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Like Hayes, I moved here to be close to someone who didn’t deserve me, and I gave up things that mattered for a person who’s no longer around. I guess it makes sense that he leads his life as if nothing in it truly matters.
I’m starting to feel the same way about my own.
6
On the way to work the next morning, I call Liddie to remind her about the Zoom birthday party that evening for Charlotte.
Liddie groans. “Why are we doing it so late? That’s right at Kaitlin’s bedtime, plus I’m ovulating, so, uh, Alex and I have plans.”
“Because it isn’t late where I am, and one of us has to work. Also, gross.”
I pull into Hayes’s circular drive just as a woman who looks a lot like my sister walks out his front door.
“Your doppelganger is leaving Hayes’s house,” I tell her.
“Is it you?” she asks with a laugh. I suppose I set myself up for that one. All three of us Bell girls do look a fair bit alike. “Maybe you should ask yourself why he’s fucking someone who looks just like his assistant.”
“Given how many women Hayes sleeps with, it was bound to happen eventually,” I reply as I hang up.
Hayes is already at the counter, waiting. “Your date looked just like my sister,” I say, placing his coffee in front of him. “Except my sister would still be here telling you what you’re doing wrong.”
He takes his coffee and sniffs it, as if assessing for poison. “It doesn’t surprise me at all to learn a relative of yours is full of unsolicited advice. But if I did to your sister what I just did to the woman who left, she’d be too exhausted to talk.”
A rusty muscle in my stomach clenches, but it’s been nearly a year since Matt and I broke up, and pretty much that long since I had sex, so I refuse to feel any guilt about my body’s innate response to Hayes…as long as I never act on it.
“I can see where a night with you would indeed be exhausting,” I reply as he rises. “I bet you don’t say please or thank you once.”
“Yes, because men who say please and thank you during sex are generally referred to as customers.”
I fight hard not to laugh. A hint of a smile slips forth but I snatch it back quickly.
He hands me a Post-It note. “I need this taken care of.”
He walks out—no please, no thank you, not even a goodbye. I go to the office, drop my bag on the floor, and ignore the ringing phone long enough to read the Post-It he handed me.
Much to my relief, he doesn’t ask me to remove a naked female from his bed, but he does want a reservation for Friday at a restaurant that books out a month in advance, needs me to fix the car he just drove away in, and asks about “brochures” without giving me any hint what brochures he’s referring to.
I give in at last and call Jonathan. I’ve been trying to give him his space, but I have no idea how to proceed here, and I’ve been dying to hear about the ten-month-old girl they’ve already named Gemma. He promised me photos when he left and I haven’t gotten a thing.
“Have you met her?” I demand immediately, bypassing all niceties.
“Not yet,” he says with a frustrated sigh. “The orphanage is putting up one road block after another.”
Poor Jonathan. He and his partner waited on an adoption list for years before this came through. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” he says, “but we may end up here longer than planned. I hope that’s not a problem on your end?”
I laugh ruefully, leaning back in the office chair and propping my feet on the desk. “It might be a problem on your boss’s end. He hates me. Every time I speak, he has this look of utter contempt on his face. It’s seriously making me wonder why we helped England out during World War Two.”
“Well, there was the whole bit about the Holocaust, and Hitler dominating Europe,” he says. “Maybe he’s like a boy with a crush, pulling your pigtails.”
“A guy who’s slept with half the actresses in LA isn’t that awkward with women, nor would he be interested in me in the first place.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Tali,” he says softly. “You’re beautiful and smart and different from what he’s used to. And I think Hayes is a lot lonelier than he would ever admit, even to himself. Just don’t sleep with him.”
I’ve only slept with two people in my entire life. I seriously don’t understand why this keeps coming up. “Apparently you’ve missed the part about me hating Hayes, and Hayes hating me.”
“I haven’t missed it,” he says with a small laugh. “I’m just not sure I entirely believe it.”
