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“That’s my boy. I also get over things pretty quickly with bacon bits, FYI.”
“Noted. Now let’s eat.”
As with earlier, everything was easy. They passed each other sauces and other condiments, chatting about the day ahead. Halle fed Monty her toast crusts and Lydia fed him her egg whites. Just so normal.
Lydia expected to have some sort of conversation about them sleeping with each other. The fact they hadn’t left her confused. Was it a good thing? Or did it mean Halle was afraid to hurt Lydia by telling her the truth? The truth being she wanted nothing more to happen. Had Lydia been a poor lay?
Halle left an hour after breakfast. Apparently, she was supposed to visit her mum. Was that the truth? Or did she just need to get out of there without Lydia causing a scene?
Jesus, her head was a mess. All the thoughts she’d tried to keep at bay, successfully, were now battering down the door to be let in and Lydia could do nothing to stop it.
The commute to work passed by on autopilot. The ease and simplicity Lydia felt this morning was long gone. Now all she felt was hollow. Those thoughts had crept their way in and constricted all the happiness she’d felt mere hours ago.
Halle would leave. Or she’d get fed up with Lydia’s insecurities and broken bits. Something! There would be something that would give Halle an out.
“Are you still hungover?” Cathy’s voice pierced Lydia’s darkening mind fog.
“What? No, why?”
“Because you look like shit, sweetie. Are you having problems again, you know, down south?”
“No, I’m fine,” Lydia snapped. That was the wrong thing to do. On two levels. One, Cathy, was a dear friend and never deserved to be snapped at. Two, she was Lydia’s boss, and they were at work. “Sorry, sorry, Cath.”
“My office.” Cathy’s tone was level, not outwardly hostile, which worried Lydia more if she were honest. Dropping her head in shame, Lydia followed Cathy silently to her office.
“Ca—”
“What happened, Lydia?” Cathy sat back in her chair, arms on her desk, face soft. She wasn’t mad. Cathy was concerned, which made Lydia feel like more of a bitch for snapping.
“I slept with Halle.”
“And it was bad?”
“No, it was perfect. She was perfect.”
“And that’s causing you to look like the world is ending?”
Well, when it was said like that… “No. But we didn’t even talk about it this morning. We acted like… well, I don’t know. We had breakfast together, chatted. All the usual stuff, but that’s it. It was lovely, don’t get me wrong, but it could have been a regular Saturday for all we knew. There was no difference.”
“Really? Does Halle often wake up next to you and have breakfast?”
“Obviously not, but…”
“What were you expecting?”
“I thought we’d talk about it.”
“So did Halle act as though it never happened?”
“No, we kissed this morning. Actually, we were heading into sexy time, but Monty was upset with the lack of human interaction.” Why was Cathy looking at her like that? “What?”
“Well, I might be wrong, but I think that was you guys talking about it!”
“What do you mean?”
“The fact you both felt comfortable waking up, having a few kisses, and then the possibility of more was the conversation. Look, Lyds, you and Halle know each other. You were never going to have the awkward conversation after a night of sex, the same as you would with a stranger. And I think you know that, so what’s bugging you, really?”
“Well, what happens now?” The question all but shot out of Lydia’s mouth. “Halle left after a very pleasant morning and fantastic afternoon slash evening of sex, without a word as to where we go now.”
