“Surprise,” I say, holding up two pints of ice cream and plastering a smile on my face.
Penny stares me down and deadpans, “I’m not happy with you.” Then she turns around and heads into her apartment with me following her.
She’s angry with me because she had to hear from Eli that Perry and I broke up a few weeks ago. I should have told him not to say anything, but I was so thrown off and relieved by Halsey’s offer that I blacked out for a moment. The next thing I know, I’m getting a text from Penny about my breakup.
Since she was still on maternity leave, the Agitators gave her an extended leave, which is so freaking amazing, so I told her I’d explain everything after the game. The ice cream is to soften her up, although I’m not sure the tactic will work.
She takes a seat on the couch and folds her arms while staring me down.
I laugh nervously. “Is Holden asleep?”
“What do you think?”
“I’m going to assume yes. Such a shame he doesn’t get to see the she-beast his mother turned into tonight.”
“She-beast?” she asks as I offer her the pint of ice cream I got her—mint chocolate chip. She swats it away and takes my pretzel caramel that I’ve been looking forward to on the way over here. “You’re lucky I didn’t kick you right in the crotch when I opened the door.”
I grab spoons for us from the kitchen, hand her one, then take a seat on the couch as well. “A kick to the crotch seems a bit extreme for the circumstances, don’t you think?”
“No,” she says. “I had to hear from my boyfriend—”
“Fiancé, technically,” I say for God knows what reason, and that only pisses her off more.
“I had to hear from him that my best friend broke up with her boyfriend that she’s known since college. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“Sad?” I ask with a wince.
“Pissed,” she replies.
“Ah yes, I can sense the anger.”
“Blakely, stop joking around. This is serious.” She leaves her ice cream unopened, and I swear to God, if she just lets that melt and doesn’t eat it out of spite, I’m going to be the one who’s pissed. “Are we not close anymore? I know I had a baby, but I feel like I’ve still been a good friend. Am I not there for you like you need me to be?”
“What?” I ask. “No, that’s not it.” I sigh and leave my ice cream unopened as well. “I didn’t tell anyone. I think I’m still trying to make sense of it all. I loved him, and I thought we were going to get married, but then it just . . . ended.”
Her expression softens, and she says, “What happened?”
Needing ice cream now, I pop off the lid, and she does as well. Together, we each take a large scoop and stick them in our mouths. Mint is okay. It’s not my favorite, but it will do for now.
“Perry came home one day from work and told me he had exciting news.”
“What was it?” she asks.
“He got a new job . . . in Australia.”
“In Australia?” she asks, eyes wide.
“Yeah, and he thought that was exciting. Sorry, but I beg to differ. I mean, sure Australia is amazing and beautiful, and I’d love to go there one day really for the kangaroos and backward flushing toilets—”
“You realize that’s such a generalization. I mean, Australians probably think we’re all really loud, turkey chasers, and only drive pickups.”
“Either way . . .” I say, continuing, “I don’t want to live there. My life is here. My job that I’ve worked so hard to land is here, and I love it. I love my job so freaking much. He just assumed that I wanted to go wherever he wanted to go.”
“He never talked to you about it?”
I shake my head. This is what surprised me most of all. He didn’t ask. He hadn’t even talked about the new job. At. All. “And that’s where the miscommunication is. He didn’t think I cared, and he wanted something new and different. I’m all for spontaneity, but I also like to be grounded with familiarity. I don’t want to leave you and the baby and my other friends and the job. I like it here. Anyway.” I pick at my ice cream with my spoon. “We got into a big fight. He said if I truly loved him, I’d go anywhere to be with him, and I told him if he truly loved me, he wouldn’t make assumptions about our life. That he would have talked about the possibility and asked me what I thought rather than searching for something else. It was a big blowup, and he left that night.”
“To Australia?”
I shake my head. “To a hotel. When he came back the next morning, he apologized for what he said. He’d thought about it and couldn’t let this opportunity pass him by. I told him I couldn’t let my career take a back seat to what he wanted, so . . . we decided to break up.” I shove a spoonful of ice cream in my mouth, very unsatisfied with the mint chocolate chip. What’s baffled me has been the fact that I haven’t felt absolutely ruined and devastated by this. We’ve been together for so many years. Why am I not a mess? Was I not passionately in love with Perry?
“I’m so sorry.”
I shrug. “It is what it is. He left to go to Australia. I said bye and gave him a hug. He asked me if I was sure, and I nodded. I had to move out of our apartment because even though I loved it, I couldn’t afford it on my own and the lease was up.”
“Wait, so you moved too?”
I nod. “Yeah, to a new place, not far from here, but yesterday, I noticed water leaking down the wall. Apparently, it was from a clog in the dishwasher upstairs. Flooded my apartment, so now, I have to wait for them to fix it, which will take a couple of weeks.”
“So where are you staying? Here?” she asks with excitement.
I shake my head. “There is no way I’d stay here, not with Holden. It might be fun for a second, but after a few nights of hearing him cry, you might have to start nursing me too.”
She cringes. “Ew, don’t say that.”
I chuckle. “It’s true. And before you say it, I also won’t be staying with Ollie or Winnie. I know the kind of sex lives they have. I refuse to be a witness to that, especially when I’m nursing my wounds over here.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’m staying in a hotel tonight, but tomorrow . . .” I pause because I’m still kind of stunned I took him up on his offer. “I, uh . . . I’ll be moving into Halsey’s place.”
Penny pauses, her spoon halfway to her mouth, and stares at me, confusion in her expression. “Halsey? As in . . . Halsey Holmes?”
“Yeah,” I say, eating a scoop of ice cream while I watch her process what I’m saying.
“What? How? Why?”
“It all happened kind of fast, but I was attempting to grab Pacey for a VIP family, and it came up that I broke up with Perry and needed a place to stay. Posey said Halsey had an extra room, and I don’t know, desperation hit me hard, so I asked him if he was okay with that.”
“Was he?” Penny asks, leaning forward in disbelief.
“Apparently, because he said I could stay there as long as I watered his bonsai tree.”
“What’s a bonsai tree?”
“Uh, some fancy little tree that lives in a pot. I looked it up during the game. They’re kind of cute. Halsey named his Sherman. From what I could tell, he seems quite attached to it.”
“Wait, I’m so confused. We’re talking about the same guy, right? Halsey Holmes, center for the Agitators?”
“Yup, that’s the guy.”
“But . . . he barely talks. You’ve barely spoken to him. He’s the least outgoing guy on the team, and he just so happened to offer you a place to stay?”
I shrug. “Probably felt bad for me. Whatever. I’ll take his pity. I bet he has a nice place. Plus, since they’re in and out of town, I’ll have his place to myself a few times, which will be nice.”
“And what about the times when he’s there?”
“I guess I’ll get to know him. And hey, it’s only for a few weeks. I can nurse my wounds, wait for my apartment to be fixed, and enjoy whatever high-rise fancy apartment he’s living in. It’ll be nice.”
“Will it? Or will it be awkward?”
“Maybe a little awkward, but I can deal with that. Plus, who knows? Maybe I can help him come out of his shell. He’s so guarded and quiet, so maybe he just needs a little bit of Blakely to liven him up.”
“You realize that it’s not just bringing someone out of his shell. He lost his twin brother in a car accident. Eli told me Halsey used to be really outgoing and fun, just like Holden. It’s not his personality that’s shy.” Her voice turns softer as she says, “He’s grieving, Blakely, and slightly broken. I don’t think you should mess with that.”
My brow creases. “I would never mess with that and the obvious pain he sits with every day, but I don’t know, maybe it might be nice for him to have someone to talk to if he wants to talk. And if not, maybe the company will be nice for him. Either way, he said it was okay.”
“Maybe he was just being nice.”
I quirk my mouth to the side in confusion. “Do you not want me to live with him?”
“I just want you to be careful. You’re hurting; he’s hurting. I think it could be a recipe for disaster.”
“I’m fine,” I say. Kind of. Maybe I’m still in shock. It’s been so weird not seeing Perry each day . . . Perhaps I’m also still angry. Blindsided. “If anything, I’m just slightly bitter, but the way I see it is if we were meant to be together, Perry would have never taken that job in Australia, or I would have felt like I didn’t have any other choice but to leave with him . . . and I didn’t feel that. I felt like leaving here would have hurt more. So . . . yeah, it just wasn’t meant to be.”
“Well, I’m glad you have that mindset. I just want you to make sure you come to me if you feel differently. I think Halsey has a lot going on mentally, and I’m not sure he could handle your breakup.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t impose that on him,” I say. “We might be roommates soon, but I also don’t think we’re going to end up being that close.”
“Okay.” She places some ice cream in her mouth before shaking her head. “I can’t believe you said yes to his offer.”
I chuckle. “You know me, I’m up for anything . . . other than moving to Australia on a whim.”
“Apparently, you have your limits.”
