Page 24 of This Memory
When Declan didn’t say anything, I looked at him. “I knew her. She’s the bartender at a pub I used to go to. She’s also gay and isn’t the least bit interested in men.”
“Where were you guys?”
“Saranac Lake.”
“What in the world were you guys doing there?”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “It’s not my place to say…but I was there tosupporther, trying to be a friend. We’d agreed to move on from the past. I guess that’s what I get for thinking things could ever be civil between us.”
“Well, after you filled me and James in about the whole thing that happened in school, I’d think you couldbothbe adults about it and move on.”
“We tried that. Yesterday. And she had to go off and be…well…be allBrystol. I swear she gets off on hurling insults at me.”
“Or she uses them as a defense mechanism.”
I stood. “Doesn’t matter. I’m going to try to stay as far away from her as I possibly can.” I walked over to a locker and opened it. “Maybe I need to take a break from women altogether. All they seem to do is give me a fucking headache.”
He laughed. “You just haven’t found the right woman, Gavin.”
Shutting the locker door, I glanced at Declan. “Yeah, guess not. I’m going to head home. See you tomorrow.”
“See ya tomorrow.”
As I walked out to my car, my phone buzzed with a text from Cindy.
Cindy: Are you sure you want to end things? I’m feeling lonely. Want to stop by?
It would be so easy to head straight to her house and lose myself in sex, but that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Me: Things are done between us, Cindy. Have been for a while now.
Cindy: When you get tired of using your hand, you know where I am if you change your mind.
I wasn’t about to change my mind.
After getting home, I took a shower, ate, then sat in front of my TV to try to find something to watch. My phone rang, and I glanced over to see it was Denny. I knew Brystol had told Denny and Evelyn yesterday evening about the blood test, since Denny had called me up right after, so happy about it all. And I was truly happy for him and Evelyn. I just wasn’t in the mood to discuss anything involving Brystol.
I sighed and reached for the phone. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“What are you doing this Friday?”
“I’m off, since I have to work Saturday during the fall festival on Main Street. Why?”
“Evelyn and I want to have a celebration dinner with some of our closest friends.”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “You’re not going to announce the pregnancy this soon, are you?”
Denny laughed, but it sounded forced. “I know we shouldn’t with our history, but Evelyn said she wants to. She wants to feel happy about it. She’s tired of always being worried. And she’s thinking the reverse psychology will work, especially since Brystol is carrying the baby.”
I cleared my throat, unsure of what to say. Even after all of the miscarriages, Denny and Evelyn could never wait until after the first trimester. At the time, I never thought much about how far along Evelyn was.
There was no way I would admit that ever since they’d dropped this on me a few weeks ago, I’d been reading up on things, and one of the most frequent pieces of advice was to wait until after the first trimester to tell people they were expecting…just in case. With their history, I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
“Why should we wait?” Denny asked, a bit of harshness in his voice.
“Um, is Brystol on board with telling people? Is she ready to let the whole town know she’s agreed to be a surrogate for you guys? If you tell everyone, and something happens, won’t it be even harder for BrystolandEvelyn?”
The line was silent momentarily before he sighed. “In our excitement, we weren’t thinking about Brystol.”
