Page 45
While he takes off his shoes in my hallway, I walk ahead into the kitchen, giving myself a moment to calm down. He was here for hours yesterday, and he picked me up this morning. I probably psyched myself out by putting on this damn top, and by what he texted earlier.
Can I buy you dinner again tonight?
Something about that phrase still has my heart pounding like crazy.
Fuck. Is this a date? Can it be if we’re just at my house? And doing work? No, it’s definitely not a date, I remind myself.
I take a deep breath and casually lean across the kitchen counter as he walks in.
“Any updates on Mortimer?”
I nod, trying to not look at the sliver of abs peeking out from under his shirt. “He had surgery today. They said it went well, but he has to stay there for another two days.”
“That’s good news,” he says, leaning against the counter next to me. “I mean, I’m sure you miss having him around though, so an extra two days really suck.”
I nod, and my heart warms. In my experience, not a lot of people understand how close I feel to my cat. I’m sure to most people it wouldn’t seem like a big deal that he’s not here for a few days, but I genuinely have a hard time sleeping without Mort next to me.
“I do. It feels kind of empty here without him,” I admit, trying to avoid looking into Hayden’s eyes. There’s always so much intensity in his gaze, as if he’s constantly trying to read me, not wanting to miss anything. “Anyway”––I push away from the counter––“should we get started on our fun party plans?”
I lead us to the living room and take a seat on the far-right side of the couch.
“Yeah, hold on.” He sits next to me, his knees almost touching mine. He grabs his phone out of his pocket and starts scrolling. “We should order some food first.”
“Good idea.”
“Is there anything in particular that you’d like, or do you prefer someone else pick?” He looks up from his phone, eyebrows raised.
“I’m pretty indecisive, to be honest,” I say apologetically.
My ex used to get so upset when I couldn’t decide on a restaurant, but Hayden simply nods and goes back to his app. A small gesture, but I feel relieved. Here is someone who won’t make me feel bad about not knowing what food I want.
After a moment, he tucks his phone away and claps his hands. “That’s settled. Now, where should we start?”
“I think the big things to figure out are theme and location.” I grab my planning notebook and a pen from the coffee table. “Because the rest will depend on those two.”
“Agreed.” He nods. “It’s summer, and it will be hot, but I think it should be outdoors.”
“Well, it will be at night, right? So I don’t think it will be too hot.”
“You’re right. In my head I imagined it being in the middle of the day.”
“Do you think it should be?” I chew on the top of the pen. “I’ve been thinking of it more as a party than a funeral, so I imagined it at night.”
“At night is better,” he agrees. “It can start early evening. Darlene will want this to be a longer event anyway.”
“Absolutely,” I say, scribbling down some notes. “We’ll have to double-check with whatever venue we choose, but let’s say start time around seven?”
“And end time as late as they’ll let us?”
“You think she will want to go past midnight?” I raise my eyebrows.
“Darlene? Definitely. But I doubt we’ll get a venue to let us go past midnight.”
“Well, we’ll at least push for midnight then,” I say eagerly. “I really wanted the Town Square Park, you know the one with the cute gazebo? It has the community center right next door, which would’ve been a perfect place for people to use the restroom and all that.”
“That actually is kind of perfect. Let’s do that.”
“We can’t.” I shake my head, frustration building up inside of me again. “I already talked to the mayor about it, and he said it’s not possible. Something about permits and that it would take too long.”
