Corey

  PS—I’ll be over tonight around nine o’clock.

  HER RESPONSE WAS IMMEDIATE. A simple, “I totally understand” with a smiley face.

  I smiled back as if it was real and leaned back in my chair. I weighed the pros and cons of telling Jonathan for the umpteenth time—assessed the risks of telling him before or after the wedding. And then I mentally repeated what I would lead with, what would make him less angry about the situation.

  I have feelings for Hayley, and I’m going to date her no matter what you say. Deal with the shit.

  I want to date Hayley. Period. Get over it.

  I’ve had feelings for Hayley since the moment she climbed through my bedroom window in the rain, and those feelings never went away despite the fact that you’re my best friend.

  The last one was definitely the better option, but I doubted he would let me get a word after “feelings” out before punching me in the face.

  “Mr. Walters?” Tillie stepped into my office.

  “Yes, Tillie?”

  “Two things. The florist wants to know if you want to extend your daily anonymous delivery for another month, and Mr. Statham wants to see you in his office. Something about a Meyer account?”

  “Tell the florist yes, and tell Mr. Statham I’ll be upstairs in ten minutes.”

  “Right away sir.”

  I started to leave, but Tillie returned to my doorway.

  “Yes, Tillie?”

  “Sorry, there was a third thing,” she said. “You told me to keep track of whenever any of the executives booked one of the sites you picked for your next weekend getaway.”

  “And?”

  “A couple of Mr. Statham’s top advisors just booked quite a few of the ones on your list for the next few weekends. I think it’s because the shareholders are really happy.”

  “How many out of the eight locations are booked with Statham executives?”

  “Six out of eight.”

  Fuck it. I’m going to tell him.

  “Thank you, Tillie.” I left my office and walked to the executive building, taking the elevator straight up to Jonathan’s floor.

  As I approached his door, I heard Hayley’s voice.

  “You better talk to her and fix whatever it is,” she said. “Claire loves you and you know it.”

  “Goodbye, Hayley.” He sounded annoyed.

  “I love you, too.” She opened the door and walked right into me.

  I looked her up and down, loving the way her grey and navy-blue dress complemented her eyes and hugged her curves today.

  She blushed as I held the door open, and I almost leaned down to kiss her, but I held back.

  Closing the door, I walked over and took a seat at Jonathan’s desk.

  Start with the work, then tell him about Hayley. Start with the work, then tell him about Hayley.

  You just want a chance to show him that you can be good enough for her, and you ARE good enough for her.

  “So...” I cleared my throat. “About the Meyer’s account. I was thinking we could investigate their backgrounds a little more before we fully commit. What do you think?”

  He didn’t answer. Instead, he stared at me long and hard. Then he leaned back in his chair and placed a stack of printed emails in front of me.

  “Jonathan?” I asked. “What do you think about what I said about the Meyer’s account?”

  “I think I want to ask you something else.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m listening.”

  “Are you fucking my little sister?”

  “What?” I was caught completely off-guard. What are you—”

  “It’s a yes or no question. Are. You. Fucking. My. Little. Sister?”

  “It’s—It’s not like that.”

  “Yes or no.”

  I sighed. “No, not—”

  “Yet? You plan on fucking my little sister?”

  “Jonathan, man...It’s not what you think it is.”

  “For your sake, I would hope not.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “When the fuck were you going to tell me about this shit? Or were you just going to keep pretending that the man I was looking for, wasn’t you?”

  “I wanted to tell you weeks ago, but I knew how you would react to this...What I have with Hayley is nothing like what I’ve had with any of the women in the past. It’s still new, and we’re still working on it, so if you would just listen to me, I would appreciate it.” I was talking a mile a minute. “I’ve had feelings for Hayley for a long time, and she wasn’t lying about climbing through my window when she was younger. That’s how we became close. We stayed in contact for years without saying much to you about it, but—” I stopped.

  He looked as if he wasn’t listening to a single thing I was saying. He looked as if he was seconds away from punching me right in the face.

  “I would never hurt her, Jonathan,” I said. “I swear.”

  “Get the fuck out of my office, Corey.”

  “Don’t do this, man. Just—”

  “I can only deal with so much bad shit at a time, so excuse me if I don’t want to talk to the man who is days away from fucking my little sister over and hanging her heart out to dry. Just get the hell out.”

  He turned around in his chair, and knowing he wasn’t going to listen to another word I had to say, I stood up and left his office.

  I WAITED IN MY OFFICE for a few hours to see if Hayley would stop by like she usually did, so I could tell her that Jonathan knew about us, but she didn’t show. Unsure of if he’d managed to get to her first, I sent her a text message.

  ME: Hayley, can we talk? Can you come to my office?

  She answered me within seconds.

  HAYLEY: Can we do it tonight? I’m out getting something special for later. You’ll see it when you come over. :-) (Sorry I didn’t tell you I wasn’t stopping by for lunch today)

  ME: Hayley, I need you to pick up the phone or call me ASAP. This can’t wait until tonight.

  HAYLEY: It’s going to have to. I have to turn off my phone for a few hours. See you tonight :-)

  Fuck.

  I pulled out my tablet so I could locate wherever the hell she was at the moment and make her listen to me. Just as my app was pinpointing her location, Jonathan walked inside my office and slammed the door shut.

  Glaring at me, his eyes were bloodshot and his face was a ghastly shade of white.

  “It’s bad enough that me and Claire are having last minute issues of our own,” he said, his voice tight. “But I never thought, that out of all the people in my life, you would pull some shit like this. I would’ve never guessed that you would go behind my back and blatantly lie to me. That you would keep secrets about my own sister, who you know is the only real family I have left.”

  “Jonathan—”

  “This isn’t a discussion.” He cut me off. “This is an ultimatum.”

  I crossed my arms.

  “You’re no longer the best man at my wedding—If there is a wedding.” He shook his head. “We’re no longer friends, and I don’t fuck with you anymore.”

  “Jonathan—”

  “This is not a goddamn discussion, Corey.” He stepped closer to me, seething. “Shut the hell up and let me finish.” He let out a long breath. “Deep down, I know we have way too many years of friendship to just throw down the drain, so I’m willing to consider getting us back on track after some time. But only if you do what you know is right when it comes to Hayley.”

  I felt a sinking feeling in my chest. “You want me to break up with her?”

  “No. You want to break up with her, because if you don’t and she ends up like any of the other women you’ve led on over the years, I’m going to break you.”

  I shook my head and tried to think of something that would calm him down, but it was no use.

  “You don’t know shit about Hayley,” he said. “You may think you do because you hung out with her a few times when I left Ohio, but you don’t know her like I do. You don’t have feelings for her, you’re just enamored with her because she lived with you for a while and she’s a genuinely good person.”

  “Jonathan—”

  “And I blame myself for ever suggesting that she live with you, so this isn’t completely your fault.” He paused, stepping even closer to me. “I really just can’t believe you, Corey.” His punch came straight to my right eye before I could block it. “She’s my little sister.”

  HAYLEY: TODAY

  (Present Day)

  San Francisco, California

  I OPENED THE DOOR THE second I saw the lights from Corey’s Ferrari pulling into my driveway. I double checked my hair and make-up in the mirror, and readjusted the black and pink silk teddy I’d bought just for him.

  Waiting for him to get out of the car, I stood behind my curtains. For some reason, he was just sitting in the driver’s seat, staring blankly ahead.

  I started to walk out and ask him what was wrong, but he finally opened his door and stepped out.

  “Hey,” I said once he strolled onto the walkway. “Do you like it?”

  “Do I like what?”

  “What I’m wearing.” I smiled, turning around. “Kelly finally came to town today and she made me tag along to a lingerie and sex toy party.” I paused. “She’s at the Four Seasons tonight, though, so don’t worry about her hearing us.”

  He didn’t say anything. He stepped under the verandah’s light and sighed, showing a twisted pain on his face I hadn’t seen in the night’s dark.

  “Hayley...” His voice was hoarse.

  “What the hell happened to your face?” I reached up and touched the right side of his face. The entire side was bruised blue and his eye was black. “Is this why you wanted me to call you earlier? Did you fall somewhere?”

  “No.”

  “Well, can you come in so I can ice it for you?” I kept my hand against his face. “I can hold off on the stuff I’d planned and just focus on you tonight.”

  A slight smile crossed his lips, but he didn’t let it stay. “Hayley, I don’t want to be with you anymore.”

  “What?” I was still staring at the bruises. “Did you hit your head that hard today?”

  “No.” He gripped my wrist and pushed it away. Hard. “No, I just had a fucking epiphany and I realized we’re not going to work out.”

  I shook my head, knowing that this wasn’t true. That he had to be waiting for me to laugh at this.

  “Okay.” I let out a fake laugh. “You got me. You don’t want to be with me, but you’re at my house, at night, days after saying that you want us to last for the long-haul this time?”

  “I have a right to change my goddamn mind.” His voice was colder than I’d ever heard it. “Do I not?”

  “Corey...” My voice cracked. “Are you having a bad day or something? I refuse to believe that this is your comeback after I told you yesterday how much you mean to me.”

  “Well, this relationship no longer means shit to me,” he said, his tone still flat. “And I should’ve never allowed you to get close to me again because you and I both know it won’t work out.”

  I was numb. I wasn’t sure what to say.

  Closing my robe, I stared at him—looking for any sense of remorse in his eyes, but there was nothing.

  “I just wanted to tell you that we’re over, in person,” he said. “If you call, I won’t answer, so make sure you return the favor if I call you. The past several weeks have been very fun, but as you know, I don’t tend to last in these type of pointless relationships long, so I’d rather not waste any more of my time.”

  “Very fun?” I wanted to slap him. “That’s what we were to you? Was this some type of sick game where you just wanted to make me like you again, so you could get a thrill out of turning fickle as fuck on me?”

  He shook his head, but he didn’t say anything.

  “I should’ve seen this coming.” I shook my head. “We were very fun?”

  “As much as I would love to hear you repeat every word I say in a rhetorical question tonight, I don’t have patience for that right now. We’re done. Over. Fucking through. Got it?”

  “I got it.” I stepped back and unclasped the charm bracelet he’d given to me, tossing it at him. “Yes, I finally fucking got it, Corey.”

  He walked away without another word, and I cursed my wiser heart for letting me feel the exact same pain he’d given my naïve, younger heart before.

  HAYLEY: YESTERDAY

  (The Past)

  Cambridge, Massachusetts

  DEAR ZEN JOURNAL,

  Mark my words. I’m going to marry Corey Walters one day.

  It may not be now—because he still treats me like a kid from time to time, especially whenever Jonathan is around. And it may not be in the near future—because I’m going to college soon, and my brother is taking his company to San Francisco #BOO.

  But, I’m going to marry him.

  Even though he’s involved in my brother’s start-up company and he’s always busy, he never hesitates to listen to my problems when I ask him to. He calls me when I go away on school retreats to check on me, and we talk all night about absolutely nothing. He treats me to lunch (or dinner) whenever I ask, and he’s attempted to teach me code multiple times (it’s not sticking) and he never gets frustrated with how bad I am at it.

  He does, however, get upset when I beat him in Scrabble. (Why does he still not understand that CHUM is always the winning word?)

  He’s the best friend I’ve ever had (although he just calls me his “close friend,”) and I’ve heard that you’re supposed to marry your closest friend so it makes perfect sense.

  I bet you a million I’ll be his wife someday,

  Hayley

  PS—You know what? I’m going to make sure I go to a college near San Francisco so I can be sure that he’s always close by.

  “WHAT ARE YOU OVER THERE smiling about, Hayley?” Corey asked, looking at me from across the room.

  “Nothing, just a school assignment.”

  “Are you sure it’s just a school assignment?” The redheaded girl sitting next to him smiled. “You’ve been smiling nonstop since you sat down writing.”

  I didn’t respond to her. Her name was Janet, but I only referred to her as “red-headed girl” because in a few weeks, that’s all she would be to Corey. She was his current girlfriend, but those never lasted longer than a week in his world.

  I shut my notebook and walked to the living room, rolling my eyes at all the people sprawled over the carpet—typing away at their laptops. My brother was sitting in the corner as usual, with one hand on his keyboard and the other on his cell-phone.

  Walking over to him, I sat on a bean bag. “Jonathan?”

  “Yes, Hayley?”

  “Have you ever been in love before?”

  He laughed. “No. Why?”

  “Just asking. Wanted to know if I was or not.”

  “You’re probably not.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Well, first you’d need someone to be in love with, Hayley.” He smiled at me. “Second, you’re a bit young to be talking about love.”

  “I’m in high school.”

  “You’ve skipped some grades.” He tilted his head to the side. “But, I’ll play. Who’s the lucky guy you think you’re in love with?”

  The word “Corey” was on my lips, but something told me not to say it. Something told me to lock that admission away in the same box where our former summer nights and secret prom kiss belonged.

  “I’m not in love, Jonathan,” I said, standing up. “I was just trying to get some answers out of you.”

  “I figured.” He laughed. “I bought new coffees and teas for you to make if you get tired of all the people in the house.”

  “Thanks.” I bent down and gave him a hug, and then I walked back to Corey’s room. I needed to pen a new entry about what it was like sharing a house with a group of annoying startup people, but when I returned to the room “redheaded girl” was reading from my journal. And the room was filled with a group of other people who were listening as well.

  I froze in the doorway as my written words left her lips, as Corey laughed—fucking laughed, along with everyone else.

  “I bet you a million I’ll be his wife someday?” His girlfriend cackled. “Oh god, Corey! You really need to tell her she’s not your close friend, and she’s living in a fantasy world before she stalks you or something.”

  “Yeah man,” one of the other guys said. “This is why we told you not to talk to her so much. She thinks you actually have something in common outside of her brother.”

  “She’s just a kid with a crush, guys,” someone else said. “Don’t take this too seriously. If she wants to think they’re that close, then in her mind they’re that close.”

  I waited for him to defend me, to say that I was his close friend. That everyone else in this room had only known him for under a year, but he didn’t say anything. He just laughed, shattering my naive heart to pieces in the process.

  Wiping tears from my face, I rushed out of the room and went to Jonathan’s closet—pulling my other journal from the bottom dresser.

  DEAR (SECOND) DIARY,

  I take back everything I said about Corey in my other diary, and I take back thinking about being closer to him in college.

  I’ll make sure I go someplace like Memphis—deep in the South, so I don’t have to deal with someone who’s so hot and cold to their so-called close friend.

  Love Sucks,

  Hayley

  COREY: TODAY

  (Present Day)

  San Francisco, California

  DRAFTED MESSAGE: Hayley, I’m sorry, and I didn’t mean any of those words...And I apologize for treating you like that.

  DRAFTED MESSAGE: You looked beautiful as hell at work today.

  DRAFTED MESSAGE: I said those things to you to salvage another friendship, but looking back, I should’ve salvaged ours instead.