“I got you covered.”

  Hayden’s eyes finally drifted to Sara. She looked surprised. “You got me coffee?”

  “And a muffin. I was there. It’s no big deal. I brought cream and sugar. Not sure what you take in your coffee.”

  “I usually just take it black.”

  Sara made a disgusted face. “Blagh. How do you do that?”

  Hayden smiled for what Sara was sure was the first time since she met her. “You get used to it.”

  Sara handed Hayden the coffee and muffin. She looked at the muffin and then back at Sara. “What kind of muffin is this?”

  “Banana walnut.”

  She scratched her head. “I’m allergic to walnuts. All tree nuts. And shellfish.”

  “Oh. I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s not like you could have known Sara. It’s no biggie.” She took a sip of the coffee. “It’s good.”

  “I’d be entitled to disagree since it has nothing in it, but I’m glad you like it.”

  She smiled again and Sara’s stomach fluttered.

  Sara went to sit down at her desk with her coffee and now two muffins.

  Hayden zipped up her backpack and put it on. “Thank you Sara.”

  Sara turned to look at Hayden and she was still smiling. Her smile was making Sara lose all ability to think or speak. It was worse than when she glared at her.

  She finally managed to form words. Unfortunately when they came out her voice cracked. “You’re welcome.” Sara felt so embarrassed.

  Hayden let out a light chuckle. “See you later Sara.”

  Just hearing her say her name sent butterflies to Sara’s stomach.

  She wasn’t sure what was worse. When Hayden hated her, or when she was nice to her.

  Either way, she knew one thing for sure.

  She had a crush on Hayden Thompson.

  Chapter 6: Hayden

  Hayden wanted to kill her sister.

  Rachel was making her meet with Sara on her own today. She had some stupid emergency at work. She was a nurse so of course she had a more important job than Hayden.

  That wasn’t really fair. Hayden shouldn’t be mad at her sister. Rachel didn’t know that she had a problem with the woman planning her wedding.

  Hayden walked into Williams Manor and checked in with the front desk.

  “I’m here to meet with Sara Williams.”

  “Yes, Miss Williams is waiting for you in the ballroom.”

  “Thank you.”

  Hayden headed towards the ballroom, taking out her phone to send a quick tweet. Getting paid to tweet really took the fun out of tweeting at times.

  YW Magazine had a lot of young followers. Being an online magazine, their social media accounts were crucial to staying successful. That meant frequent updates. And by frequent, that meant at least once every hour.

  Hayden walked into the ballroom. Sara was already seated at one of the tables.

  She was still finishing the tween when she reached Sara. “Hey.”

  “Hey. Are we waiting for Rachel?”

  “Nope. My sister had an emergency at work.”

  “I hope everything’s okay.”

  “It’s fine. She’s a nurse. She’s used to it.”

  “We can reschedule if you want.”

  Hayden did want to. She had no idea how much she wanted to. But she didn’t want to do that to Rachel. The wedding was only three weeks away.

  Invitations were already sent out and she needed to get the final touches done on the wedding. Otherwise, her sister was going to be stressed as fuck.

  Hayden was still looking down at her phone. She just needed to choose the right emojis. “Nope. It’s fine. No time to waste. I can fill her in on anything.” And post.

  Hayden put down her phone, finally looking at Sara. She was dressed in a sleek gray dress and boots that went up to her knees. She looked...unfortunately...hot. She was also glaring at Hayden. Sara looked irritated. Hayden smirked. “Something you want to say?”

  “I see you’re still glued to your phone.”

  Hayden slowly shook her head and smiled. “It’s actually my job now.”

  Sara raised an eyebrow. “What do you do?”

  “I’m head of social media at an online publication.”

  “That certainly suits you.”

  “Yes it does. Should we get started?”

  Hayden wanted to get this over with. The quicker, the better.

  “Yeah. Let’s go to the dining hall. The chef already has the menu options prepared. Are you sure that Rachel is okay with you trying everything in her place?”

  “Rachel doesn’t care what’s served. If it were up to her, she’d go down to city hall to get married. This wedding is more for our parents than her and Andy. The only thing she was adamant about was the venue. Unfortunately.” Hayden said the last part under her breath, but judging by the uncomfortable look on Sara’s face, she heard her.

  “How’s everything been?” Sara asked.

  “Fine. You?”

  “Fine. I’m sorry this is so awkward.”

  Hayden nodded her head. “It’s not awkward.”

  It was completely awkward, but Hayden didn’t want her to know she felt that way. She wanted Sara to think this didn’t affect her at all.

  Sara Williams was a person from Hayden’s past. That’s all.

  Hayden and Sara walked into the dining hall. The courses were already spread out on two of the tables.

  “The chef put down all of the descriptions here,” Sara said. She handed Hayden a sheet of paper with all the menu options in front of her.

  “Good thing I didn’t have lunch yet.”

  She laughed. “Yeah. And I made sure the chef knew not to use any tree nuts or shellfish.”

  Hayden’s heart skipped a beat at Sara’s words. She remembers that?

  She thought for sure that Sara would have forgotten about that.

  Hayden looked at Sara for a moment too long. “What?” she said.

  “Nothing. I just can’t believe you remember that.”

  Sara looked hurt by Hayden’s words. “Why? Because I’m a vapid, vapid woman?”

  Hayden shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah, that about covers it.”

  “Hayden…”

  “I don’t need closure.”

  Sara looked surprised by Hayden’s outburst. “Sorry?”

  “Don’t be. We’re adults and what happened was practically another lifetime. I moved on. You moved on. I’m not interested in bringing up the past. I just want my sister to have the wedding of her dreams.”

  Sara took a deep breath before speaking. “As do I.”

  “Good. Then we don’t have to talk about anything unless it pertains to the wedding.”

  “Fine. We should get this over with then.”

  Sara took the words right out of Hayden’s mouth.

  * * *

  8 YEARS AGO

  Hayden somehow let Sara convince her to go to a party with her.

  It was turning out to be a disaster.

  The only good part was that they managed to get some good booze and not just shitty beer.

  Hayden hated beer.

  Sara came back from getting a refill of jungle juice. “I got you one too.”

  “It’s kind of sweet.” Hayden wasn’t a fan of sweet drinks. She liked her liquor hard and unwatered down. And without any sweet juices or anything.

  Sara looked mad at Hayden’s words. “You’re drinking it.”

  “Fine.” Hayden took the cup and smiled at Sara. Sara really seemed to be trying. Little by little, Hayden was learning that she wasn’t really a Regina George clone. She wasn’t the mean girl that she thought she was going to be. She still wouldn’t be Hayden’s first choice in friends, but she was growing on her.

  “You don’t like sweet drinks.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “You even drink coffee that tastes like dirt.”

  Hayden laughed. “Shut up. It does not taste like dirt.”

  “Oh it does. It totally does.” Sara smiled at Hayden, revealing a dimple in her left cheek. She had a really nice smile.

  Hayden smiled back. Sara’s blue eyes sparkled. She bit her lower lip as they stared at each other. For a second, Hayden thought Sara was flirting with her. But that would be ridiculous. Sara seemed straight.

  Then again, so did Hayden.

  Sara cleared her throat, finally looking away from Hayden. She took a sip of her drink as they looked around at the party. “So, spot any hot guys worth looking twice at?”

  See, straight.

  “Oh, nooo,” Hayden said. “Guys tend to annoy me. Not the biggest fan.”

  Hayden hadn’t come out to Sara yet. She wasn’t big on the whole coming out thing. It’s the twenty-first century. Straight people didn’t have to come out. Why should Hayden have to just because she liked women?

  Sara smirked. “I completely agree. Come on. Let’s dance.”

  “I’m not very good at dancing.”

  “Neither is anyone else here. That’s what alcohol is for. It gives you the confidence you need to believe you’re good at dancing.”

  Hayden cringed. “I don’t know.”

  “Come on. What do you have to lose?”

  She had her there.

  Sara held her hand out for Hayden to grab. Hayden looked down at her hand and then back up at her.

  She took a deep breath before placing her hand in Sara’s. She followed her into the dancing crowd of drunk college students.

  Maybe Sara wasn’t as straight as Hayden thought.

  Chapter 7: Sara

  Jaime dragged Sara to a party at some photographer’s house. She had worked with him on a recent shoot.

  Sara felt out of place. She didn’t fit in. Everyone was close to six feet tall and drop dead gorgeous. Not to mention stick thin.

  Sara could never be a model. She liked food way too much to ever be that skinny.

  The last thing Sara wanted to do right now was mingle with people she didn’t know. She wanted to be home in an oversized hoodie and a glass of rosé watching something on Netflix.

  After the conversation with Hayden that day, she knew there was no chance of ever trying to make them work again. Hayden didn’t even want to know her, let alone talk about their relationship. If you asked Hayden, she’d probably say there never was a relationship to begin with.

  Jaime was talking to a friend of hers, leaving Sara alone. Jaime was lucky Sara loved her or she would have already taken a rideshare home. Jaime would be fine on her own. She was good at this whole thing. Mingling and talking with people.

  Sara was good at it too obviously. Working in the hospitality business, Sara had to be good with the guests. But it was different. At the hotel it came naturally to Sara. Here, she just felt like she was being so fake.

  The truth was, Sara didn’t care enough about these people enough to pretend to be interested in what they had to say.

  There was only one person on Sara’s mind. And she wasn’t at this party.

  Sara turned around and did a double take at the person that just walked in through the front door.

  On second thought, Hayden was at the party.

  Hayden kissed Tyler on the cheek before handing him her coat. She was dressed in a white dress with gray ankle boots.

  Sara noticed the woman standing next to her. She assumed that was Jenna.

  Sara instantly hated her. She was beautiful. Everything about her looked perfect. Even her teeth were pristine.

  Sara was about to make an attempt at a quick exit before Hayden saw her, but it was too late. Hayden’s eyes met Sara’s.

  She smiled at Hayden. Hayden smiled back rather tensely.

  This was unbelievable. She hadn’t seen Hayden in eight years and suddenly she was everywhere.

  “Alright, everyone’s finally here,” Tyler said, nudging Hayden. “Everyone grab a seat in the dining room and we can eat.”

  Sara went straight to Jaime. “I think we have to go.”

  Jaime looked at her like she had two heads. “We just got here.”

  “She’s here.”

  “Who’s here?”

  “Hayden!”

  Jaime smiled gleefully. “Oh my God. Where? I haven’t seen her in years.”

  “No shit!”

  Her best friend was really starting to annoy her. She didn’t grasp the seriousness of the situation Sara was in. Hayden and her girlfriend were in the same room as Sara. This was huge.

  “Okay, calm down. We’re going to have dinner and then we can go. Alright?”

  It would be rude to leave before finishing dinner. Sara didn’t need to look like an idiot in front of Hayden and her girlfriend.

  “Alright. But then we leave.”

  “I promise.”

  Sara and Jaime went into the dining room to grab a seat. She groaned. The only seats available were across from Hayden and Jenna.

  Jaime looked at Sara. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. We will eat and then we can go.”

  Jaime sat down next to Tyler. Sara sat next to her, directly across from Jenna. She smiled at Jenna, then at Hayden.

  “Hayden, Jenna, this is Jaime and Sara,” Tyler said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Jaime said for both of them

  If Hayden remembered Jaime, she didn’t show it.

  “You too,” Jenna said.

  Sara was glad she wasn’t the only one having a hard time finding words. Hayden hadn’t said a word since they all sat down.

  Halfway through dinner, everyone started talking about where they went to college. Sara had no idea how the conversation got started. She wasn’t paying much attention to what everyone was saying. She was more focused on not jumping out of her seat and running towards the exit.

  “Sara, where did you go?” Tyler asked.

  “I went to Yale.”

  “No way. Small world. Hayden went to Yale for a semester before transferring to Harvard.”

  So that’s where she ended up.

  Hayden glared at Tyler.

  Tyler stopped chewing his food and practically choked. He looked at Sara, then back at Hayden. “Oh my God!”

  Hayden practically growled at the man. “Not now.”

  Wonderful. Tyler knew Sara was the wicked witch of the East.

  Jaime was giggling next to Sara.

  “This is not funny,” Sara whispered into her ear.

  “What?” Jenna asked.

  Hayden smiled at her. “Nothing. I’ll be right back. I’m going to use the bathroom.”

  Hayden got up and left the room. She wouldn’t even glance Sara’s way.

  “I need another drink,” Sara said before getting up from the table and going into the kitchen.

  Sara froze when she saw Hayden standing against the counter, a glass of something in her hand. Probably tequila.

  “Thought you were going to the bathroom.”

  “Tequila suddenly sounded better.”

  Sara grabbed a bottle of wine and refilled her glass. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

  “Yup. Neither did I.”

  “We’re leaving after dinner.”

  “You don’t have to. This isn’t at all weird.” She downed the rest of her drink.

  “Jenna seems nice,” Sara said. “How long have you two been together?”

  “That’s a personal question.”

  Sara smiled pointedly. “We’re at a personal party.”

  Hayden smirked, grabbing the bottle of tequila and pouring more into her glass. “We’re not together.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I just tell my family that so they stop hassling me about getting a girlfriend and settling down. We’ve known each other for two years. Date off and on and go to events together.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh.”

  It seemed like an interesting arrangement to have.

  “Are you and Jaime together now?”

  “No. We’re still just friends. She’s straight as a ruler. Besides, I don’t really have time for relationships.”

  Hayden tilted her head. “I guess not much has changed then, huh?”

  Sara didn’t know how to respond. She was right. She hadn’t changed.

  She was still the same old person that refused to let anyone in.

  “It was good to see you again Sara,” Hayden said before walking out of the kitchen.

  They were so informal now. Like Sara didn’t know every inch of Hayden’s body.

  Sara felt so stupid.

  She should have just said what she really wanted to say to Hayden.

  I miss you.

  * * *

  8 YEARS AGO

  “Wake up.”

  Sara tried to shake Hayden awake.

  “What’s going on?” Hayden said, her voice laced with sleep.

  “Let’s go for a jog.”

  Hayden rolled over and looked at Sara like she was insane. “I don’t jog.”

  “It’s good for you.”

  “Says who?”

  “Science. Come on.”

  She grabbed her phone and looked at the screen. When she saw the time her mouth opened wide in horror. “It’s six am. You are insane.”

  “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

  “Sara, do you want me to go back to not liking you?”

  Sara put her hands together in front of her. “Please.”

  Hayden groaned. “This is crazy.” She flipped the covers over with an attitude and jumped out of bed. Angry Hayden was very hot.

  Sara was going to have to wake her up to jog more often.

  Ten minutes later they were on their way out of the dorm building.

  “I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” Hayden said.

  “You’re going to love it.”

  “I’m going to love when it’s over.”

  “We should stretch first. Especially since you’re not much of a jogger. I wouldn’t want you to pull anything.”

  “Yeah, we wouldn’t want that. You know if I don’t jog, I won’t risk pulling anything.”

  “Hayden, you need time outside of the dorm. You need physical exercise. You don’t want to fall victim to the freshman fifteen do you?”

 

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