~Lena~
“Are you seriously getting rid of these?” Mallory asks me later in the evening. She’s sitting on my bed, picking through the clothes and shoes that I’ve thrown out of the closet.
I’m cleaning it. Cleaning helps me think.
“I never wear them,” I reply, looking at the pink flowery sandals she’s holding up. “I don’t even know why I bought them.”
“I’m taking them,” she says and sets them in her growing pile.
“You’re welcome to anything out there. It’s all going to the women’s shelter.”
“All of it?” she asks in surprise. “Are you becoming a nudist?”
“No.” I giggle and sit back on my haunches. I’m rummaging through the shoes on the floor of my small closet. “I really need a bigger place.”
“You should just turn your spare bedroom into a closet.”
“Yes, but then I wouldn’t have a spare bedroom.”
“How often do you have visitors?”
I shrug. “Never.”
“There you go.” She pulls a pink blouse out of the pile and holds it up in front of her, checking herself out in the mirror. Mallory and I have been best friends since we were little. She’s a couple of years older than me, but we couldn’t be closer if we were sisters. For a lot of years, we only had each other. Aside from our grandmothers, of course. We’re different, and kids are always afraid of what they don’t understand.
Mallory has psychic gifts, and she is a medium. She’s quite powerful, and fought her own talents for many years.
I lean more toward the witch side of things. Spells and magic are my specialty, and I’m the youngest in a long line of witches. My grandmother raised me, and taught me everything she knows.
Well, she is teaching me. I don’t think I’ll ever know everything she does.
“Can I have this pink top?” Mal asks.
“Yes. If it’s on the bed, you can have it.”
“I think you should bag this all up and set it aside for a few days. You don’t want to have remorse later for getting rid of some of this stuff. It’s expensive.”
“I’m cleaning out the closet,” I insist. “I have a ton of crap.”
She nods and I sit on my butt and turn to face her, watching as she picks through my yoga pants collection. “How are things with Beau?”
She grins and stares down at her engagement and wedding rings. “Good.”
I nod and rest my chin on my knees. “I like him.”
“I know. And it’s a good thing because he’s permanent.”
I laugh. “Yeah, about as permanent as you can get.”
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?”
“Maybe I just have extra energy because school’s almost out and I’m excited about it.”
“That’s not it.”
“You’re psychic. You tell me.”
“I’m not touching you,” she reminds me patiently. “And you only clean and get testy like this when you’re upset or have something on your mind.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Okay. Do you remember Mason Coulter?”
“The dude you dated right after college? You’re the only person I know who would graduate from college and then go back to college to take a class that had nothing to do with your major.”
I roll my eyes. “It was interesting.”
“Apparently, because you ended up dating the intern.”
“Yeah.” I sigh. “He came to my classroom today.”
Mal’s eyes widen and she tosses another pair of sandals on her pile, then gives me her full attention. “Seriously? What did he say?”
“His favorite aunt died last week, and he’s the only heir. He’s in town to settle her estate.”
“So, he just dropped in to say hello?”
“No.” I shake my head. “No, his aunt, who was a bit eccentric, made a stipulation that he has to take me to the reading of the will with him, or else her estate will be donated to the city.”
“Of New Orleans?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.” Mal frowns. “So, were you friends with her after you and Mason stopped seeing each other?”
“No. I only met her a couple of times. She was really nice, and I liked her, but once a guy dumps you, you pretty much sever ties with his family.”
“Yeah, that’s usually how it works. Interesting.”
“So, he came by to tell me that, and of course to ask me to go.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I’d think about it.”
Mallory watches me for a moment and then stands up. “I need wine.”
“Good call.”
I follow her into my kitchen where she finds a bottle of sweet white already open in the fridge. She pours us each a glass and we sit on stools at the breakfast bar.
“Why didn’t you tell him yes?” Mal asks.
“You remember how he affected me,” I reply and take a long sip of wine. “He just stopped calling me back. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong, I couldn’t apologize for something. He just…left. And it tore me up.”
“I know.”
“I still have scars from it, and it affects my dating life to this day.” Every guy I’ve dated I’ve compared to Mason because not one of them made me feel the way he did. Not one of them made me yearn for something more … something permanent.
“I still say you should go talk to someone,” she replies, but I just keep talking.
“Not to mention, even if I didn’t still have unresolved issues, he doesn’t deserve to just walk back into my life and ask me to help him.”
“It’s not really his fault,” Mallory says. “It’s because of his aunt.”
“Stop siding with him.”
“I’m not. I’m always on your side. Always. Every time.”
“And why does he have to look good? I mean, he’s so damn sexy.”
“Is it me, or did he look like Chris Evans?”
“Don’t ruin Captain America for me,” I reply. “You know how I love him in those movies.”
“Sorry,” she says. “But I still stand by my statement. He’s a dead ringer for Chris Evans, but he has darker hair. Does he still have dark hair?”
“Yeah. And he’s in super good shape. He was in good shape when I knew him years ago, but now? Wowza.”
“Did you just say wowza?”
“There’s no other word for it. His arms are ridiculous with a capital R. Like, they should be illegal in all fifty states.”
“Wowza,” she says with a sigh. “Beau has good arms too. There’s something to be said for good arms.”
“And he still hugs good.”
“He hugged you?”
“Yes. Damn it. He’s a good hugger, and his smile is also ridiculous.”
“So, everything about him is ridiculous. Sounds like you still have a crush on him.”
“I do not.” I stand and set my empty wine glass in the sink, and then decide, fuck it. I pour another glass and lean against the counter opposite of Mallory so I can look her in the face. “He may look great, but he was mean to me, and I’m not one of those women who just says it’s okay and sets herself up to be hurt all over again.”
“Good because I’d have to slap you if you were.” Mal rubs the sweat on the outside of her glass. “Maybe you’re overthinking this.”
“Maybe??”
She laughs and then checks her phone when it beeps with a text.
“Sorry, I’m just going to reply to Beau real quick. He’s asking if I need him to bring anything home for me.”
“He’s still working?”
“No, he met Eli, Declan, and Ben for dinner.” She types out her response and then sets her phone aside. “So, you’re totally overthinking this. He hasn’t asked you to fuck him. He asked you to go to the reading of his aunt’s will, at her request. I mean, that’s not exactly a date. I haven’t been out of the dating pool for long, but I don’t think that’s ever considered a romantic date.”
“No,” I concede and feel foolish. “You’re right. He didn’t ask me out on a date. He didn’t even suggest that he might be interested in one. He hugged me, but he’s grieving and maybe he just needed a hug.”
“Exactly. Maybe he just needed a hug, and he knows that you give great hugs. What does he do, anyway? Is he still teaching archeology?”
“No, he got his Ph.D. and he works on dig sites. Not that I’ve kept track of his career or anything.”
I’ve totally watched his career. But not in a stalkery way. Mal raises an eyebrow and I can’t help but bust up laughing.
“Okay, so I might Google his name about once a year, just to see if there’s anything interesting to see. But, he doesn’t do social media, and there isn’t much to read aside from write ups on some of the archeological digs he’s been on.”
“I would probably do that too.” She grins. “So, the point is, all you have to do is sit next to him in a lawyer’s office while the will is read, and then you leave and never see him again.”
“Yes.”
“It’s a no brainer, Lena. You should go. And then you get back to your fabulous life.”
“Right.” I nod once and pour the last of the wine into my glass. It’s only half of a glass, and that’s probably for the best. I’m a cheap date. “You’re right, and I know I’m going. I’ll just have to give myself a pep talk before I go in there. And I’ll come to your shop right after to fill you in on it all.”
“Well, that goes without saying.” She smiles. “What are you doing this summer with all of your time off, anyway?”
“I guess I’ll be converting my spare room into a closet. The more I think about that, the more I like the idea.”
“You could make it so cool,” she says. “I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to cool closets. You should check it out. I’ll totally help you.”
“Okay. That will be fun. I’ll look around and find a whole bunch of stuff that I can’t afford.” I smirk. “But it’ll be fun. Not that I have any clothes to put in it anymore. I just gave them all to you.”
“I’m telling you, set that stuff aside for a couple of days. Well, except those sandals. I want them.”
“You can take them. I’ll think about the rest.”
She nods. “Are you going to travel this summer?”
“Not really.” I tilt my head to the side, considering her. “You rarely ask me what my summer plans are.”
“I’m just curious. You should do something fun. You work hard all year long, and you deserve a break. Travel somewhere.”
“I don’t want to travel alone.”
“Take Miss Sophia.”
“She’s not much of a traveler either. You could go with me.”
“I have the shop.” She shrugs. “You could come work with me at the shop.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to take orders from my best friend. I want to actually hang out with you outside of work.”
“True. Probably not a great idea.”
“What’s going on with you? You’re antsy.”
“You’re full of fun words today,” she says with a grin. “And there’s nothing up. I really just want you to take some adventures. You’ve always talked about how you’d like to visit places like Paris or Italy. The Boudreauxes have homes almost everywhere. I could hook you up with one.”
“I’m not staying at your husband’s property,” I reply, but then reconsider. “Although, that wouldn’t suck.”
“No, it wouldn’t. And maybe I could come see you for a long weekend or something.”
“Are you actually trying to convince me to go live in France or Italy for the entire summer?”
“Why not? You have a free place to stay, and it would be a great way to recharge your batteries. And maybe I want an excuse to go shopping in Europe.”
“You’d hate Europe. Constant dead people talking to you isn’t really your thing.”
She shrugs. “True, that doesn’t sound great, but coming to visit you does. Think about it.”
“I will.”
Long after Mallory leaves, I’m still thinking about it. Actually, taking some time to myself in a foreign country doesn’t sound bad at all.
So that’s the plan. I’ll go with Mason on Friday to settle his aunt’s estate, and then I’ll make plans to go spend some time abroad.
This should be easy peasy.