Park Avenue Player(71)
I opened it and addressed him one last time. “This is never going to be risk-free, Hollis. There’s always going to be a chance I could hurt you or you could hurt me. We have to decide if being with each other is worth the risk.”
He said nothing as I walked away.
***
I headed straight to Bree’s house when I got back to Connecticut. I hoped she was in the mood to talk.
She looked even more gaunt than the last time I’d seen her.
“Have you eaten today?”
She straightened in her chair. “Yeah. Mariah brought me some taco pie. I had a little.”
“How long ago was that?”
“This afternoon.”
“Can I make you something?”
“No.” She coughed, covering her mouth with her hand. “Tell me what happened tonight. You seem upset.”
“Hailey caught Hollis and me making out in the kitchen.”
“Shit. Okay.”
“We had to have a talk with her and explain everything. She was a little weirded out, and that surprised me.”
Bree sighed. “Well, as she gets more attached to you, I suppose the fear of losing you is more pronounced.”
“Did I tell you I finally got Hollis to open up to me a little about his past relationship?”
Bree shook her head no and downed her water.
“This girl—her name was Anna. She was his long-time girlfriend. Anyway, she broke his heart, out of left field. He hadn’t seen it coming. He’s been reluctant to get involved with anyone since. She’s the reason his bird, Huey, says nothing but ‘Anna’s home.’”
She wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “Wow.”
“Anyway, Hailey alluded to the Anna thing. She’s more aware than we thought that her uncle has trust issues, and I think she’s just as scared as I am that things won’t work out.”
“She sounds like a smart girl.”
“Well, now that she knows, it’s a wake-up call that I really do stand to get hurt here. We’ve gotten caught up in our sexual attraction, but if he has trust issues—and let’s face it, so do I—is it smart for me to sleep with him and get even more attached? Not to mention, he immediately started acting weird again toward me after she found out.”
Bree fell into another coughing fit.
“Let me get you some more water.”
I ran to the fridge and filled her glass before handing it to her.
She drank some, and then looked up at me.
“Listen, Elodie. I want you to hear me out, okay?”
I sat down on the ottoman across from her. “Alright…”
“I would give anything to have the dilemma you’re experiencing. You’re asking yourself if you should take a chance on the possibility of love. I don’t have the opportunity to take such a chance. I’m not saying this to make you feel sorry for me, just to give you a different perspective—your problem is a good one to have. There’s only so much thinking you can do about something before you’ve totally wasted your life away. Just do what feels good and stop overthinking everything, for the love of God.”
I’m such an idiot. All I do is come here and complain to Bree about problems that are solvable. Meanwhile, she’s suffering from an incurable disease.
Idiot.
Idiot.
Idiot.
“I promise to try to heed your advice. Thank you as always for listening.” I knelt next to her. “Please tell me what I can do for you, Bree.”
“Actually, there is something…”
“Anything.”
“I was wondering if you’ll be around this weekend.”
This weekend.
I was supposed to spend it with Hollis. In any case, my friend came first.
“Of course I can be around. What’s up?”
“Well, I’m not sure how things are going to go for me in the next few months. I’ve been talking to my father about going to the lake house in Salisbury. I’d really like the whole family to be there. Unfortunately, that means Tobias.” She laughed a little. “Do you think you’d be able to come up with us?”
“Of course. Absolutely.”
“Great. We can all drive up together in my Expedition. Lord knows it needs to be driven before it disintegrates into the ground from lack of use.”
I tried to lift her spirits. “We’ll have the best time. We can hit a couple of the antique stores while we’re there.”
“Basically, we’ll just avoid Tobias together.” She laughed.
I smiled, even though I felt like I was crying inside. “Exactly.”
Chapter 32
* * *
Hollis
I scrunched up my tenth piece of paper in as many minutes and tossed it into the trash. My focus today was nonexistent.
As usual, Addison was onto me.
She marched into my office holding two coffees and placed one on the desk. “What did you do, Hollis?”
“Why do you always seem to think you know what’s going on with me?”
“Because I know you better than you know yourself. Now, spill. What did you do to fuck things up with Elodie now?”
I crumpled one more piece of paper and aimed for the trashcan. “Hailey caught us kissing. We were forced to tell her we’re dating much sooner than we were ready for.”