Dirty Deeds by Stella Rhys

36

ALY

I wason my fourth cup of coffee by noon the next day, but I reasoned that I deserved and needed it since I was scheduled to close at my other job tonight. That meant I’d be up for another fourteen hours at least, so despite Evie’s look of concern as I headed for the coffee machine, I went for it.

“I’m guessing your other job doesn’t require a steady hand?” she snorted as she watched me down another eight ounces of pure caffeine.

“Oh, it totally does, but it’s more important for me to be awake there than it is for me to steady,” I said, though that was definitely a lie. My boss almost sent me home during one of my first few nights of shakiness. I wasn’t caffeine-loaded, I was just nervous and when I shattered a martini glass in front of VIP guests, she told me to get my shit together or go home.

Another bad decision in the books!I thought as I continued chugging my coffee.

I wasn’t usually so jovial when I thought about my poor life choices, but this was basically me in do or die mode. I had to smile to try to convince myself that I wasn’t slowly dying inside despite the poor sleep, the nonstop work and the never-ending thoughts about Emmett.

After reactivating my Facebook last night, I’d done another stupid thing this morning and Googled Drew Maddox.

I’d been doing it periodically to see if any stories about his nighttime escapades would include pictures of him with Emmett. I knew they had to be out together. Drew was Emmett’s fellow party animal before I moved into his summer home, and there was no way in hell they hadn’t resumed their late-night lifestyle in the past three weeks.

So all I needed to send myself in a tizzy this morning was a headline that screamed MADDOX SCORES SWIMSUIT MODEL DURING BOYS’ NIGHT ON THE TOWN!

The only picture included was one of Drew leaving a club with some gorgeous brunette, but the article did mention that he had “three buddies in tow” and now I couldn’t stop imagining another girl’s hands running down Emmett’s washboard abs. I couldn’t stop imagining those low, sexy groans of his when he got his hands on a pair of tits, and that resulted in me taking a break in the office by 2PM – which meant ten minutes of me resting my head in my arms on the desk while begging myself to stop thinking about him.

I was halfway through my break when Hannah knocked on the door.

“Aly?”

I lifted my head. “Yes?”

“There’s a lady at the raw bar who asked if you were working today – she said she’s an old friend from high school?”

I sat straight up. “What?”

“She said – ”

“Sorry! You don’t have to keep talking through the door, I’m coming out!”

I knew I looked as confused as possible when I came out because Hannah kind of giggled and said, “Breathe. She seems nice,” as she walked with me through the kitchen and then out to the dining room.

All I needed was one glance at the bar to know who I was looking at.

My instinct was to grin.

“Kelsey?” I said, my eyes wide as I watched that head of bright red hair turn around.

“Holy shit! You look so different!” she gasped right away, clasping both hands to her mouth.

“You do too!”

The next few minutes was comprised of squealing and hugging and pulling back from our hugs in shock to note another different thing about each other’s appearances. After introducing Kelsey to Evie as my best friend from high school, I finally thought to ask why the heck she’d decided to show up this morning.

“Well, I saw you back on Facebook for the first time in forever!” Kelsey laughed as Evie and I rounded the bar to talk to her from the other side. “You liked a picture of my cat!”

“I did?”

“Yeah! But maybe you didn’t realize it was me? I changed my name to initials so my employers can’t find me,” she snorted. “But yeah, I saw that notification and was like, ‘whoa. Blast from the past.’ And your profile didn’t have any new info on it so I may or may not have Googled you and found a bunch of articles about this place – which is amazing by the way. Holy shit, woman! What’s this about the lobster roll and the Blood Mary?”

“The Hail Mary, and I’m going to make you one now – you’re gonna love it,” Evie said with a grin that grew to a hearty laugh when a few minutes later, Kelsey took her first sip.

“Holy crap. This is strong. It’s a good thing you include a meal with it so I don’t get immediately shitfaced,” she said, popping the poached shrimp into her mouth while plucking the lobster claw off the side of the glass.

“But do you like it?” Evie asked.

“Oh, I’m definitely gonna need another one in two minutes.”

Evie grinned at me with a thumb pointed at Kelsey. “I like her,” she declared shortly before the lunch rush rolled in.

And for the rest of the afternoon – between managing the restaurant, solving server dramas and making sure tables were happy – I checked in on Kelsey, catching up with her a minute or two at a time.

Apparently, she lived on Long Island now with her husband and her deeply spoiled cat. She worked in insurance but got to do so from home, so much of her time was also spent selling homemade jewelry on Etsy, and she still kept in touch with some of our old friends from high school, but mostly not.

“I actually cut out some friends by senior year because of how shitty they were about the thing with you and… that asshole,” she said, finishing her sentence with a grimace as she eyed me. “Sorry. Should I not be talking about that?”

“Mr. Scott?” I asked. “Oh, I don’t care. He’s not really a big deal to me,” I said truthfully. In all honesty, I barely thought of my old English teacher. Whenever my mind visited that part of my past, it thought mostly of Emmett, and judging from the way Kelsey went quiet, she could tell.

“Should I get going? You guys are busy,” she said suddenly.

“Oh God, stop. No. You’re fine,” I reassured her. “If I look out of it, it’s because I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Well, yeah, you were trolling Facebook at 2AM,” she teased just as Evie rounded into the bar to make a cappuccino. “Though in your defense, if I reactivated my Facebook after more than ten years away, I’d have stayed up the whole night stalking the shit out of people.” She sipped on the last of her drink. “I mean I still do that, actually.”

“Really?” Evie giggled. “Me too. I still stalk like, people I hooked up with once when I was a sophomore.”

“Same. Though the hook-up I still stalk happened my junior year…” Kelsey said, trailing off as she watched me process what she was saying. “Am I allowed to talk about Emmett Hoult, or no? Because I did run into him a few years ago… and we may or may not have talked about you.”

My eyebrows lifted as a gasp ripped from Evie’s throat.

“Oh my God – spill!” she hissed almost demonically. Kelsey bit a grin back but looked at me first.

“First things first, can I just say that I’m sorry I hooked up with him back then when you told me not to?” she asked, laughing sheepishly at herself. “I mean I’d literally watched a bunch of our friends lose their minds after hooking up with him once and never getting to talk to him again, and I still did it.”

“I mean who could blame you?” I shrugged, the topic of Emmett making me feel dead inside. “He was gorgeous. He was the one all the girls wanted.”

“True. Though I don’t think I ever told you the drunken shit he said to me the night we hooked up. I was too heartbroken that he was ignoring me, just like I knew he would,” Kelsey snorted, rolling her eyes at herself.

“What’d he say?” Evie asked, abandoning the cappuccino she was making to hover over the counter.

“Well, we were in Greg Barton’s bedroom, and Emmett was all drunk and just laughing and groaning and hesitating to kiss me. He kept saying, ‘This one might really fuck up my chances in the future, ‘cause you’re her actual best friend.’”

I wore a blank look as Evie gasped again.

“Yeah,” Kelsey said, nodding at whatever shocked look Evie was wearing on her face.

“Well, fuck me! That means he was always in love with Aly!” she whispered furiously as Kelsey smirked and shrugged.

“I mean I think so. Pretty sure everything he did back then was to get your attention, Aly. He just didn’t know what he was feeling because teenage boys are stupid. Almost as stupid as teenage girls,” she said, jabbing her thumb at herself. “Anyway, less juicy story – I ran into him a few years ago and asked if he’d seen you because you weren’t on Facebook anymore and you have like, no social media. And he said he hadn’t, but he heard you were doing good and that was all that mattered to him. The end,” she said, giving another shrug as if to say sorry that was boring.

I shook my head as if to say it wasn’t.

Because for some reason, that story resonated more with me than the other one. Or maybe just as much. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it even as Evie engaged Kelsey in a discussion of her brand new theories about Emmett.

I was still thinking about it even after the lunch rush, so while Evie and Kelsey chatted at the bar, I excused myself to the office to go back on Facebook. I sank into my chair, kicked off my shoes, and hugged my knees to my chest as I forced myself to return to my inbox and finally open Emmett’s message from ten years ago.

Hey.

I know you’re not gonna read this because you haven’t read any of my messages but you haven’t blocked me yet either so whatever. I don’t really have anything important to say. It’s just Sunday and we’re all at my parents house in the city for the wake, and everyone just left but your mom and dad are still here.

Your mom said you were sorry you couldn’t make it because school’s been crazy but she made a “yea we both know she’s lying” face which would’ve been funny if it didn’t kind of feel like shit.

But I get it, Aly. If I were you I think I’d probably hate me too so I get it. Please feel free to keep ignoring me - I’m just going to keep typing here though because it feels better.

It’s just weird being in this house on a Sunday with my mom and your parents because I keep getting up to look for you but you’re not here. And I keep thinking I hear my dad yelling for me to come downstairs but he’s not here either. Not really at least.

It’s crazy. Everything’s just so off and I feel like I’m going nuts, like I’m the only one who notices it or cares.

Mom hasn’t talked to Julian in days. I’ve never seen her like this before and I wish you could be here and see it so you could help me figure out if this is normal for what’s going on right now, or if I should be worried. I don’t know no one ever believes me but I just have this bad feeling like it’s not over yet - like Dad is gone and everything is shit right now but there’s more coming and I can feel it. I swear to God if you were here you’d agree with me.

I really just wish you were here, Aly.

I know that’s stupid to say but I miss you like fucking crazy and I can’t talk to my friends about family stuff. They don’t get how we are but you do so that’s why I’m talking to you like this. You’re not actually here but you’re still better than them.

Anyway if for some reason you read this I just want to say again that I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know he was going to send you to boarding school and I already told you how I tried talking him out of it but that was three messages ago. I just don’t know how to fix things. Everything’s fucked up right now and I just want to talk to you because believe it or not I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the day you left. And right now I’m pretty sure I need you.

Your parents are leaving now and I have to say bye but if you read this can you call me? Or just text me and end it with ‘don’t text me back’ and I won’t. If I’m not okay I just want to know that at least you are.

Miss you like crazy.

Emmett