Hothead by Stella Rhys
27
EVIE
I’d gottenup early every day of the past week-and-a-half, mostly to avoid seeing Drew at home. So on Tuesday morning, knowing well that Drew was out early for a day game, I slept in and wound up waking to a series of weird texts from Aly that induced more than a few sleepy giggles.
“What the hell?” I mumbled, propping myself up on my elbow to better read her early morning craziness.
ALY:Hello???
ALY:Why won’t you pick up it’s already 7:45
ALY:CALL ME BACK PLEEEEASE
ALY:Fine you missed your window I’ll be busy for the next 2+ hours and then recovering for who knows how long and then back at it again k bye
I squinted at the text then the time. It was almost 10AM. According to her schedule, which used to be my schedule, she’d been at the restaurant for almost four hours now, so I had no idea what this could be about.
ME:Hellooo. Just called you back and you didn’t pick up wanna stop being weird and cryptic?
I lay around for a bit as I waited for her response and after about twenty minutes, it finally came.
In the form of a picture.
Of an enormous rock on her finger.
“Oh my God!” I shrieked, jolting upright in bed and immediately calling her. But she wound up interrupting my ringing with her texts.
ALY:Woman I can’t talk. I can barely breathe.
ME:Oh God you’ve been having sex all morning. That’s what you meant by the next 2 plus hours
ALY:Yes. I think I’m already pregnant
ME:I don’t think it works like that. Can we talk about that ring? IT’S AMAZING
ALY:I know. I’m dying. Aly Hoult. I’M GONNA BE MRS. EMMETT HOULT
I was giggling my ass off as she continued on with a dozen texts rattling off versions of her name. Alyson Hoult. Aly Stanton-Hoult. It ended when she realized A. Hoult sounded a little too much like “a-hole.”
ALY:Well that was fun while it lasted.
ME:Aly Hoult it is. So when are we celebrating and with who
ALY:Tonight 8PM location TBD. Iain and his girl Keira will be there and heads up she does not know about you and Drew so keep the act up. She’s a bit of a chatty one.
ME:How does that work when Iain hates extraneous chatter more than anything in the world??
ALY:I think because they’re two of the most blunt Type A personalities I’ve ever met and he gets to dominate where it counts, according to things I wish Emmett never told me
ME:Oh my. Can’t say I’m surprised
ALY: Speaking of doms though how’s your prick BF handling the ice out? Because if he’s pulled any more dick moves since that night he said the real ring/fake engagement shit, I will dom the shit out of Emmett and uninvite him from this dinner.
ME:No!! He’s Emmett’s best friend and this is Emmett’s night too. Plus it’s all good. I know I sounded ragey last week but he and I have struck a balance at home
Lie. Total lie.
Drew and I had not struck anything and the only reason I was able to maintain my all-business ground with him was because I wasn’t letting myself see him at all.
I wasn’t sure how successful I’d be otherwise because the one time I caught him coming down the stairs just as I was leaving the house, he was wearing only blue boxers, and I nearly drooled onto my shoes. That chest and those abs aside, just the way his eyes always found and locked on me caused such a physical reaction in my body. Every time.
That said I was no longer letting people get their way at my expense.
I just wasn’t.
For more than a year, I had agonized over fixing a relationship that Mike already knew was ending. He was just waiting out our lease so he could leave me in the most comfortable way possible, so I was done. Absolutely done being unwittingly convenient for others.
ALY: Well good! I’m so glad you figured out a way to deal with Drew. You might be the first one
ME:As long as he and I are in public I can handle anything thrown my way. Besides you are ENGAGED Aly!!! So don’t worry about me
ME:Tonight’s going to be perfect : )
