Page 16 of I Always Will

Hailey shook her head. She wasn’t a teenager anymore. They hadn’t seen each other in years. They’d had their chance and they’d thrown it away. She was supposed to be over this by now, over Alexandria by now. So why did she feel like this? Why was seeing her again the life-altering experience it seemed to be?

“Welcome to Mash-N-Go,” Esme giggled as Dan and Alexandria stepped up to the counter, Alexandria’s eyes fixed firmly on the menu and nowhere else. “What can we get you today?”

Dan leaned on the counter as though he was about to say something flirty, probably asking whether Esme was on the menu—the whole team had had customers pull that absolute corker out on them before—but Hailey knew she and Alexandria couldn’t stand there, awkward bystanders to flirting while avoiding each other’s gaze, so she cut in before he could start.

“You must be Dan,” she said, attempting to force her voice into its usual friendly, casual, welcoming octave. She wasn’t sure she quite made it. And she was certain Alexandria would be the only one who noticed she didn’t. “We’ve heard so much about you.”

Dan laughed, leaning back up from the counter but smiling softly at Esme. “She’s so good to me.” He reached a hand out to Hailey. “And you must be Esme’s boss. I’ve heard a lot about you too. We can’t thank you enough for taking on the catering. We both really do love mash.”

“Me too. Well, obviously, otherwise, why would I have opened a mash bar?” She chuckled uncomfortably, wondering whether she could just go shut herself in one of the fridges in the back. Nothing could be worse than this. She’d never been this awkward in her life. And she and Dan were just pretending not to know each other? She supposed it was feasible that he didn’t remember her. He had been young when she’d known him.

But Alexandria definitely knew her and they didn’t seem to be acknowledging that either.

“Well, it seems like a great place.” He grinned easily. Hailey remembered him being a happy kid. “I can’t wait to properly try the food.”

“Me too,” Alexandria said, her voice a little too quiet, and Hailey couldn’t decide whether she was speaking as a way to hurry them through the ordering and away from her, or whether she felt she had to speak to be proper. Her parents had never been fans of her standing silently by when she could be speaking with people, making a good impression, and all that. Hailey had always thought it odd. Alexandria had always thought it uncomfortable but, much like many of their parents’ lessons, it was ingrained.

At least, it had been back when she’d known Alexandria.

Dan laughed. “Sorry, this is my sister, Al.”

“Alexandria,” Hailey said, automatically, at the exact same time Alexandria said it herself.

Hailey didn’t know why she’d done it. Sure, it had become second nature back when they spent every waking hour together and she knew how much Alexandria hated being called ‘Al’, but that wasn’t now. Now, it was awkward and she should have just left it alone.

Dan and Esme looked between the two of them as they looked anywhere but at each other.

“Do you two know each other?” Dan asked, surprised.

If there had been any way to get away with it, Hailey would have gone for denial, maybe made out they’d kind of known each other back in school, but not super well.

Alexandria didn’t agree. She rolled her eyes, even through her obvious chagrin, and said, “Yes, Daniel. This is Hailey. My best friend from secondary school. She was always over at our house.”

He frowned, thinking back, while Hailey snuck a look at Alexandria. She looked mortified to Hailey, but, to anyone else, she would look professional, like she had it all together, just a little flushed, though that could be blamed on the weather.

Honestly, how anyone could be half-drowned from the rain and still be so composed, Hailey didn’t know. But that had always been Alexandria. Some things never changed, it seemed.

“Oh, yeah,” Dan said, his face scrunched up, “I think I do kind of remember that. Sorry. Totally blanked on that. But this is so exciting.”

“Yes,” Esme agreed, clapping her hands together. “You know what this means?”

“Group chat,” Dan laughed.

“Come again?” Alexandria said, the slightest of dangerous edges in her voice.

“For the wedding,” Dan said, shooting her a wide grin. “You two are friends. You can help us coordinate and you can chat about all the exciting things with us. We both love a group chat.”

If Hailey weren’t such a sucker for the people around her being blissfully happy, she thought the horror of this whole thing might have caused her to throw up at the cuteness of Esme and Dan together. As it was, even the looming question of how to get out of this without upsetting the world’s most sunshiney couple wasn’t enough to stop her from smiling a little at the way they looked at one another. It was fast, sure, but they really did seem happy together.

“We can’t do that,” Alexandria said, entirely business-like.

“Come on, Al,” Dan pleaded. “You know Mum and Dad are going to continue being a nightmare about the whole thing. And I know you love me and want to help. What better way than in a group chat with your old best friend? I’m sure you’ll have the best time catching up.”

Hailey knew he was wrong about the catching up part, but she was secretly a little bit pleased she’d been right in her assessment of how the Daley parents were taking the news of the upcoming nuptials. People really didn’t change all that much, even over the decades.

“My name isAlexandria,” Alexandria told Dan with a look that Hailey understood to mean they had this conversation regularly. It almost made her laugh but she didn’t want to piss Alexandria off any more than she already had.

Dan rearranged his expression so he looked serious and turned fully towards his sister. “Alexandria. Please. It would mean the world to me—tous—if you’d support us in our wedding this way.”

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