Seven

Haley

A year later, as Haley relived the memory as if in slow motion, the lost answer became suddenly clear. Finally, she was able to read the word on the stranger’s lips… David.

“It was you?” she asked the real-life David standing in front of her.

“In the flesh.” He bowed lower, before removing his hands from his face and straightening up.

Time seemed to stop for Haley as they stood immobile facing each other, blue eyes locked on green ones. Haley didn’t know what to do, say, or even what to think. She was too busy trying to breathe normally and ignore the electricity filling the air. Thank goodness her back was already pressed against the wall; she leaned on it for support.

David couldn’t be the masked stranger, he couldn’t. Oh, but he was… there was no denying it. The startling blue of his eyes was the same. Haley lowered her gaze slightly… and his full lips were the same. How had she never noticed before?

“Don’t look at me like that.” He took a step forward. “You know I can’t resist you when you do.”

Haley moved her lips to voice a reply, but her mouth had gone dry. The hard drive of her mind had just received too much conflicting information; it was in override, and her brain couldn’t compute anymore.

“S-stay r-right where you are,” she stammered.

David took another step forward.

“David, no.”

Haley tried to dodge him by shifting to the side, but he was quicker. “No?” He grabbed Haley’s shoulders and pressed her harder against the wall—his sun-kissed and salty fragrance invaded her nostrils. “Tell me you don’t want to kiss me again. Tell me that night didn’t stay with you for a long time, because it sure did stay with me.”

Yeah, it had. But it didn’t matter now. This was David. David. The same guy who had hurt Madison so badly, the same brother Scott hated so much. He was the same D-bag who enjoyed playing games with other people’s feelings. He had said it himself: this was all a joke to him.

“Back off,” she shouted, pushing him away with all her force. “What happened that night changes nothing.”

Stumbling backward, he laughed, full of scorn. “Tell yourself whatever you like.”

Haley straightened the strap of her bag over her shoulder and walked past him, heading for the door. “I’m leaving.”

“All right, Sunshine, but please try not to dream too wildly about me tonight.”

With one last glare, Haley flung the door open and fled the apartment.

***

“So the dude in the black mask was David?” Alice asked from her spot on the couch next to Haley. “Like, for real?” Her roommate was still reeling in shock from the revelation—just like Haley, no matter that she’d had a couple of extra hours to digest the news.

Haley fluffed a pillow and leaned back, hugging it to her chest while she tucked her knees neatly under her chin. The position prevented her from nodding, so she mumbled a “yep” back.

Madison was perched on the armchair in front of them, equally shocked. She was staring at Haley wide-eyed, apparently too weirded out to speak.

“Wow, I mean, just whoa,” Alice said, fluttering her hands. “Why did you think he waited so long to tell you?”

Ah, that was a very good question. Haley had no clue what the answer might be.

“What if he was waiting for the moment it’d hurt the most?” Madison spoke for the first time since Haley had got home and told her best friends of the dreadful discovery. “Did something happen between you and Scott?”

“No,” Haley said. “Nothing out of the ordinary. I have no idea why David chose today of all days to remove the pin from the grenade.”

“So,” Alice asked tentatively, “is it a grenade?”

“Well,” Haley scoffed. “David and I kissed. How do you think Scott is going to take the news?”

“It happened before you even met him. Scott can’t get mad about it.”

Haley threw Alice an icy stare she hoped sent the message: Yeah, because when you found out Madison had slept with Jack before she even met you, that made you so not care…

Madison caught the stare and blushed.

Alice, too, got the unspoken memo all right and grimaced. “But you didn’t know, and it’s not like you hid the kiss from Scott on purpose.”

“Scott will look at me in a different way. This entire beef between him and David started over another girl they both dated back in high school. So I think Scott is definitely going to mind if his girlfriend happens to have a past with his brother.”

“Did David try to steal Scott’s girlfriend or something?” Madison asked.

“It was shadier than that,” Haley said. “This French girl, Brigitte, came to their school for an exchange program in her junior year. She was in the same grade as Scott, and a year younger than David.”

“Same as you…” Madison interrupted.

“Yeah.” Haley didn’t like the parallels one bit. “Anyway, apparently she was unbelievably beautiful and had this impossible-to-resist accent…”

Alice raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“…and she was a total bitch,” Haley continued. “She started dating David right away, but Scott told me they had like almost every class together, and they talked, and he was in love with her, and things with David weren’t going well, blah, blah, blah. Long story short, Miss Brigitte told Scott she’d broken up with David when she hadn’t, then started dating him too.”

“How’s that even possible?” Madison asked.

Haley shrugged. “I only heard Scott’s side of the story. She told him it was too soon after her breakup with David for them to date openly.”

“Okay,” Alice said slowly. “So she kept her relationship with Scott a secret. But if she was still officially dating David, how could Scott not notice?”

“I don’t know,” Haley said, exasperated. “She must’ve been an evil mastermind, making sure she went out with David only when Scott wasn’t around.”

“For how long?” Alice again.

“I. Don’t. Knoooow.” Haley was tired of answering all these questions, especially since none of them were bringing her any closer to deciding what to do next. Specifically, how to tell Scott. “Whatever little Scott told me, I had to drag out of him, and already it was harder than a dental extraction.”

“Ew.” Madison made a gagging impression.

Haley rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I’m not sure how it happened. The only certain fact is that at some point David found them together, confronted his brother, and asked Brigitte to choose. She chose Scott, and because Scott kept dating her, David doesn’t believe Scott didn’t know she’d been cheating on David with him.”

Alice low-whistled. “Talk about family intrigue.”

“See why I’m not ecstatic history is repeating itself?”

“This is completely different,” Alice insisted.

“Totally,” Madison agreed. “Hey, do you think David recognized you right away?”

Haley closed her eyes, trying to remember the first time she’d met David—without him wearing a mask, at least. Haley and Alice had been in Hawaii for Christmas, playing groupies for the Harvard basketball team as Alice had been dating the team’s captain, Peter, at the time. That trip had also been when Haley had met Scott. And since Peter and Scott had been sharing a room, Haley had agreed to swap roommates so that Alice and Peter could bunk together. Except reception had confused Scott Williams with David Williams, and they’d sent her to the wrong room. She’d knocked on a door expecting to see Scott, and had found herself staring into David’s blue eyes instead. Had he recognized her at once? Haley squeezed her eyes tighter, pressing her hands to her temples. When David had opened the door and found her on his doorstep, all he’d said was: “Hello, again.”

Had that again meant everything… or nothing at all? Had he simply recognized her from the plane ride? Haley couldn’t tell, because immediately after saying hello David had acted like a total jerk, and then Scott had arrived, and then they’d started beating the hell out of each other and trashing the hotel room as they fought.

How didn’t I recognize him? Haley asked herself. His lips, his eyes, his scent… There’d been a moment when David had pulled her close and held her against his bare chest, just as Scott had turned the corner of the hall and found them talking. David had kept Haley tucked into him for a few long instants to make his brother mad, but he hadn’t smelled of citrus and the sea then. He must’ve used a different soap since they were staying in a hotel and he’d just gotten out of the shower. Or he must’ve not had the time to put on cologne…

“Hel-lo?” Madison called her back to present.

“Yeah, sorry.” Haley rubbed her eyes and opened them. “I’m not sure if he recognized me right away, Maddie. With David, it’s always hard to tell what’s going on inside his head.”

“You know nothing,” Alice joked. “You’re worse than Jon Snow!”

Haley grabbed a pillow and playfully smothered Alice with it. “You guys aren’t helping. I need to decide what to do.”

“Hey, I’m innocent here.” Alice stole the pillow and positioned it behind her back. “So, is this revelation making you feel any different about David? Does it make you question your relationship with Scott?”

Haley couldn’t help but notice the way Madison perked up in her armchair. Almost as if she hoped Haley would say yes. Sorry, Maddie. “No, I love Scott,” Haley said, looking away.

“Are you sure?” Alice insisted. “When you came back from the Venetian Ball last summer you seemed pretty taken up with masked Dav—”

Madison’s super loud ringtone filled the room, interrupting Alice. “Hello?” she picked up. “No, sure… You do that… No… Yes… I’m on my way.” All frenzied by the call, Madison stood up. “Guys, I forgot it’s my book club night. I should go or I’ll be late.” Then she sat back down. “I mean,” she added, chewing her lower lip between words. “I can stay if you need me to.” And then she started babbling. “It’s not like I can’t skip one night, even if I’m president of the club. I’m here for you. The chapters we’re discussing tonight aren’t all that interesting anyway; we’re still nowhere near chapter twenty-two or chapter twenty-nine…”

Haley goggled at Alice to check if she had any idea what Madison was rambling about, but her other roommate shrugged and shook her head.

“…but, still, I’m president of the club, and I proposed this month’s book—the classic not the retelling—so perhaps I should go?”

Madison finally went quiet, even if she kept torturing her lower lip with her teeth.

“Go,” Haley said. “I’m fine. I mean, I’m not fine, but you can’t do anything about it. And I have Alice to help psychoanalyze me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep!”

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Madison stood up again and, bending at the waist, she pulled Haley into a bone-crushing hug before disappearing into her room to get dressed. She dashed back out all of three minutes later looking adorably crumpled in a frilly short dress with ruffles. Her style was completed by messy hair pinned on top of her head with a pencil, a frayed leather messenger bag strapped across her chest, and giant black glasses covering half her face. She was beautiful in a sexy-but-innocent librarian way, if only she’d realize it. If Madison gained just a dash of self-confidence, she’d be able to get any guy she wanted.

Well, not any guy. Not my guy.

But there was no reason for Madison not to find a gorgeous, loving, and caring boyfriend.

Haley still couldn’t understand why her friend seemed only to fall for the bad boys. Scott being the one decent-guy exception, but also the only guy Madison had never approached.

“I’m going,” Madison said. “Call me if you need anything.”

Haley smirked. “Aren’t cell phones banned from book club meetings?”

Madison’s eyes widened, her expression crestfallen.

“I’m joking,” Haley said.

“Ah, of course. Well, bye, girls.”

Madison blew them each a kiss and then was gone.

After the door clicked shut, Alice waited for all of two seconds before attacking Haley again with questions. “Now tell me, how do you really feel?”

Haley winced. “I don’t knooow.” She collapsed theatrically on the couch.

“Mmm… I sense a lie by omission here,” Alice insisted.

“Please stay out of my head.”

“Please let me in so we can sort out this Williams brothers situation.”

“And how do you propose we do that?”

“When I say ‘David,’ what’s your gut feeling?”

The little air pocket Haley felt in her belly was not the reaction she wanted to have after hearing his name. “Sometimes, I’m sort of drawn to him,” she confessed. “It’s this inexplicable, almost animal thing. He makes me tick, not sure why, because I genuinely dislike him. But whenever I’m near him I’m on edge… and knowing how good a kisser he is doesn’t help.”

“So you’re attracted to him in all his bad-boy glory,” Alice said, smirking. “Your body wants him and your mind can’t cope.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Apparently so.” Alice paused for a second before asking the next question. “Have you ever been tempted to… act on this attraction?”

“Hell, no.” Haley straightened up. “I’m with Scott, I love Scott. He’s the sweetest, most adorable…”

“Hot,” Alice suggested.

“…incredibly hot boyfriend in the entire world.”

“So why are you so worried? If you’re not having any existential which-brother-should-I-date doubts, what’s the matter?”

“Alice, I know I’m okay. But what about Scott? I don’t want to lie to him, but…”

“Lie? Why should you lie?”

“He’s going to ask me if I liked the kiss. What should I say?”

“Ah.”

“Yeah, ah! What if he starts asking all the wrong questions? Like, did I think about the kiss after it happened…? Should I tell him the truth and say I spent the next six months obsessing over his brother?”

“Err… probably not. You should downplay it a bit.”

“In short, lie.”

“In short, sugarcoat the truth a little for the greater good?”

“See why I’m not eager to have that conversation?”

Alice pulled Haley’s feet onto her lap and started massaging her ankles. “Eager or not, you’d better rip off the Band-Aid. No good can come from waiting.”

Haley groaned. “You’re so completely right. I hate you.”

“Aw, come on, you know you love me. Even when I’m painfully right.”

“I do.” Haley smacked her lips in a loud air kiss. “Any suggestion on the best way to tell Scott?”