Twenty-two

Haley

You have one new audio message from Scott.

Staring at the writing on the screen, Haley hesitated. The message was several minutes long. What would Scott say? Would he break up with her? Haley couldn’t stomach the idea. She stared at the message for a while. Then, with trembling fingers, she opened the recording and put the phone on speaker.

“Hey, it’s me… I know you probably hate me right now, but I need to say this… I’m so sorry for last night. You were down, and I acted like a jerk. I should’ve been there for you, and instead, I made an awful situation worse. I feel like shit thinking about how I behaved…

“Sorry I didn’t get how hard it’s been for you and your family… It’s just that after basically living in a hospital for a month, a heart attack begins to sound almost like a bad cold. And I’m not saying it was, I’m trying to explain why I might’ve lost perspective. Haley, I… I…

“What I’m trying to say is that I’ve been a total dick. I thought about what was best for me and not you. After hanging up with you, I called David to yell at him, too… and I have to say, he put me in my place. Totally in a David-ish way…” Scott chuckled in the recording. “Serves me right, I guess. In the end, I’m glad my brother was there to drive you and make sure you got home safe, and I’m so glad your dad is okay…

“Haley, please forgive me. I’m so, so sorry…” Scott’s voice sounded choked. “I hope you’re willing to give me another chance. I love you…”

Without checking the time—in either city—Haley called him back.

Scott picked up on the second ring, sounding half-asleep. “Hey.”

“Did I wake you?”

“I’m glad you did, I was having a nightmare anyway.”

“What nightmare?”

“One where my perfect girlfriend broke up with me for being the greatest idiot.”

A smile crept on Haley’s lips. “Funny you said that, I was having the same bad dream.”

“Any guy would be crazy to break up with you.”

“So you’re no longer angry with me?”

“I consider myself lucky you’re still talking to me. Can we pretend last night never happened?”

“Yes… yes!” Now Haley’s smile stretched so wide her cheeks hurt.

They were still on the phone an hour later when her mom called from downstairs, “Haley, we have to leave in twenty minutes… Are you up?”

“I’ll be right down, Mom,” Haley shouted back, and then added into the speaker in a normal tone, “I have to go, talk later?”

“Okay. How long are you staying in Buffalo?”

“Until tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest. I wrote to my professors to explain the situation, and they all said it’d be okay to skip a couple of classes. But it’s finals week next week, so it’s back to Boston even if I don’t want to.”

“Your dad will be fine.”

“Yeah, everyone keeps telling me so. But I’d still prefer to spend more time here.”

“HALEY!” An impatient shout drifted up from the bottom of the stairs.

“My mom is going crazy,” Haley said. “I really have to go.”

“Okay. Say hi to your parents and call me when you get back from the hospital.”

“Will you be home?”

“Dr. Allen’s schedule is all right today.”

“Okay, gotta go. Love you.”

“I love you too.”

When Haley and her mom arrived at the hospital, there were two huge flower bouquets in her dad’s room. Both were from Scott. The one for her dad was white, yellow, and blue—the Buffalo Sabres’ colors, he was a huge hockey fan—and the other was red roses for Haley.

“Seems like our Baby Monkey is dating a very proper young man,” her dad said with a huge smile on his face.

“Yeah.” Haley opened the card—it simply said: Sorry, I love you—and joined her dad in smiling. “The best.”

***

After a thousand reassurances from the doctors that her father wasn’t going to suddenly get worse, but only better, and a million promises from her mom that she’d put him on a healthy diet and make sure he rested, Haley was ready to leave.

She caught the last flight from Buffalo to Boston on Wednesday night, and both Madison and Alice came to pick her up at Logan Airport in Madison’s car. From the moment Haley spotted her two best friends’ worried faces as they waited for her at the arrival gate, she knew that even if there had been tension between them lately, they were going to be fine. No matter the petty squabbles over boys, they’d always be there for one another.

As soon as she passed the barrier, Madison and Alice ran toward her pulling her into a crushing three-way hug. They brought her home and cuddled her to death until all three were too tired to keep their eyes open. It became even clearer how worried her roommates had been when Alice tiptoed into her room to leave a half-asleep Blue with Haley. The tiny bundle of fur was the ultimate pick-me-up of the house. He was the sweetest bunny, he loved to be picked up, to cuddle, and if scratched behind the ears he’d start to purr like a cat.

Haley thanked her friend and gladly snuggled Blue close to her chest, falling asleep to the comforting sound of his gentle bunny-purring.

The final days of class were busy enough not to let Haley’s mind wander too far over what could’ve happened to her family. Over what would eventually happen when her parents became old. If she had had nothing to do, she might’ve slipped down a rabbit hole of catastrophic scenarios filled with hospitals and tubes and sick people.

But before she had time to notice, it was the weekend again. As she jogged up the steps of the Widener Library early on Saturday morning, Haley kept moving her hair around—side to side, up in a bun, down again—and readjusting the straps of her backpack. This would be the first time she’d seen David after he’d driven her home. Would he even be there? Would the easy, we-play-around-with-coding-sometimes relationship they’d established over the past month be changed? Scott had said he and David were okay now, but was he telling the truth? Or only saying what Haley wanted to hear?

When she reached their usual table, David wasn’t there, and the pit of hard disappointment that hit Haley low in her belly scared her to death for a moment. But she didn’t have time to analyze her gut reaction to David being missing because she soon heard his voice come from behind her, “Hey, Miss Robot, you’re back.”

She turned, at a loss for words. There were a million things she wanted to tell him—to thank him for making a horrible day slightly less horrible, for being her hero without asking for anything back, for making Scott understand instead of trying to work him up more.

The emotions must’ve shown on her face, because David’s features turned serious—his signature lopsided grin evaporated, and the twinkle in his eyes switched from playful to intense.

“Come here.” David pulled her into a hug.

Haley didn’t want to ask herself why it felt so good to be in his arms, if it was right or wrong, or what it meant. For a few instants, she let herself live in the moment. She was starved for affection and she needed a comforting hug.

David let her go, saying, “Your dad will be fine, he gave you a scare, but it’s over now.”

“Right.” Haley very un-sexily sniffled. “My mom has already gotten rid of all the salt in the house.”

“No.” David made a mock-scared face. “And what if the Sanderson sisters were to attack?”

Haley smiled. “I didn’t take you for a Hocus Pocus fan.” Weird how David always managed to make her smile. “We’ll think about it when Halloween comes.”

“You’ve got work to do?” David asked, pulling back a chair to sit down.

Haley imitated him. “Yeah, finals begin on Monday.” She sat down and sighed. “Sadly, no laptop for me today.”

“Me neither. What did you do?”

“Why? You did something and they took your laptop away?”

“My boss was so pissed off I completed the last assignment that he moved me to analog crap.”

Haley lowered her gaze, taking more time than necessary to fish her notebook out of her bag. “I’m glad you managed despite the seven-hour detour.”

“I had a good teacher.” David winked. “What’s your excuse for being technology free?”

“A crazy professor.” Haley shrugged. “He says we completed enough coding assignments with our homework and midterms. For the final, he wants us to become the computer.”

“Meaning?”

“We have to show we not only know how to code, but also that we understand what each command triggers inside a machine. So we have to do all the corresponding calculations by hand.”

“Because?”

“Apparently so that if humanity was ever caught in an apocalypse that destroyed all existing machines, then we’d be able to program new ones from scratch.”

“Awesome.” David grinned.

“Lame.” Haley rolled her eyes. “What’s your poison for today?”

“One of our clients was stuck in the Middle Ages and kept physical-only books. And guess who has to check they were dematerialized correctly?” David dropped two gigantic piles of paper on the table. “Copy of the original against a printout of the digitalization.”

“Isn’t that a waste of a Harvard-graduated brain?”

“It’s not about the sophistication of the work, it’s about letting me know I’m at the bottom of the food chain and testing if I’m a quitter.”

“Are you?”

David flashed her one of his intense, electrifyingly blue stares. “When I want something, I never give up.”

On that note, Haley blushed and decided it was probably better to study for her exams. Pen in hand, she bent her head low over her exercise sheet and started working. David did the same next to her.

***

Half an hour before closing time, a dark shadow crossed over the library.

Haley lifted her gaze to the ceiling. Where there had been bright squares of light a few moments ago, now there were only dark-gray patches.

“Maybe we should go before it starts raining,” she said.

“Too late for that, Miss Robot,” David said as the first raindrops spattered the roof. “Are you finished?”

“One exercise left. You?”

“It’ll take me all weekend to finish. No cheating this time.” David shrugged and went back to work.

“I’m done,” Haley announced ten minutes later. “We should get going; it seems like it’s getting worse.”

Now there was a steady hammering of water hitting glass.

“Yeah.” David dropped his pen and stretched his right hand. “Library’s closing in fifteen minutes anyway.”

They both packed their things and headed downstairs.

The moment Haley pushed open the lobby door, a strong gush of warm wind pushed back against her, carrying a spray of water in its wake.

Head bent low against the wind, Haley stepped out. Despite it being five in the afternoon, there was so little light that the day had turned to night hours early. Dark clouds the color of lead crowded the sky, rain unloading off them in large, fat drops—a perfect summer storm.

“I don’t have an umbrella,” Haley called, having to shout to be heard over the rolling thunder. “Do you?”

“No,” David yelled back. “And I don’t care.”

He hurried past her out of the cover of the library porch and ran down the steps. When he reached the bottom, he tilted his face up and closed his eyes. In a matter of seconds, he was soaked.

“What are you doing?”

David looked at her from across the street, he was walking backward toward the center of Harvard Yard. “Come here. It’s only water.”

Haley didn’t know what possessed her, but she did as he asked. She ran off the porch and joined him in the middle of the park. The sensation of the rain on her skin was electrifying as she spun on her toes, arms opened wide. Haley looked upward and laughed and laughed, unable to stop—until she pirouetted right into David’s arms. The smile died on her lips as he caught her wrists and held her hands close to his chest, leaning his head down…

She tried to pull back, a ragged breath catching in her throat. “David, don’t.”

David’s lips brushed her forehead in a soft, wet kiss. “I wasn’t going to,” he whispered. “The next time we kiss, you’ll want to just as much as I do now…”

There. Haley couldn’t pretend anymore that David didn’t have feelings for her. She lifted her eyes to meet his. “David, I care about you, but I’m in love with Scott. That’s never going to change.”

“Never is a long time. You can’t deny that what we’ve been doing here means something…”

“David, we’re friends.” Haley tried to pull back again, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“You’re a liar, Haley.” David’s eyes flared up with dark emotions. “You’re lying to me, and you’re lying to Scott, and most of all you’re lying to yourself.”

“Don’t do this to me, David, please don’t.”

“I’m not doing anything, only telling you how things are. I won’t lash out again or try to do stupid things to make you jealous, and I won’t try to get between you and Scott. But I want you to know how I feel. I want you to know that when you’re ready to admit that you feel the same, I’ll be there.” He tightened his grip on her hands, but not in a way that hurt. “I won’t go away, Haley. I’ll always be here for you.” David pulled her wrists up and kissed her knuckles. Then he locked his impossibly blue gaze on her. “I love you.”