The Not So Bad Boy: Give up EVERYTHING for a bad-boy charm?

by Raquel Belle

  The workday ended with James and Hayley picking at bits of crayon and glue that were stuck to the table. “Any plans tonight?” James asked, as he used a plastic knife to scrape some glue off one of the wooden tables where the kids sat.

  “Going out to dinner with Kerry, then having one last chat with my mom about Easter. We’re trying to finalize the menu, but more people keep RSVP’ing so we have to keep adding dishes and it’s becoming a bit confusing. I don’t know how we’re going to handle that much cooking. My parents’ kitchen isn’t that big and my mom wants to make like four different kinds of pancakes.”

  While they were shopping, Hayley had told James what a big deal Easter was in her family. Her mom and dad weren’t devoutly religious, but for them, Easter was a time to get together with friends and family they hadn’t seen since Christmas. It was full of food and fun and usually a few outdoorsy activities, even though the weather in Minnesota was usually still more wintry than springlike in March and April. Easter wasn’t a big deal in James’ family, he’d told her, and Hayley had been sorely tempted to invite him to come home with her, but thankfully she’d kept her mouth shut. How weird would it be to take her random colleague home with her to one of her family’s biggest celebrations? Sure, he wasn’t really random and he definitely wasn’t just a colleague, but it would still be weird. And she doubted James would want to come. He’d told her he was going to use the time off to work on some drawings he’d been commissioned for from old clients from the tattoo shop.

  “Ha, well, send pictures. I want to see what your mom’s table looks like when all the food is laid out. I’ve never really seen a full Easter spread before.”

  Hayley nodded and stood up from where she’d been kneeling by the shoe cubbies, scrubbing a bit of red paint that had somehow gotten onto one of the shelves. It never ceased to amaze her just how messy five-year-old’s could be or how far the mess could spread.

  “I will! I’m going to head off now. Kerry and I are meeting Samantha at The Art of Pizza.”

  James whipped his head around. “The Art of Pizza? Don’t tell me you like that place more than Pequod’s, or I don’t think we can be friends anymore, Hayley. Pequod’s is an institution.”

  “Don’t worry, Pequod’s is my longtime forever favorite. We’re only going to the other place because Sam’s friend works there and can get us free food,” Hayley said as she slipped on her coat and shoes.

  James nodded. “That, I can accept. As long as you don’t become a convert.”

  “I promise. No pizza conversion will occur,” Hayley said.

  James finished cleaning and was just getting his stuff together when the notification for a new email pinged from his phone. The messages were from Darcy and Elaine, the two clients he was supposed to be finishing drawings for over Easter weekend. Both told him their appointments at the studio that had replaced his dad’s had been pushed back, so there was no rush for him to finish their commissions any time soon. Hayley smiled at him. What would he do to fill the four-day weekend now?

  ***

  Hayley caught the L to the restaurant. Kerry had said she had a quick appointment after school, though Hayley couldn’t fathom what doctor’s appointment would be quick enough to allow her to get from work to the restaurant in a half hour. Still, Hayley was glad she had a bit of time to herself before dinner. She was midway through another book her mom had mailed her, and she’d planned on opening one of the beers she’d brought [the restaurant was BYOB] and sitting down with the book to wait until Sam and Kerry showed up.

  The restaurant was in Lakeview, right next to the School of Rock, a music shop that offered lessons to budding rockers of all ages. Hayley could hear drums and a guitar going from where she stood in the parking lot, checking her phone to make sure she gave the Lyft driver a good rating. Normally, she didn’t love talking in cabs—she generally just wanted to zone out during a cab ride—but her driver that evening had actually lived in the same dorm as her during her first year at Northwestern. The driver, Sharon, was now getting her medical degree, and was driving for Lyft a few nights a week to make spare cash.

  Hayley clicked her phone screen to black and then walked into the restaurant. The scent of tomato and garlic was immediate and flooded her senses and the whole restaurant was warm from the pizza oven at the back of the kitchen. Most of the tables were taken, but Hayley spied one in the back of the restaurant and grabbed it. Cracking open a beer using her keys, she shrugged off her coat and fished her paperback from the depths of her large purse.

  She was midway through a chapter fifteen minutes later when Kerry’s hand appeared on her book. Kerry’s left hand, the ring finger of which was sporting the most beautiful rose gold ring with a small canary diamond in the middle. Was that… an engagement ring? Hayley looked up at her best friend, who was beaming at her. Behind her was Sam, looking at Kerry with all the love in the world.

  “Had to go back to our place to get this so I could show you,” Kerry explained, beaming at Hayley.

  “Holy shit! Are you two getting married?” Hayley squeaked. Multiple heads turned in her direction, but she didn’t care. She jumped up from her chair and tackled Kerry in a hug, gesturing for Sam to get in on the fun. They jumped around for a few seconds, arms wrapped around each other, a manic happy monster of twelve limbs and three screaming mouths. Hayley could feel herself tearing up as she stepped back and sat back down gesturing for her friends to do the same. Her best friend was getting married. To her soul mate. This definitely called for a celebration. Good thing they were in a pizza place.

  Fifteen minutes later, with two deep-dish pies and a large bowl of pasta in front of them, Hayley asked the question she’d been dying to know the answer to. “How did it happen?”

  Kerry and Sam explained that Sam had done the proposing, though “only because she got her shit together before me! I swear I was looking at rings for her!” according to Kerry. Sam had been secretly renovating their spare bedroom, working on it each day while Kerry was at school. She’d painted it, redone the floors, cleaned out the closet and made it a craft nook, and found a comfy couch on sale for $5 from one of their neighbors who was about to move. The room’s crowning glory, however, was the large oak desk Sam had found at an antique shop. She placed it under the window and loaded it up with calligraphy supplies, knitting needles and yarn, colored pencils and pens and markers and enough sketchbooks to last Kerry at least a year.

  “Oh my god. She made you an art room,” Hayley said, looking at Kerry, whose eyes were tearing up as Sam relayed the story. Kerry had always wanted somewhere she could create that was tucked away from the rest of the apartment she and Sam owned, but for the last few years she’d had to make do with the tiny desk in the corner of their bedroom.

  “I know. She left a trail of rose petals leading there last night when I got home from dinner with my brother, which apparently she’d arranged, and when I opened the door, she was down on one knee with this ring,” Kerry said, gesturing at the beautiful engagement ring that was twinkling in the low light of the restaurant. She looked at Sam and kissed her gently, then laid her head on her fiancée’s shoulder. They looked, at least in Hayley’s eyes, like the happiest, most content couple she’d ever seen.

  The rest of dinner was spent talking about the wedding in between conversations about whether the food at The Art of Pizza really could contend with Pequod’s. Hayley said no, Sam said yes, and Kerry said she didn’t care, pizza was pizza, and why did everyone in Chicago have to make such a big deal about it? Thankfully she said this quietly, otherwise what started out as an amazing night might have ended in a fistfight with the rest of the patrons.

  Kerry and Sam were thinking of a Christmas wedding the following year, and had already started looking at places in Michigan, where Sam was from, for the ceremony. Kerry asked Hayley to be her maid of honor, which Hayley readily agreed to. “Hell yeah I’ll be your maid of honor! Finally, I can put those organizational skills to use on something other than
five-year-old’s snack time,” she joked.

  But the joke was laced with an undertone of sadness, because as much as Hayley was enjoying the single life, she was also starting to miss having someone to come home to. She definitely didn’t want to go back to Hinge—she’d deleted her account after the whole thing with Eric—and she wasn’t quite ready for speed dating or a blind date, something her mom’s friends had suggested multiple times, but she was starting to feel the need to do something to meet people of the opposite sex, even if it was just to see what exactly she wanted in a man. Of course, deep down she knew what she wanted, or more accurately, who, but she couldn’t risk things with James again. She’d already messed up their friendship once and they were finally in a good place again. It was just too bad he was the only guy she could really see herself with in the long-term.

  James was still on Hayley’s mind as she took a cab home from the restaurant after hugging Kerry and Sam goodbye and giving them the leftovers from the meal. She’d gotten more into cooking and didn’t need the extra food; plus, cooking took her mind off things, and she had a feeling that until she flew home on Thursday night, she was going to need some distraction.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next two days at school were manic with activities, and Hayley barely had the energy to trudge home in the evening, make a quick dinner and crawl into bed, let alone let her mind whirl over Kerry and Sam’s engagement, James, or the upcoming Easter weekend. Thankfully, Thursday of that week was slightly less hectic, allowing her some much-needed time to breathe. The whole school was getting together in the auditorium so the kids could watch a movie, complete with popcorn, pink and yellow Peeps, and juice, which meant that Hayley didn’t have to spend the whole day getting covered in glitter glue and slashings from various markers. James had texted her on Wednesday night asking if she wanted to get coffee before the day started, and she’d agreed, partly because it meant she could see him, and partly because it gave her the motivation to crawl out of bed earlier and get in a run before school, knowing there was a soy mocha and a donut in her future.

  Her flight didn’t leave ‘til 9:00 that night, so she left her suitcase at her apartment, figuring she’d have plenty of time to get it before she needed to head to O’Hare Airport. The walk to the coffee shop was replete with budding trees, chirping birds, and a warm, flowery scent in the air that told her that, despite the residual snow still blocking parts of the sidewalk, spring was on its way.

  James had already grabbed them a table when Hayley walked in, so she waved to him and went to the counter to get her breakfast. Her hair was still slightly damp from her post-run shower, so she’d gathered it into a fishtail braid that trailed down her slender back. She’d gone for a red and yellow patterned shift dress with long sleeves, navy blue tights and brown boots, showing off the leg muscles she’d toned with frequent runs over the last few weeks.

  “You look great,” James said when she sat down across from him. Hayley smiled at him and thanked him. It still gave her chest a little jolt of excitement whenever he complimented her, but she tamped it down every time, reminding her betraying senses that James was a friend, just a friend.

  That day he’d put his long hair in a bun at the nape of his neck, which on most guys would have looked downright matronly, but on him, it opened up his face, bringing out the flecks of auburn in his hair and the hazel in his eyes. He was wearing a charcoal grey crewneck sweater over a white t-shirt and had on dark blue, boot cut jeans over his combat boots. He was sexily disheveled as always, and his lips were a bit pink from the cold of his iced tea. Normally, she would wonder what kind of weirdo drank iced tea when it was still less than fifty degrees out, but it was James, so she shrugged it off. He was a little mysterious and she liked that about him.

  “You don’t look too bad yourself. You excited for a break from the monsters?” Hayley asked as she took a sip of her mocha, letting the hot cocoa-infused coffee warm her from the inside out. It might be spring, but she was still freezing. The thin shift dress might’ve looked cute, but it definitely wasn’t the warmest thing in her closet.

  James looked pensive as he took a bite out his chocolate chip muffin. “I guess. Those clients I was doing the commissions for pushed the deadlines back, so I’m not really sure what I’m going to do this weekend.”

  “What about Dan and Lucy? Are they here this weekend?”

  James shook his head. “Nah, they always go to the lake house at Easter. Normally I’d go with them, but Dan said he’s been working on redoing their kitchen and wants to surprise Lucy with a romantic weekend of slow cooking.” A romantic weekend of slow cooking? God, married people could be weird. Also, what was with all this remodeling in the name of love? First Sam and Kerry, now Dan and Lucy. When was Hayley going to find someone to paint her bedroom for her and help her pick out new bedroom furniture?

  Hayley hated the idea of James being alone over the weekend. Sure, it was just a holiday, and one most people didn’t even celebrate, but holidays were still a hard time to be alone, especially if you’d just lost a parent like James had. An idea started brewing in Hayley’s mind. It was a crazy one, one she wasn’t sure James would go for, but she had to ask.

  “Well, you could come with me to my parents’ house in Minnesota this weekend.”

  James looked up suddenly from where he’d been tracing lines in the condensation building up on his plastic cup of iced tea. “What?” He began to look excited at the prospect, but suddenly furrowed his brow and frowned. “No, Hayley, I couldn’t intrude. I know how important Easter is to you, and it’d be weird if I gate-crashed.”

  “You wouldn’t be gate-crashing! I’ve brought loads of people home for Easter before. Kerry went with me five years ago, and both her and Sam came with me last year. We Wrights have a “the more the merrier” policy when it comes to holidays. Come on, you’ll love it. And I bet you’ve never seen Minnesota in the springtime!” She couldn’t help it—she was so excited at the idea of James coming back to Minneapolis with her. She’d told her mom a bit about him, not about her crush on him or their kiss, but about their friendship and how great a colleague he was, and Hayley knew her mom would treat him like a king among houseguests if he came. “Seriously, just think about it, okay? We could look at flights for you during the movie later this morning. Mine doesn’t leave til 9:00 this evening, so you’d have plenty of time to pack.”

  James began to nod, smiling at Hayley. “Yeah, yeah, okay. I’ll think about it and let you know after the first lesson, okay?”

  Hayley jumped up and down a bit in her chair. “Woo!” The day had just gotten ten times better.

  ***

  While Hayley should have been too busy during the first lesson to think about what James’ answer would be—after all, she had to wrangle twenty-five, five-year-old’s into dyeing Easter eggs without getting most of the dye on themselves or trying to eat the eggs—her mind kept drifting to what Easter would be like with James there. Her parents always invited their old college friends, neighbors, family, and colleagues to the feast, who all inevitably asked Hayley about her love life. Though it usually rankled her, since she was almost always either single at Easter or dating someone who refused to fly the one hour it took to get to Minneapolis, this year, she could let the comments wash over her like cool, spring water, because even though James was just a friend and colleague, to them, he was a “potential suitor,” a nice boy they could feel good knowing Hayley spent time around. Hopefully, it would halt any further inquiries into her love life for at least the next few months. Hayley was getting a little bit tired of the texts and emails she received from her parents’ well-meaning friends with links to Christian dating websites, blind date options and articles on women who were single after 30.

  Hayley knew they meant well, and since many of them were childless, and she also knew that she had become like a second daughter to many of her parents’ friends, with all of them worrying about her being alone in the big, bad city all by herse
lf. But Hayley didn’t think she could take another year of people asking, When are you going to settle down, hon? We want a wedding to go to! or Maybe you should move back home. The men in Minneapolis would fall head over heels for you! Ever since Kerry’s engagement the other night, Hayley had begun to wonder whether she really would end up being all alone in the city. She was nearly 29, and Kerry was the last of her friends, other than Tina, to get engaged. Soon, Hayley would be the only single one left, and while the feminist in her told her that was perfectly fine, that women needed men like fish needed bicycles, in truth, she wanted someone to settle down with. Someone normal and nice, who wouldn’t cheat on her or make her feel bad about herself. Someone very much like James.

  Which was why when James caught up with Hayley when they were walking the kids to the auditorium and whispered, “Okay, I’m in,” in her ear, she squealed, so loudly that Jimmy and Aria gave her odd, confused looks from where they were walking beside her. “Are you okay, Miss Wright?” they asked in unison.

  “Yup, perfectly dandy, kiddos!” she yelled as she held the door open for them to enter the auditorium two-by-two.

  “I think it’s good that Easter’s tomorrow. I think Miss Wright needs a holiday,” Aria whispered to Jimmy.

  ***

  James and Hayley spent most of the movie looking up flights on his phone. They found him a seat on her flight home, for only $50 more than she’d paid three weeks ago when she booked.