Don't Get It Twisted, page 19
Can we talk?
She had erased the contact but hadn’t gone so far as to block Haley’s number, so she recognized the sender immediately. A chance to talk had been all Claire wanted, right up until Haley kissed Noah on stream and made it clear where her heart lay. She probably just wanted to offer a statement about her accident in response to Carl’s article. Still, the flame of hope was rekindled reading Haley’s three short words.
Work or personal? Claire replied cautiously.
I miss you, Haley responded immediately and all the animosity Claire felt melted away.
I’ll call you when I’m off, Claire texted, kicking herself as she did. She didn’t want to get involved again; there was nowhere good it could lead. But the memories of Haley were irresistible, and she couldn’t help herself. One call wouldn’t hurt things, in the interest of giving them both closure.
She rushed back to the office and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to focus, somehow managing to push out a perfunctory article in between searching for recent updates about Haley—updates that she had spent the past week trying to avoid. As far as Claire could tell, neither Haley nor Noah had made a public statement about the accident or Haley’s injuries yet, even though it had been five days, and besides the scarcest of details gleaned from publicly available footage, all the information about how she was doing was speculation. Claire was dying to hear from the source herself, just to know that she was okay.
Her commute home was miserable. The T was delayed and more crowded than usual, and Claire felt her nerves rising as she rattled and jostled her way through the city. Her mind was racing with all the possibilities of what Haley might say, and what she might want to hear. The logical part of Claire argued that it was pointless, but Haley made her forget all logic.
Claire walked quickly back to her apartment, her heart racing with excitement and a bit of trepidation. It would be good to clear the air, but she had to leave it at that. Nothing else had changed. She had to keep reminding herself of that, even though she called Haley the instant she walked in the door because she couldn’t wait another second to finally hear her voice.
“Hey,” Haley answered softly.
“Hey,” Claire said, butterflies fluttering in her stomach at the sound of Haley’s voice. “How are you?”
“Been better. I’m on a lot of painkillers right now, though, so it’s alright.” Haley laughed, the familiar sound like a warm hug to Claire’s ears.
God, Claire had missed her, more than she had even admitted to herself.
“Where are you?” Claire asked.
“Hold on,” Haley said, and then went silent.
Claire looked at her phone. The call was still connected, so Haley must have muted herself from the other end. She waited a moment, wondering if she should hang up and call again when Haley’s voice finally returned.
“I can’t tell you that,” Haley said.
“Why not?”
“I don’t want any leaks to the press.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Claire assured her.
“Yeah, well…” Haley trailed off and Claire heard another muffled voice in the background that she was almost positive was Noah.
“Is now a good time?” Claire asked, annoyed he was there and annoyed by her own annoyance. Of course he was with her.
“Yeah, I’m not doing anything,” Haley said, but she sounded distracted, either by Noah or the drugs she had mentioned at the start of the call. “What are you doing?”
“I just got home from work and then I called you,” Claire said gently, wondering if Haley even remembered the texts she had sent earlier. “Like you asked me to. But maybe another time would be better.”
“No, don’t hang up,” Haley protested. “Please, I’m dying of boredom.”
“I thought you hated me,” Claire said.
“I did, but I miss you more.”
“Well, what do you want to talk about?” Claire knew she owed Haley an apology and an explanation for how she had handled the situation with the article, but the timing didn’t feel right. Not when Haley sounded high off her ass and Noah was hovering.
“I don’t know, anything. What have you been up to?”
“Mostly just work,” Claire said. “My volleyball team got second place in the summer league, so now we’re on break until the fall season starts up. What about you, though? I saw your last stream. And Noah’s.” Her jaw clenched even saying his name. “It was terrifying. Are you actually okay?”
“I will be once they put my collarbone back together, which is supposed to happen tomorrow unless there’s still too much swelling. Mostly I’m just sick of waiting.” Haley sighed. “Hold on,” she said, and the line went silent again.
Claire let out a sigh of her own. What was the point of any of it, if Noah was right there feeding answers to Haley and controlling what she said? Why was Haley even talking to her, pretending that they were friends and that nothing had ever happened between them? Was that what she wanted? Or was it just the drugs? Everything with Haley Hunter was confusing.
Tobey meowed, and Claire reached down to scratch him between the ears. “I know, bud,” Claire murmured. “I don’t get it, either.”
“Claire?” Noah’s voice came through the speaker, startling her. “Everything in this phone call is off the record, or we’re suing your paper for harassment.”
“I don’t think you would have any standing, and I’m pretty sure our legal team is bigger than yours, but don’t worry. I’m not writing about this. Haley asked to talk to me, so can you put her back on?” Claire kept her tone polite, but she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her.
“She needs to rest now, she doesn’t need reporters prying or leaking her location to fans.” The call ended abruptly. He had hung up on her.
The fucking nerve. Claire shook her head, trying to shake off how weird the call had been. She couldn’t figure out what Haley wanted from her. Was it all just to hurt her more, rub her face in Noah getting what she couldn’t as retribution for the article?
Her phone rang again, lighting up with Haley’s number.
“Hello?” Claire answered warily.
“I’m sorry about him,” Haley said instantly. “He’s just protective, but that was way out of line.”
“What do you want, Haley?”
“I want to see you.” Haley inhaled deeply. “I want to fix things between us.”
“What ‘us?’ I thought you were with Noah now.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that’s just for show?” Haley groaned. “Can you just come to Tulsa so we can talk in person? I hate doing this over the phone.”
“No, I can’t just come to Tulsa. I have a real job. And responsibilities.” Claire wondered if the drugs were talking again, because Haley obviously wasn’t thinking clearly.
“I’ll pay for your ticket.” Or maybe Haley was actually that disconnected from reality.
Claire was mad at herself for how badly she wanted to accept, but she had to be realistic. “I can’t take any more time off work.”
“Then I’ll come to you once I get cleared to travel again.”
“But why?”
“I thought I was going to die, and my biggest regret was losing you.” Haley’s voice broke. “Most people don’t get a second chance. I did, and I don’t want to waste it wondering ‘what if’ anymore.”
Claire’s heart melted, and logic and reason fell to the wayside. She wanted to reach through the phone to wipe Haley’s tears away, to hold her and comfort her and tell her everything would be okay. The decision was made before she could make it herself.
“I’ll come to Tulsa,” Claire promised, not knowing how she would make it work but knowing she would do anything to try.
***
“I need to work remote next week,” Claire announced to Whitney, trying to project confidence she didn’t have.
“Is that so?”
“Family emergency,” Claire clarified, bending the truth as much as she dared.
“Mmhmm,” Whitney hummed, one eyebrow arched. “And would that family emergency happen to be in Oklahoma?”
Claire didn’t answer. She was pretty sure she didn’t have to disclose that.
“I read the news, Claire.”
Claire shrugged. “So do I have approval?”
“Are you going either way?”
“I think I have to.” Or spend the rest of her life wondering.
“One week,” Whitney granted, a smile playing at the corners of her perfectly lined lips. “And I expect your work to be completed on time. I don’t even want to know you’re gone.”
“I promise,” Claire said, grinning. She was going to see Haley again. And she didn't know what to expect or how anything was going to work, but going was the first step. And if any woman was worth fighting for, it was Haley.
Chapter Thirty-One
Haley checked the time and refreshed the flight tracker for the third time in as many minutes. Claire should have landed already, and she let out a sigh of relief when the page updated the flight status to ‘arrived.’
Nerves fluttered in her stomach, or maybe it was just the pain meds making her nauseous. Three days post-surgery and she finally felt like she was on the road to recovery, but it still wasn’t as fast as she would have liked. Noah was at her apartment packing her life into boxes to be stored in the office until she came up with a better plan while she lay on his couch eating her way through all of the pizza rolls in his freezer. She probably should have told him she had invited Claire to come visit, but it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
We’re here, Claire texted. Should we Uber to your place?
We? Haley’s forehead furrowed in confusion. Oh, yeah. Claire was bringing her cat.
I’m at the office right now, she texted back, only stretching the truth a tiny bit. Whatever, none of them could get mad at her. She was injured and not above guilt-tripping. It’s not like she wanted to stay with Noah, but the doctors wouldn’t let her leave the hospital without the promise that she had someone to take care of her.
Be there in thirty.
Haley pulled the blanket off her lap and eased out of the dent she had molded into the couch. She moaned in pain, only allowing the small indulgence because no one was around to hear, then hobbled into the first floor bathroom to check her appearance before immediately wishing she hadn’t. It was grim.
The more superficial cuts and bruises were finally healing, though the mottled yellow-green splotches made her look like a decaying zombie from a low budget horror film. Her hair was particularly disgusting, unwashed and falling out of the braid the nurses had been kind enough to help her with before she was discharged from the hospital. She moistened a washcloth under the tap and gave herself a quick one-handed sponge bath. It was the best she could do. Putting on anything other than the ratty sweatpants and borrowed flannel seemed like an insurmountable task. Claire would understand.
Haley smiled slightly with the realization. As nervous as she was for the conversations they needed to have, one thing she didn’t have to fear was being judged by Claire for not looking perfect. She knew Claire would accept her as she was, and that was freeing.
Walking across the lawn to the office sounded exhausting, but that was where Claire expected her to be and it was probably better if they saw each other on more neutral ground to start. Plus, Haley didn’t know how Noah felt about a cat in his house, or if he was allergic. Pets just didn’t make sense with their lifestyle so the topic had never come up, and she didn’t want to overstep too far.
Opening the sliding kitchen door hurt, but she managed it, squinting as she stepped out into the sun. Noah’s landscapers had done a great job, and the garden around the pool hummed with life as bees flitted between orange and yellow flowers. The neatly trimmed grass was soft on her bare feet, and for one blissful second, Haley forgot everything that had happened in the past ten days and just was.
“Hey.”
A familiar voice coming from the side path startled Haley from her moment of peace and set butterflies aflutter in her stomach. She turned to Claire, standing a few feet away with a cat carrier in one hand and a stylish black duffel bag.
“You’re here,” Haley said, smiling. It didn’t feel real, but nothing had since she met Claire.
“When you asked me to come, I couldn’t stay away.” Claire took another step forward. “Can I hug you?”
“Probably not.” Haley glanced down at her healing collarbone, then over to Claire’s luggage. “I’d offer to take that, but…”
“I got it,” Claire said quickly.
They walked side by side to the office, and Haley keyed in the entry code to let them in. The new laptop she had ordered sat unopened on her desk with a hard drive full of her footage sitting beside it. She hadn’t summoned the courage to watch it yet. She didn’t know if she ever would. And all the messages and comments she’s been avoiding were too daunting to even consider yet. Thoughts of quitting were creeping into her mind more and more every day. It would be easy to walk away. No one would blame her after what she’d been through.
“Are you okay?” Claire asked. She must have noticed Haley staring off into space.
“More than okay,” Haley reassured her, trying to shake off the memories of South Dakota. It wasn’t the time. She sat gingerly in one of the podcast chairs with her back to her desk, wincing as she bumped her elbow on the armrest of the chair. “Help yourself to drinks, a seat, whatever. Sorry I’m not a better host right now.”
“Understandable,” Claire said, settling into the seat across from her. Tobey meowed in the carrier beside her.
“You can let him out,” Haley offered.
“He’ll probably just hide somewhere and be impossible to get out again.”
“Are you hungry? I can order something.”
“I ate at the airport earlier.” Claire gave Haley a long look that said she could tell Haley was stalling. “Why am I here, Haley? Actually, wait, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be recovering, not working?”
“I am,” Haley said, glancing down. She’d hoped for a little more lead in before the tough questions began, but she supposed that was just Claire’s job kicking in. “I was supposed to be moving to Savannah this week for hurricane season and I couldn’t extend the rental here; it was already booked by someone else. So, I’m stuck in Noah’s guest room until I figure some shit out.” Haley shifted in the chair. Her sutures were aching, but that was nothing in comparison to the pain of vulnerability when she didn’t know if she would be rejected.
“So you’re living together now?”
“Temporarily!” Haley knew how it looked, but Claire had to understand. “I swear on everything, he’s just a friend. I…” God, it was so embarrassing, but honesty was the only way to convince her. “I tried. After the article—when I kissed him— I thought maybe we should give it a try, for real. He rejected me.”
“He rejected you?” Claire’s eyebrows shot up and she crossed her arms as she leaned back. “That’s pretty hard to believe.”
“He was right. I’m not in love with him. Kissing him just made me feel gross. I was trying to force something that wasn’t real because I wanted it to work so I could have a happy ending, but it doesn’t work like that. At least not for me.” Haley blinked quickly as she looked up, hoping the tears welling up would disappear. “Can you hand me a Red Bull?”
Claire reached into the mini-fridge and pulled out a cold can. “So how does it work for you?” She asked tentatively, cracking the can before passing it to Haley.
Haley took a sip, curling her toes into the faux-fur rug as she thought. “I don’t know. Love is hard for me. Growing up, all the other girls would fall in and out of love with new guys every week and I could never relate. Ash was the first person I ever dated, or felt attracted to. So when I got to know you, and I started feeling things…” Her courage to be honest had it’s limits. “I thought what we had was real.”
“It was real.”
“Then why did you write all those terrible things about me?”
“I didn’t,” Claire said emphatically. “I would never, I swear. My boss found out about us and pulled me from the article. Look, I brought these to show you.” Claire reached down to unzip her duffel bag and pulled a slim stack of papers from it. “This is the first draft I wrote, which my boss rejected because it sounded too much like a love letter.” She passed one stapled pile to Haley. “And this is the second draft, which she said was even worse. But I still thought I could pull it off until Carl found the picture of us dancing and took it to her.”
“Before I came to Boston?” Haley wasn’t sure if she wanted to know how long Claire had been lying to her, but it was too late to take the question back. And it was better to get it all out in the open, anyway. Let the wounds heal.
Claire nodded, looking miserable. “I know I should have told you then and I hate that I was selfish. I just felt like no matter what happened I was going to lose you and I wanted to make the most of what we had and I’m sorry, Haley. Really, deeply sorry for all of it, but most of all sorry for hiding it from you. I just… didn’t want to let you down and I thought I could fix it or convince Whitney to not run the story at all and I just wish I had done better. You deserved better.”
“Well, it’s not like it matters anymore now,” Haley said ruefully. “Considering I just destroyed any shred of credibility I had left. So maybe… we could start over?”
Claire pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, her blue eyes locked on Haley’s. “Start over as what?” She asked slowly.
“Two people who fucked up and believe in second chances?” Haley asked, her heart pounding wildly behind her tender ribs. They didn’t need to rush into labels. “Two people who care about each other and what to see what that could become?”
“God, Haley,” Claire groaned, indecision written on her face. “I want to, don’t get me wrong. But should we? I mean, Boston and Tulsa are so far apart.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Haley said. “You’re here now, so let’s just take it one day at a time.”
