Missing Pieces

by Ivy Smoak

  I looked out over the balcony. Josh was sitting on the couch in the living room. I made my way down the stairs and walked over to the couch. "It's really good to see you, man," I said to him.

  He nodded. "Tonight's going to be awesome. It'll be like we're back in school again."

  I laughed as I sat down beside him on the couch. "The good old days?"

  "Something like that. So what are you doing here, Tyler?".

  "My car ran off..."

  "No. I mean, what are you doing here? I haven't heard from you in over a year. Why didn't you tell me your were coming to Texas?"

  "I didn't really know until a few days ago."

  "Does this have anything to do with Penny tying the knot?"

  "I figured you had heard about it."

  "Yeah, I don't exactly live under a rock." He gestured to his enormous living room.

  "Your business must be booming."

  "It is." He stared at me for a second. "Dude, I don't get it. What the hell were you thinking shacking up with Melissa? I mean, Penny's best friend of all people? You had to have known that it wouldn't end well. Especially since you were still clearly hung up on Penny."

  "I don't know. Melissa and I have been friends for just as long. It just turned into something more. Neither of us meant for it to happen. I hope there's no hard feelings."

  "Besides for the fact that you broke bro-code by banging my ex and cut me out of your life when I moved here? No, no hard feelings." He smiled.

  I laughed. "It wasn't intentional."

  "Well that's good to know. We're supposed to be brothers, man. It would be nice if you'd give me a call when you start fucking my ex. That's all I'm asking."

  "Next time I'll be sure to do that," I said with a laugh.

  "It's not really that funny. How is she, by the way?"

  "She's waiting to hear back from a bunch of law schools."

  "I'm sure she'll get in. That girl knows how to win an argument." Josh laughed. "Ugh. Do you sometimes miss it?"

  "Miss what?"

  "College? When everything was simple. And we all lived close together instead of spread out all over the country."

  College had been simple for me. Until I met Penny. She had slammed into my life full force senior year and disappeared just as quickly as she had come. Honestly, she had probably brought me more pain than joy. But some of those moments with her had been the highlight of my college experience. That was the problem. I kind of stopped living after I met her. "I don't miss the tests. But I do miss hanging out with you all the time."

  "I have an idea."

  "And what's that?"

  "Come work with me. Hell, you could actually do it anywhere, you wouldn't actually have to move here. It's all online. But we'd get to hang out again."

  "As appealing as that sounds, I can't."

  "Oh, right. How's your job going? Business analyst, right?"

  I shook my head. "I quit."

  Josh laughed. "Not great then. So why can't you come work with me? Really, I'll beat whatever salary you had."

  "No, it's not that." I hadn't said this out loud to anyone but my mom. And she hadn't taken it well. "I joined the Marine Corps."

  Josh laughed.

  "No, I'm serious. I'm driving to basic training."

  He just stared at me. "Why the fuck would you do that?"

  "I want to make a difference. I want to do something I can be proud of. And I couldn't stay in New York. Not after what happened. Penny was the only reason why I was there."

  "Damn." He shook his head. "So you only have a few days of freedom left?"

  "That's one way to put it."

  "I'm sorry, man."

  "I'm not. I don't regret it."

  "Still. What does that mean for you and Hailey? Does she know?"

  "No, she doesn't know." She doesn't need to know. "She just needed a ride to Pasadena and I was heading out to California anyway. We're just...friends." It wasn't really true. To me we were way more than that. But our time was limited. It wasn't like I was going to ask her to put her life on hold for three years when I had only known her a few days. It was what it was.

  "Oh. Sharing a bed type of friends?" He smiled.

  I laughed. "Can you blame me?"

  "No, she's fucking hot."

  "Yeah. She is." I felt bad agreeing to that. Because it was so much more than just her looks that attracted me to her. But it wasn't like I was going to say, "No, Josh, I love her personality." He had already given me enough shit in college for being hung up on Penny.

  "So how is she in the sack? Better than that torch you're holding?"

  I laughed. Josh was right. I had been holding a torch for Penny ever since we had slept together. But I wasn't sure I needed to anymore. "Hails is definitely a ten in bed."

  Chapter 21

  Hailey

  Monday

  I wasn't intentionally eavesdropping. Well, not at first. But when I had opened up the door to my bedroom, their conversation spilled into my ears.

  Normally I would have chimed in to let them know I could hear them, but something had caught my attention. It wasn't just the words that bothered me. It was the way that Josh had said them. "So you only have a few days of freedom left?"

  What the hell did that mean? Tyler had joked around with me about being on the run. But maybe he was the one that was in actual trouble. I would have been hung up on the issue if their conversation hadn't taken a turn toward me.

  "So what does that mean for you and Hailey? Does she know?" Josh asked.

  "No, she doesn't know." He paused. "She just needed a ride to Pasadena and I was heading out to California anyway. We're just...friends."

  I swallowed hard. Just friends? Maybe before this afternoon. But it didn't feel like just a friendship anymore to me. I really liked him.

  "Oh. Sharing a bed type of friends?" Josh said.

  Tyler laughed. "Can you blame me?"

  That asshole!

  "No, she's fucking hot," Josh said.

  "Yeah. She is."

  "So how is she in the sack? Better than that torch you're holding?"

  Tyler laughed. "Hails is definitely a ten in bed."

  My whole body felt cold. So that's all this was. A conquest? Why had I let myself think for a second it could be more? In just a few days he'd be dropping me off in Pasadena and heading back to New York. I shouldn't have been shocked by his words. But why had he let me fall asleep in his arms then? Why had he held my hand? Why did he tell me I was gorgeous? The answer was clear, but I didn't want to accept it. He did all that just to get in my pants. Like every other guy I had ever met, he was only after one thing...sex. I wanted to punch his stupid beautiful face.

  I stood there for a second, trying to calm down. I closed the door hard to alert them that I was coming down. Tyler may have thought we were friends, but I certainly wasn't his friend now. As far as I was concerned, we were acquaintances that hated each other. Because I really, really loathed him right now.

  I made my way down the stairs. I didn't want to be compared to the girl he was in love with. I didn't want to be second. There were enough times in my life where I was second best. I wasn't doing that again.

  "Hey, guys," I said as cheerily as I could muster. "Ready for dinner?"

  Tyler stood up and smiled his perfect smile. It was annoying how handsome he was.

  "Yup." said Josh. "You guys are going to love this place."

  ***

  The restaurant was covered in Texas longhorns skulls, whiskey bottles, and barrels of who knew what. We had passed a bunch of chain restaurants on the way out of the city, but I was happy to be in a place that screamed Texas. The odds of me ever coming back to this state were slim to none. And I wasn't going to let some lying ass-wipe ruin this adventure.

  "I don't know many girls that drink whiskey," Josh said.

  "I'm not most girls." I took a sip from my glass. It wasn't my drink of choice, but I was pretty used to drinking anything. We had gotten a cresce
nt shaped booth and I was sitting between Josh and Tyler.

  "I can tell." Josh smiled at me. "So what do you know about the stranger that you've been driving around with for the past few days?"

  "Enough."

  Tyler laughed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

  I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to Josh. "Why? Do you have some incriminating stories you could tell me?"

  Josh smiled. "Absolutely." He rubbed his hands together. "Where to begin? Well, there was that time that he got in a fist fight with a professor."

  I glanced at Tyler. Who the hell gets into a fist fight with their professor? Lots of my lectures were so big that I never even spoke to the teacher, let alone got close enough to him to put my fist in his face. "Well that's dumb."

  Josh laughed. "Yeah, it was a pretty stupid move."

  Tyler clearly had anger problems or something. Plus he was a womanizer. And he just loved what he couldn't have. That's the only reason he had wanted to sleep with me. To prove that he could have me like he couldn't prove with Penny. Well, fuck him.

  "It was warranted," Tyler said.

  I completely ignored him. "Did you guys hang out a lot in college?"

  "All the time. We were in the same frat."

  In my mind, that literally explained everything. Of course Tyler had been in a fraternity. Most assholes were in fraternities. "I bet you guys threw amazing parties." I decided that I needed to completely shove it in Tyler's face. Not only was I going to completely ignore him, I was also going to flirt with his friend. Because Josh seemed a hell of a lot nicer than Tyler.

  "Yeah, we did. Theme nights really were the best," Josh said with a laugh. "You should have seen some of the awesome themes we had."

  "Like what?" I said. "I've been to a few frat parties and everyone always looked ridiculous."

  Tyler laughed. "That about sums it up."

  I ignored him and kept my eyes glued on Josh. He seemed to like the attention. He took another swig of his whiskey and leaned in a little closer to me.

  "Well, the best one had to be our annual ABC party."

  "Did you all wear a different letter or something?"

  Josh laughed. "No. You've seriously never been to an ABC party?"

  I shook my head.

  "It's an Anything But Clothes party."

  "So...it's just a bunch of naked dudes chillin' in the frat house? Sounds fun."

  "What? No," Josh said. "First of all, there were always tons of girls at our parties. And second of all, we weren't naked. You just have to dress in anything but clothes. So like, aluminum foil, body paint, newspaper...that kind of thing."

  "What did you guys wear?"

  "Just plastic wrap," Tyler said. "We really wanted to show off our junk."

  I laughed. Damn it, don't laugh with him! "Wait, seriously? That's disgusting."

  Tyler shook his head. "Of course not. If we had done that, we probably wouldn't have had any girls show up."

  "But one year Tyler did wear bubble wrap," Josh said. "And a few bubbles got popped...so..." he let his voice trail off.

  I laughed. "Sounds wild."

  "It was seriously the best. I'm sure you would have loved our parties." He smiled at me.

  It finally seemed like Josh was fully flirting back. No more restraint whatsoever. I leaned forward and put my elbow on the table, effectively blocking Tyler out of our conversation. "I'm sure I would have. Did you have a girlfriend the whole time you were in school?"

  He laughed. "No. I did date one girl pretty much my whole senior year. The one that Tyler was just sleeping with."

  "Doesn't that break all sorts of bro-code? It definitely breaks girl-code."

  "Nah, Tyler and I are cool."

  "You don't want to get back at him? Even just a little?"

  Tyler cleared his throat from behind me. "Hails, can I talk to you for a second?"

  Chapter 22

  Tyler

  Monday

  What the hell was going on? Before we had shown up at Josh's, Hailey was completely into me. We were in a good place. Yeah, we had a lot to talk about. But I never thought she'd be trying to hook up with my friend right in front of me. What was her problem?

  "Just a second," she said. She leaned over and whispered something in Josh's ear and they both laughed.

  If this was some kind of jealousy game, it was working. The problem was, I had no clue why she wanted to make me jealous. This afternoon I had thought we were on the same page. Clearly I was a few chapters behind her and I had some catching up to do.

  I watched her put her hand on Josh's arm, just like she had with the guys at the bar the first night I met her. I didn't know what was real and what was fake. I slid out of the booth. There was no way I was going to ask her twice. Either she wanted to talk to me or she didn't. I walked toward the restroom. She didn't follow me.

  I leaned against the wall. The fact was that I didn't really know Hailey. Really, one of the only things I did know about her was that she needed money. Could that be what this was? Was she really flirting with Josh because it would be convenient to fall for someone who could fix her problems with a snap of his fingers? Fuck that. I wasn't going to put myself in a situation again where I lost a game I couldn't win. Hailey wasn't Penny. But right now, it sure felt the same.

  "What's up?" Hailey said.

  I hadn't even heard her come over. Something about the casual way she asked me that made my blood boil. She had this way of crawling under my skin. I didn't need this right now.

  "Never mind, it's nothing. I'm going to get an Uber back to Josh's. I'm beat. Have a good night." I brushed past her.

  "Really? That's how you're going to play this?" she said to my back.

  I turned around to face her. "Play what? I think it's pretty clear what's going on here."

  "And what is that?"

  "You know he's loaded. And you're in debt. It's easy to connect the dots."

  She shook her head. "You think I'm hitting on Josh because he's rich?"

  "Yeah. I do."

  "God." She folded her arms across her chest. "I'm not a hooker. I don't need anyone's handouts. I'm flirting with him because you're an asshole!"

  The people sitting near us were starting to stare. I walked back into the small hallway where the restroom was and pulled her with me. "I'm an asshole? You're the one flirting with my friend mere hours after we had sex. Take a look in the mirror, Hailey."

  "And what will I see? The sharing a bed type of friend?" She put air quotes around the word friend. "A ten in bed? A conquest?"

  Shit. So that's what this was about? She had overheard me talking to Josh? That was just guy talk. She had to know that.

  "I was starting to really like you, Tyler. I thought that we could be more than whatever this stupid road trip is. But obviously I was wrong. I've always been a shitty judge of character. It's great to know that all you think I care about is money, though. I'm so glad you have such a high opinion of me." She stormed past me and into the women's bathroom.

  Fuck. I glanced back toward the restaurant. No one was on their way over. I had just called Hailey a gold digger. I needed to clear the air. Now. But just because no one was on their way in, it didn't mean the bathroom wasn't already occupied by other women. Damn it.

  I walked back over to our booth to prevent myself from following her.

  "If you hadn't already slept with her, I'd totally call dibs," Josh said as I sat back down.

  Every part of me wanted to punch him in the face. But this wasn't his fault. It was because Hailey had overheard a conversation between us.

  "Could you back off a little?" I said.

  "She's all over me. What do you want me to do? You know, you act like the world gave you a shitty hand. Hot girls line up for you and all you care about is the one you can't have. You dated Natalie when you were in love with Penny. You dated Melissa when you were still in love with Penny. And who knows what you've done in between that, because you sure haven't been calling me with
updates about your life. So the question is, what are you going to do to Hailey, huh?"

  "It's not like that."

  "Really? Because I think it's exactly like that. And maybe she sees it too. You're pissed about coming second in Penny's life and then you treat every girl you meet second best because of her."

  Fuck. "I don't do that."

  "You gave me so much shit for breaking up with Melissa before graduation. But I did that because I knew we couldn't make it work long distance. And I didn't want to hurt her. I did that because I respected her. I'm not the ass here, Tyler. You are."

  "I'm not trying to hurt Hailey. She's different."

  "But the situation isn't different. And if Penny calls you, I know you'll go running back to her. You always do."

  I suddenly felt exhausted. "The situation is different. Penny's married." It sounded so weird saying it out loud. "There is no going back."

  "I know, man. I'm sorry. But don't jump down my throat because some girl that you'll never actually commit to is being a little flirtatious. That's not on me."

  I shook my head. He was right. Maybe I had been using Penny as an excuse. Maybe the problems were deeper than that. Commitment issues wouldn't be so off base. I was terrified of losing someone I loved. It had happened before and almost killed me. I was so sick of hurting.

  "Did you at least tell Penny the truth?" Josh asked.

  "Tell her what?"

  Josh shook his head. "That you're still in love with her, man."

  I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back in the booth. "The morning before their wedding, I told her how I felt. I actually told her I wanted to run away with her." I laughed, but it came out forced. "She didn't feel the same way."

  "That's rough."

  I shrugged my shoulders. "It is what it is. But I like Hailey. A lot." The whiskey was making me not quite as tight lipped as I usually was. "I don't have anything to go back to. That was part of the reason why I enlisted. But if I hadn't, I don't think I'd even hesitate to go back to Indiana with Hailey."