Page 6 of Always There For You

Amelia was very close. Sappy romance movie close-up close. Her best friend staring right into her eyes. Long red hair begging to be touched. Hadley knew how Amelia liked to have her hair played with; knew how to pull the springy curls into a tight French braid. Years of practice during slumber parties had created special muscle memory just for those braids.

And Hadley was weak. If she couldn’t grab Amelia by the hips and slot their mouths together in the way she wanted (the way she wanted to lick inside Amelia’s mouth and make her whimper, to taste her the way she deserved), she could reach out and tangle her fingers in that beautiful hair. Almost brown but with a deep flush of honey-red staining every strand.

Hadley ran her fingertips over Amelia’s scalp, from behind her ear and up. Eyes fluttering shut, Amelia said, “Keep doing that and I’ll be putty.”

“I like putty. It means you’re relaxed.”

“Hmmm.”

“Ames.”

“Huh?”

“Ready to go?”

Amelia’s soft noise of dissent made her smile. “I promise I will do this again for you tonight.”

“Fine.” Amelia only sounded put-out. Hadley knew she was only assenting to leaving before nightfall because they had a full day ahead of them tomorrow.

With what looked like regret, Amelia slowly backed away and left to gather her things, leaving Hadley to nab hers from a nearby table. It had been a week since she’d moved into Amelia’s little rented cottage and so far, it had been utter bliss. They worked hard during the day, and the shop showed it. In her mind’s eye, Hadley could picture the place buzzing: customers browsing shelves and poking through jars of glass stoppers; booking appointments to go into the “Winebrary,” where the rare bottles were kept and the wine tastings held; and sitting at the concrete bistro tables with full glasses.

It was going to be brilliant.

“What’s that look for?”

Hadley turned and saw Amelia smiling at her, head cocked to the side. “I was just thinking about how great this place is. How welcoming and fucking cool.”

“High praise.” Amelia held out her arm in invitation, which Hadley of course took. “Praise I more than appreciate, of course.”

“Of course.” That old ache was back as soon as they touched like this. Like friends forever, casual and sweet but platonic. The ache of wanting what she couldn’t have, the ache of knowing it would never be that way. The ache of loving someone so close and so far away. On days like this, it flared hot under her skin and then began a relentless tattoo like a drumbeat.

The selfish, needy part of her wanted Amelia in that way. But the rest of her knew that having anything as close as it was now — living together, working together, making eggs together, drinking wine in the little garden together — was good enough.

“Ready to go home?”

Of course she was. Close was enough. It had to be.

Amelia’s phone buzzed just as Hadley handed her a cup of tea. The cottage came fully stocked, from rugs to furniture to mismatched plates and bowls and cups, and it was all delightfully kitsch. The cup in her hand was handmade ceramic, with a hand warmer handle and cute chanterelle mushrooms sprouting in an arc around the left side. She was admiring the mushrooms’ gentle curve around the cup when two text messages lit up her screen. The first one was from her mother, asking how the shop was coming along. But the second was a tracking number from a delivery service. She combed through her memory, going through everything for the store that had yet to be shipped out or was on its way. Nothing was coming from overseas, and certainly nothing in a large, square box.

It was probably a spam message. Amelia sipped her blackberry tea - Hadley’s special blend that she could never get enough of - and let her thumb hover over the link. Something twitched in the back of her mind; an instinct. Maybe it was something that had been rerouted?

“You okay?”

“Huh?” Amelia looked up as Hadley settled next to her on the glider and pulled the big, hand-knitted blanket over her lap. Snuggled together like this as night settled around them and their tea cups steamed into the air, Amelia was able to sigh and relax. “Oh, it’s this message.” She turned her phone so Hadley could see. But her always opinionated friend was strangely quiet as she barely glanced at the screen. “It’s probably spam. I’ll just delete it.”

“No, don’t!” Panic wrote itself across Hadley’s face and Amelia immediately frowned, worried. “It’s uh…shit. It wasn’t supposed to arrive this fast! Not that I’m going to grouse about it showing up early, but I told the artist to take her time.”

“Okay. So, you know what this is?”

Hadley took a sip of her tea then pulled a face. “Fuck. Okay, that’s too hot. Shit, Ames, I’m so sorry. I wanted it to show up right before opening.”

Oh, Hadley. Sweet, caring, throw it all to the wind because fuck it, you only have one life Hadley.

“Can you just…hit the link for me?” Hadley was batting her eyelashes but Amelia knew she was worried. She did this little thing with her brow when anxiety clouded her mind. “Please.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. But Hads, what did you do?”

Both shoulders rose up and Hadley gave a soft chuckle. “What I always do.”

---