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“It’s just a yarn shop,” I say, feeling embarrassed.
“Will it make you happy?”
What a strange question. Is a job in a yarn shop supposed to make me happy? But the look on his face, the way he’s looking at me, I can see how important it is to him.
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“Then I’m thankful for the Knitty Kitty.”
I laugh, the force of it surprising me. He grins in return.
“Me too,” I say, as he squeezes me into a quick hug.
Then he’s off, jogging back the direction we came. I watch him go, and as the cool spring breeze flickers across the back of my neck I think Ishouldfeel happy. But all I feel is alone.
22
faye
“How many ofthese things do I have to go to?” Caro asks as we shuffle down the aisle to our seats just four rows up from the plexiglass.
The Memorial Coliseum buzzes with energy before of the game against Dallas, and me and my friends have prime seats, courtesy of Zeke. Not that I would admit it, but it felt particularly special because we hadn’t spent much time together recently.
I tried not to think about it too much because friends don’t fixate on the woman their friend wants to fuck. I also definitely didn’t start low-key stalking her social media for photos of them together. It started on accident, when an image of her kissing his cheek popped up in my feed. I was reading the comments when Aly caught me. She’d grabbed my phone and nearly lost her shit.
“‘Looks like love’? ‘Stand by your man’? ‘Hashtag-bae goals’? Where are the trolls when you need them?” Aly had said.
Caro had joined the fray and they tried to convince me to block her. Which was ridiculous because Zeke was my friend and nothing more and friends don’t block their friend’s significant other. Anyway, from the looks of it, she’ll be around for a while. The internet seemed to think so, anyway.
But still, it had been a minute since we’d hung out—not since the low-key pub crawl he and the girls had organized. It had felt like old times, just the four of us, working on my slightly obsessive list of IPAs I haven’t yet tried. Or it did until we got to Hair of the Dog and Megan arrived. Suffice it to say, things got awkward pretty quickly. So, him coming through with tickets for me and my girls felt awesome. He didn’t even try to push the WAG seats on me. I’m just excited to see him play and catch up after the game.
“I mean,” Caro continues her whining, “three periods instead of two halves? And all these grunting, hulking men skating around on tiny little blades.” Her eyes follow someone on the ice and I stifle a laugh.
“Is it really such a hardship?” Aly says with a smirk as she waves her foam finger she got at the last game.
“No,” Caro says, plopping into her seat and unwrapping her hot dog. “Just need to invest in some sexier snuggly clothes.”
“Is that a thing?” I ask, sort of curious. I mean, I’ve heard of snow bunnies and I suppose they must find sexy earmuffs or cottontails or something.
“Honey, there’s something for everybody.”
“Faye?”
I look two rows down, to where Megan smiles up at me. “Hey there!”
Her black cropped puffer vest hits her ribs just right over a green plaid flannel shirt that is pulling at the buttons over her perky breasts. Her ebony hair is pulled into two adorable low ponytails beneath a red knit cap, and her slightly crooked, yet endearing smile is coated in the most perfect red lipstick. She looks casually cute and put together, like she didn’t try too hard. Compared to me, in a boxy sweater I spent far too long debating, but which nonetheless feels a little snug since the last time I wore it.
Caro nudges me and I snap out of it.
“Hi…” is all I can come up with.
She smiles and leans over the row of seats for an awkward hug. I glance at Caro and she stuffs the rest of her hot dog into her mouth.
“I’m so happy to see you again! I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner to your birthday. It was so sweet of you to include me.”
I’m so confused as realization sinks in that she thinks I invited her to the birthday pub crawl Zeke planned with the girls.
“You’re here for Zeke?” I sharpen my grin as my throat constricts around his name. She blinks and her sweet smile falters.
