Page 24 of A Different Husband

Hadley shrugged. “Well, that’s why we had to resort to having Edwin Milton buy a couple bottles.”

“Oh my God! You got that shit off a legitimate crackhead?”

Hadley giggled. “It’s not like he opened it and dumped a rock in there or something.”

“I feel like I need to brush my tongue all these years later.”

“Aw, stop making fun of poor Milton. He was good to us.”

“To you, maybe.”

“Feeling calmer now?” Hadley asked as I plopped down onto her sofa. My best friend had always been a master at distraction techniques.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“Now, tell me what happened.” I watched as she pulled her midnight black hair up into a big fluffy ball on top of her head. To call it a messy bun would have been a disservice to all the artfully cute and messy hairdos out there. My best friend didn’t care if it looked good. She just wanted all of it out of her face for a bit. I chuckled as the elastic band she used to secure it popped.

“Damn it!” She huffed. “I think that was my last one.”

“Sorry about your thick hair problems. I’ll buy you a new pack later.”

“Fine. Tell me about your boy troubles.” She seemed to think about that for a minute. “Is it weird that all your boy troubles stem from one family?”

“Hadley!” I whined.

“Okay, okay, tell me all about it. What happened today?”

“Well, the thing is, I have to back up and tell you what happened yesterday, first.”

“Oh shit, why didn’t you call yesterday.”

“I did. You didn’t answer.” Hadley glared down at her phone as if it personally offended her.

“I don’t see any missed calls.”

“It doesn’t matter.” I sighed and then told her everything that happened, starting with the disaster of a dinner meetup and all the way until I ran from my husband’s office straight to my best friend’s house.

“Wow. That’s…” She sighed and then turned to face me. “Can I be honest?”

“I didn’t come here to get you to tell me how I look in a new pair of jeans. I came to you with boy trouble. That requires honesty.”

“Fair.” Hadley took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before she spoke. “I suspected Beckett of screwing around on you before too.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Same reason as Flynn. I didn’t think you would take it too well if I didn’t bring you proof. All I had was a feeling and the weird way he didn’t want you to move in with him once you both graduated. It never made sense to me.”

“Hindsight is a bitch, because looking back, there are a lot of things I overlooked.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still a shitty friend for not pointing them out, but Beckett’s been in your life longer and I didn’t want to lose you if I was wrong.”

“I understand. What made you think he was cheating, though?”

“I overheard some women talking about being with him, but everyone knows we’re friends. I had no way of knowing if they were just trying to plant a seed to break you up or if it was the truth.”

“You believed them though?”

“Yes, I did. Beckett has always given off a slimy vibe. He’s charismatic, so most people ignore that and focus on his charm. He never charmed me, though.”

---