Be My December (21 page)

“You did it again.”

I didn’t understand what she was implying. My brow furrowed as I looked at her over my mug. “Did what?” I finally asked.

“You saved me again.”

My heart twisted at her words. If only they were true. Those words were the most obvious lie in the world, but she would never know that. I couldn’t get into a conversation like this without freaking the fuck out. It was either leave her here for the likes of Chris who I knew would be lurking around somewhere, or quickly change where this conversation was headed.

We were here for a reason.

Twenty fucking questions.

“What’s your favorite food?”

“Excuse me?”

“Twenty questions Eden. What’s your favorite food?”

“Oh, um as you have gathered from the Facebook stalking you had done I do love pizza, but also home cooked spaghetti.”

Noted.

“How old are you?” She continued with the game.

“I’m twenty-six. Birthday is August 15
^th
,” I admitted with a smile and then continued with my next question. “Where are you from?”

“New Jersey. My parents are out of town though. I don’t come back so when I said I would be here for six weeks they had already had their trip to Australia booked and couldn’t back out.”

Her voice dropped low as she spoke. “Do you do this with all the people you hire?”

“What’s that?” I questioned, not exactly sure where she was going with this.

“Ask them to spend a month with you, take them out for coffee. It seems by Josh’s reaction the other day, you barely leave the office.”

“I can hand on heart say you are the only woman who I’ve asked to spend a month with, and it’s quite alarming how quickly you are learning things about me.”

“I’m just observant.” She smiled and lifted her mug to her lips, a perfect sigh escaping as she took a large sip of hot chocolate.

Eden being observant frightened me.  

Her eyes lifted from mine and looked over my shoulder. “Why is your aunt staring at us like that? Actually why are all the staff staring at us?”

I twisted in my seat and sure enough Aunt Carole stood behind the counter flanked with two other ladies, all eyes latched onto Eden and me. As soon as they saw that they had been busted, they all of a sudden got busy and rushed off to different corners of the diner.

“You are the first girl I’ve brought here. You are officially the talk of Joe’s Place.”

“Do I want to be the talk of Joe’s Place?”

“You have no choice babe.”

She lifted the mug back to her lips to hide her smile behind the porcelain. I took a moment to admire her in silence. Her gaze faded away as a distant thought overtook her. It seemed to drag her away from reality right before me. My thoughts battled with each other, and I didn’t know whether to pull her back or let her succumb to her memories. Eden Rivers was the most tightly shut book I had ever encountered. I wanted to rip open the cover, disband the spine, and tear the pages of her story into a million pieces. More than anything I wanted to help her write new words, on perfectly crisp untouched paper, and to come up with the perfect title, for the perfect story.

Ky: Will I be seeing you tonight at Josh’s?

Eden: I’ll be the girl in the red jacket.

For two days Ky and I had been talking nonstop via text message. He was out of town on business so this was how it had to be. He did warn me that even though he wasn’t in town, he was still going to get his months’ worth of me. It was now routine for me to wake to a text and fall asleep after sending him a goodnight text.

Our twenty questions had continued during these text message conversations. In the past two days I had found out that his favorite color was green, he was a night owl, he didn’t like anything pineapple, and that he had a strong aversion to horror films.

His text messages were the only thing making me stay. Just today I had packed up my suitcase and lifted my phone from the bed to call the airline all because of a text message that simply read:
Where’s your boyfriend now?
 

You would think that I’d tell someone, that I’d call the police but my fucked up head simply told me to ignore it because if I ignored it, it wasn’t really happening. Yep, I had officially lost my mind. 

Instead I had opened my laptop and worked until my eyes felt like they were falling out of my head. I had set up the bed as my office space with my laptop and countless photos I had printed out of potential locations which I would be visiting in the next couple of days. My work and Ky’s text messages were the only thing that was making me stay and as long as I had those I knew that I’d be semi okay.

I was still trying to get my head around that Ky, who had come into my life so abruptly, was quickly becoming a safety I depended on; he was the one who saved me from the grips of Chris countless times yet he had asked me for nothing in return. I was choosing to ignore the intrigue that was being ignited within my closed off body when I thought of Ky Crawford. The spark that would twist and turn within my body with a simple touch of his hand was getting harder to ignore. This was so foreign to me.

But now as I stood in front of the mirror and ran my hands over my body, straightening the non-existent creases in my top, I smiled at the girl looking back at me. It was a real, legitimate smile, and that exhilarated me. I think I’d just flirted with Ky Crawford. I had mentioned the red jacket that I knew he liked? I swept subtle pink blush over my cheeks, swiped my lashes with midnight black mascara, and dabbed my lips with red lip gloss, then I found myself ready to head off to dinner at Josh’s.

The moment I stepped out of the cab in front of City Towers, my head tilted back and I took in the fifteen-story apartment building. The vast building glistened with lights that shimmered against the dark cold night sky. It was spectacular and more than inviting.

When I arrived on the thirteenth floor, music hit my ears, and it was coming from behind the door of apartment 13A. Loud bass thumping through my body destroyed the thought of a quiet dinner. I had my closed fist up to knock, when the door suddenly burst open and Ashlyn stormed out and rushed down the hall, her steps filled with brutal determination as her face twisted in anger. Her sobs hung in the air. As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared into 13C with a slam of the door behind her. I turned back and looked at Josh’s apartment just as he rushed out, his head moving back and forth as he looked up and down the empty hall before his eyes finally landed on me.

“Did you see Ashlyn? Where did she go?” Josh questioned as he hurried towards me.

“She went into that apartment.” I pointed and he took a hasty step away from me but stopped when my hand shot out and grabbed hold of his arm. “Josh I don’t think she wants to see anyone.”

“Fuck it! I knew this was a mistake. I fucked up yet again.” He ran his hands through his chocolate brown hair and began pacing the empty hall like he had the weight of the world on his broad shoulders.

“Has Ky arrived?” I asked, desperate to leave this awkward mess in the hall.

Josh stopped and turned back to me. The worry on his face not lost. “Ky arrived alright. He took one look at Lachlan and started going all caveman and throwing around shit.”

“What do you mean? Who is Lachlan?”

“Lachlan and Ashlyn have history, and Ky doesn’t like it. Thank fuck he left before he did something stupid.” Suddenly it seemed like everything dawned on him and he pleaded at me with his pale green eyes. “Can you go and make sure Ashlyn is okay? She won’t slam the door in your face.”

Everything that Josh had just divulged bounced around in my head. Who was Lachlan? Why did Ky care so much? Were Ky and Ashlyn secretly together? The feeling of being in the middle of some screwed-up game flooded me. Was I a pawn in a sick and twisted game? My mind went through every conversation I have had with Ky and Ashlyn but I couldn’t see any clues. Paranoia was a bitch that had become my evil sidekick. 

“Please Eden,” Josh begged. “Go and see if she is okay?”

Nodding in agreement, I had no real choice but to say yes. I took a deep breath and made my way toward apartment 13C while all I could think about was Ky. I needed to know what was going on, but I knew that my first concern was Ashlyn. As I stood in front of the bright white wooden door, I hesitated briefly and shot a look back at Josh who smiled weakly at me before slipping back into his apartment, leaving me alone in the emptiness of the hall.

I lifted my fist knocking softly on the door and waited.

“Piss off Josh.”

“Babe, it’s Eden.”

The click of the lock turning filled my ears and slowly the door swung open and revealed Ashlyn. Her cheeks were streaked with shed tears and her eyes rimmed red. The usually happy and sassy Ashlyn looked completely distraught as she opened the door in silent invitation.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly. What the hell kind of question was are you okay? She clearly wasn’t. “That’s a stupid question.” I shook my head dismissively.

Her smile gave me hope. I followed her into the vast open space of her apartment and hesitated by the couch as she glided into the kitchen. Not surprisingly, she reached for the freezer and pulled out a bottle of vodka before collecting two glasses from the cabinet and pouring in the crystal clear liquid. She seemed to have one mission and that mission was to forget. As she came toward me, a frown tinged her lips. Accepting the glass, I followed her lead and collapsed onto the black leather couch that took up the majority of space in her living room. 

“Men are fucked up,” she admitted, after she took a large sip of straight vodka. “If it wasn’t for their cock I’d become a lesbian.”

“You clearly haven’t got the right type of vibrator,” I shot back with a smirk.

Her laughter was like music to my ears.

“Are you going to tell me who Lachlan is?” I asked softly, deciding not to hold back.

“He is the one who got away.” Her response was lightning quick, spoken without a single thought.

“Oh.” I took a sip of the vodka and the feeling of the strong liquor floating down my throat excited me. “Do you want to talk about it? I have all night, and you have vodka.”

A sheer look of determination flashed over her face, and it was almost like I was witnessing her sass reignite. “I feel like I should go back to Josh’s and flaunt the fuck out myself in front of Lachlan. I didn’t even know he was back. You’d think after two years together that he’d tell me when he’d be back in town. Obviously Australians have a different understanding of what consideration means. Fucking kangaroo lovers.”

My laughter filled the room at Ashlyn’s brutal declaration of Australians. A knowing smirk flickered over her lips and then she tipped her head back and the vodka disappeared. 

“So Lachlan obviously came on the scene after I left?”

“Yep, the year after I finished college. Met him out one night in the city, it was the accent that shot straight into my panties, and it stayed there for two years before he decided to go back to Australia without a word or even a fucking note.”

Ashlyn’s face dropped and the tough exterior she portrayed to the world slightly shattered with the brief quiver of her lip.

“Josh seems to be pretty upset about it,” I probed, trying to encourage her to dish out what was going on.

“So he fucking should,” she spat in response.

Josh was clearly a touchy subject. We fell into silence, and I swirled the glass and the vodka swished in front of me. I was so tempted to throw back the vodka, but I knew that would be a mistake. For far too long alcohol was my best friend, my mind and body numbing sanctuary. Thank fuck my parents didn’t see me then. I drank so much that all I had the ability to do was drink, pass out, and repeat. The first six months with Tori was spent in my bedroom, shielded by an oversized comforter and a bad relationship with vodka. It worked. I forgot about Jeremy; I forgot the feeling of his breath on my neck as he pounded relentlessly inside me without remorse; I forgot about the feeling of being torn and destroyed at the hands of another. I simply forgot. It was easier that way. I continued to focus on the vodka in front of me as I sunk into the depths of my memories; I was becoming that girl again, the girl who I had worked too long to forget. I couldn’t let Ashlyn see that girl. I didn’t want anyone to know that girl.

“Eden!” Ashlyn’s loud voice shattered my haze. I lifted my gaze and found her worried eyes staring back at me. Fuck. I forced a smile and shook my head. “Where did you go?”

“Sorry, got lost for a minute there.” I leaned over placing the glass on the coffee table in front of me. “So, how about it? Let’s get you cleaned up and back to Josh’s. Go in there and show Lachlan the confident, sassy, don’t give a fuck Ashlyn that I know and love. Don’t let any man make you feel like this. They don’t deserve it. This is why I am single.” I winked and stood from the couch, grabbing her empty glass from the table and taking them into the kitchen.