?”

I let out a sigh and twist the end of my damp braid around my finger. “G, it’s not easy to just walk away from three years.”

She snorts. “One foot in front of the other, girl. Simple. Done. See ya, douche.”

A smile teases the corner of my mouth. Every human deserves a Greer Light in their lives. Her last name is fitting—the woman is a light, or maybe a torch depending on who you are and if you can be named a friend or foe.

Greer always has my back, sometimes too much with a lot of colorful language, but this is easier said than done.

Three years comes with a lot of history,” I say, taking another drink before picking off a piece of my blueberry scone.

“The word you’re looking for is baggage.” I can practically hear the eye-roll she gives on the other side of the call. “You give Jasper one semi-forgiving glance, and he’s going to weasel his way into convincing you things will change. He’s going to make it seem like his ulterior motives were not always part of the plan.”

Ouch. Another piece of Greer is her ability to whittle down straight to the point. Bold, ferocious, a little scary sometimes. Unfortunately, I need to hear it. Jasper Barnes had reasons for being with me, and it wasn’t anything to do with my charm, wit, or body.

“You keep listing it all out and it makes me feel a little pathetic,” I say.

Greer is silent.

“Hello? You missed the moment where you’re supposed to tell me I’m not.”

“I took an oath to never lie.”

“Why are we friends if we don’t lie to spare each other’s feelings?”

She snickers. “Honestly, Hayley, Jasper had the makings to be a great boyfriend?—”

“Fiancé.”

“Either way, he had all the right ingredients, but someone got the recipe wrong. I wish I could be there to take you out and remind you how to have a good time without the leech on your back.”

“Geez, tell me you didn’t like him without telling me.”

“Why would I not tell you?” Greer lets out a little laugh. “In all seriousness, are you okay?”

“No,” I say, voice soft. “I gave up a lot of years to him and feel like an idiot that I didn’t see the signs.”

I’ve now learned the thing that hurts most. It’s finding out the man you were imagining picket fences and babies with wassleeping with social media models on the side for seventy-five percent of the relationship.

Not to mention, the other half—secretly trying to use the painful past I try to keep locked in the dark basement of my heart to further his career.

At first, Jasper was the unicorn, the once-in-a-lifetime guy every girl dreams about taking home to meet the parents. Successful as a writer for a busy film studio in L.A. He’s handsome, a surfer, a bookworm.

He had all the boxes and—I thought—he checked each one.

What a pity it is he couldn’t keep his pants on around other women.

“Hey.” Greer calls me back to the moment. “Haze, I need you to know, Jasper and his stupidity have nothing to do with you not being enough. He makes me vomit.”

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