Just Tell Her

by Nicole Pyland

  “Hey, you’re up early,” she said to Hailey and then put her headphones in.

  “Yeah. Going for a run?”

  “Yeah, Em’s still sleeping. I’ll probably be back before she wakes up, and I’ll make breakfast for us.”

  “Okay. Have a good run.” Hailey waved her off.

  “Thanks.” Eva smiled at her and then Hailey heard the front door close behind her.

  Eddie followed Eva at first, and then walked back over to where Hailey was on the couch and started doing his dance.

  “Let’s go, buddy.” She stood slowly and made her way over to the sliding glass door.

  She watched him burst outside and into the snow, as she opened it. She smiled and laughed as he went immediately to his rope toy, tossed it as high as he could, and then tried and failed to catch it in his mouth. He lost interest, and in the dim lighting of the backyard, she watched him do his business and then run around in the snow for a few moments before making his way back to the door, which she re-opened to let him back inside. He shook his head and his tail to get the snow off and made a dash up the stairs. Her eyes got big as she realized he intended to go into the guest room and would likely wake Charlie. She followed, whispering after him to try to get his attention, but he beat her into the room and made his way over to his blanket. He turned to glance in her direction, decided he didn’t care that she was calling him, and flopped down onto his makeshift bed, appearing content.

  “I’m awake, Hails,” Charlie greeted her in the moonlit room.

  “I’m sorry. He wanted out, so I let him; but then, he just came up here. I couldn’t stop him,” Hailey returned.

  She could only make out Charlie’s shape since it appeared Eva had turned off the hall light when she’d gone for her run.

  “It’s okay. I was already up,” she admitted.

  “Couldn’t sleep either?” Hailey chanced.

  “No.” Charlie reached for the lamp and flipped the switch, giving them a little light to see one another, and also to cause Eddie to lift his head hopefully, but when Charlie didn’t move to get up, he lowered it again. “I failed miserably at sleep. Thanks for letting him out.”

  “Of course,” Hailey replied. “Eva went for a run. Em will probably be up soon. Eva said she’ll make breakfast when she gets back. I’ll go back downstairs. Maybe you can get a little sleep before the day starts.”

  “I doubt that,” Charlie shared.

  “It’s weird, huh?” Hailey suggested and sat on the edge of the bed.

  “We’re going on a date. Yeah, that’s weird.” Charlie sat up and nodded.

  “When?”

  “Huh?” Charlie finally looked at her.

  “When are we going out?”

  “Oh.” Charlie widened her eyes as if that would help wake her up before making them normal size again. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about that. I’ve been lying here the whole night trying to figure out if I imagined the whole thing or if it really happened.”

  Hailey smiled and shook her head sideways.

  “You are very sweet, Charlie Adams. It’s cute, and I don’t know how I’ve missed it before.”

  “What about tonight?” Charlie suggested.

  “Go on a date with you tonight?” Hailey repeated because she needed a moment.

  “Or not. We can do it another time,” Charlie backtracked.

  “Tonight,” Hailey stated. “Yeah.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Tonight, but I think I need to wrap up this little planning fest with these two, so I can head home and take a nap.” She stood. “And I want to plan it.”

  “Plan the nap?” Charlie was tired.

  “Plan the date,” Hailey corrected.

  “You want to plan our date?”

  “Yes,” Hailey told her. “I would like to plan our first date.”

  “Okay.” Charlie seemed relieved and, also, somewhat surprised.

  “So, let’s make enough noise to wake Ember up and then pretend like we didn’t do it on purpose, go downstairs, eat breakfast with them, and then head out.”

  Charlie nodded her assent with a coy smile.

  ◆◆◆

  Charlie made it downstairs after changing, let Eddie back outside for one last round of fun in the snow, and made her way into the kitchen, where she saw Ember standing next to the coffee maker, rubbing her eyes. She found Hailey standing at the counter, stirring coffee with a spoon. She slid it across the counter in Charlie’s direction. Charlie took it with a smile and then Ember passed the next full cup to Hailey, who added her own sugar, while Ember made a cup for herself. This all happened silently and worked like an amazing assembly line, even when Eva came into the room after a short shower and Ember passed her a cup as well. Once they all had their coffee, Hailey and Charlie leaned over the counter and watched Eva attempt to make them omelets. She’d told them she’d been working on her cooking. They tried not to mock her too much, when the first one she made flipped half out of the pan. Ember said she’d eat it anyway, though.

  Charlie felt a hand on the small of her back. She turned to see Hailey nod in the direction of the window, where Eddie was standing, tilting his head. She headed over and let him in, but still felt the touch of Hailey’s hand on her back even when she returned. Ember seemed to be staring at them and moving her eyes back and forth, as if she felt like she understood something, but wasn’t saying anything about it, because she wasn’t sure. Eva finished up their omelets. Charlie marveled at how quickly Hailey was consuming the food, because she knew how Hailey’s brain worked. She was probably already trying to figure out what they would do on their date, what she would wear, and about a hundred other things. Charlie had to admit that despite her slightly more butch appearance, thanks mostly to the pixie cut hair she got because a hair stylist years ago told her it would work for her shape, people assumed, especially the women she dated, that she was likely to be a more dominant woman in a relationship. The women she dated expected her to want to be a top in bed, to plan dates and pull out all the romantic stops. While she had no problem with any of it, she secretly just wanted someone to recognize that she wasn’t like that. She wouldn’t mind a little romance being thrown in her direction and having someone else taking the lead at least once in a while.

  “So, I think I’m going to go,” Hailey said after the dishes had been cleaned.

  “Oh, I thought you were staying. I was going to check out my dress later,” Eva announced.

  “I’m not really feeling well,” Hailey replied. “I didn’t sleep well. I think I just need to go home and get some rest.”

  “You do, huh?” Ember squinted her eyes in Hailey’s direction.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “I’m going to go too. I have some work to do this weekend,” Charlie added.

  “Where was this work yesterday?” Ember questioned.

  “It was at my apartment where it is now, Ember.” Charlie practically gritted her teeth until Ember stopped squinting at her. “So, I’m going to go do it now then.”

  “Fine. Go do your work, and you go feel better,” she told Hailey.

  “Okay,” Hailey said.

  “I have no idea what’s going on, but you two can go whenever you want, and I think maybe you need some more sleep, babe,” Eva joined in and placed a hand on Ember’s shoulder.

  “Yes, sleep,” Charlie suggested. “Get some sleep, Em.”

  “Call me later, Charlie,” Ember told her. “You too, Hails.”

  “We will,” Hailey stated, and then her eyes grew three sizes. “I mean, I will, and she will. We will, but separately.”

  “Okay. Bye.” Charlie stood and moved quickly to grab her things and to get Eddie ready to go.

  They made their great escape out to Hailey’s car. Charlie had ordered herself an Uber while inside the house.

  “Are you sure you won’t let me drive you? This is ridiculous,” Hailey asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Charlie replied.

  “Fine,
weirdo.” She chuckled at her. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  Hailey smiled and then climbed inside her car. Charlie watched her head out of the driveway as her own ordered car arrived.

  ◆◆◆

  Hailey went to work as soon as she got home. She knew exactly what she wanted to do and needed her computer to find out if it was possible. She spent one hour researching and finalized the plan. She called Charlie and made plans to pick her up at six for their date before she climbed into bed. She was excited and had a hard time falling asleep, but, eventually, exhaustion overtook her. She got a couple of solid hours before she had to get up to get ready. After her shower, she searched for something to wear that would be appropriate for the evening and heard her phone ring in the kitchen. She saw Emma’s name on the screen when she picked it up, and for a moment, she wasn’t sure how she felt. She’d never dated two women at once. It was strange. She didn’t know if she should answer a phone call from Emma when she was about to go out on a date with Charlie. She’d promised to be honest with Emma though, so she leaned toward telling her about the date, but she also didn’t know if it would even be worth mentioning.

  If the date went wrong or either of them determined they weren’t interested in pursuing it, it wouldn’t matter, and if it went well, she could tell Emma then. She also didn’t want to lie to her about her plans. She knew if she answered, they would come up. She wasn’t the type of person to tell Emma she was stuck wedding planning when really she was out with Charlie; and if she said she was free, Emma would likely want to come over or for Hailey to go over to her place. Hailey ignored the call and went back to getting ready.

  She settled on her outfit and pulled her hair back. Once she felt ready, she stared at herself in the mirror for several minutes, finding non-existent lint on her sweater and trying to get a flyaway piece of hair in place. She checked the time and knew she needed to leave if she didn’t want to be late. She decided she looked as good as she was going to, grabbed her coat and purse, and went to pick up Charlie for their date.

  ◆◆◆

  Charlie Adams paced in her apartment. It was 5:53 pm. If Charlie knew Hailey, and she did, then she knew she’d be at least five minutes early. That gave Charlie two minutes to find a way to get rid of the nervous energy that had prevented her from sleeping all day and last night, despite how unbelievably tired she was. Eddie was restless too and didn’t seem to know what to do with himself, so he just kept walking around the apartment in his own brand of pacing.

  “Shit.” Hailey walked into the apartment and saw Charlie’s surprise. “I used my key.” She held up the key card she’d had since Charlie moved in. “I meant to knock, and I used my key. I’m sorry.” She closed the door, leaving herself in the hallway.

  Charlie stood still about ten feet away from the door, not sure what just happened or what she should do about it. Then, there was a knock on the door, and she rolled her eyes at Hailey before walking to it and pulling it open.

  “Better?” Charlie questioned with a smile.

  “Hey, I’m trying to make this a real date here and not just me coming over to hang out.”

  Charlie nearly melted at the sentiment.

  “Sorry,” she replied.

  “You ready? Does Eddie need to go out?”

  “No, I knew you’d be early, so I already took him,” Charlie shared and took Hailey in. She looked beautiful. She was dressed somewhat casually, in a pair of form-fitting jeans and probably a sweater under her tweed jacket. “You look nice.”

  “So do you,” Hailey complimented. “Let’s go.”

  Charlie pulled on her coat, checked her pockets to make sure she had everything as a stall, because the nervous energy hadn’t yet gone away, and she hoped that the extra few seconds would make it evaporate and leave her feeling confident and ready for this. It didn’t.

  “So, where are we going?” Charlie asked once they were in Hailey’s car and had been on the road for about ten minutes.

  Neither of them had spoken since the apartment. Charlie knew they were likely both nervous, but she also wondered if this was a good sign, because people typically talked on first dates.

  “It’s a surprise.” Hailey turned to her with a smile. “I just hope you like it.”

  “I thought we were just grabbing dinner and, maybe, going to a movie. I even checked some movie times just in case.”

  “Of course, you did. I told you I was planning this date. I came up with something else,” Hailey told her. “Do you want music?”

  Hailey turned on the radio. Charlie saw her hand tremble a little as she did. She wanted to take it and pull it into her lap, but she wasn’t sure if she should. They hadn’t discussed any of the physical stuff. Charlie didn’t know what was okay to do at the beginning of this date and didn’t want to ruin it before it even began. Twenty minutes later, they pulled up in front of a building that looked like a small warehouse. In fact, Charlie knew it was a small warehouse, because they were in the warehouse district. They were clearly parked in the back because there were no windows on the building. There were, however, a few more cars there, so there was definitely something going on.

  “Hails?”

  “Come on.” Hailey got out of the car without explanation and Charlie followed her. “So, this is a little crazy, and it’s really made for more people, but I called and made sure we could get a room all to ourselves.”

  “A room?” Charlie was confused until she saw an old-fashioned sign hanging above a door. “Trapped Cipher Room?” she asked and looked at Hailey.

  “Yeah. Come on, diamond thief. Let’s see how you are when you’re the good guy.” Hailey tugged on Charlie’s coat and opened the door for them. When they entered, they were in a small lobby with benches lining two walls and a giant chalkboard hanging on the third wall with the names of teams and times next to them. A short girl with a nose ring stood behind a counter, and Hailey walked up to her. “I’m Hailey Grant. I have a 6:30 reservation,” she told the girl.

  “Sure. You wanted the diamond caper room to yourself.” She typed something into a computer.

  “Yeah.” She turned to see Charlie behind her. “Are you coming?” She questioned with a smile.

  Charlie couldn’t believe it. Hailey had reserved them an escape room.

  “I can’t believe you did this,” Charlie told her when she stood next to her in front of the counter.

  “Follow me,” the girl stated and walked them back to a room where there were lockers for their belongings. “Ernie is going to walk you two through the rules. You can put your coats and purses in the lockers and keep the keys with you. You don’t have to lock up your phones, but we just request that you don’t use the phone for spoilers while in the room, and that you don’t ruin the fun for everyone else by ruining the magic,” the girl said in a monotone voice as if she’d delivered the same message a thousand times and hated her job.

  “Hey, ladies, I’m Ernie.” A stocky guy, probably in his mid-twenties, approached as they were stuffing their belongings into tiny lockers and tucking keys into their pockets. “I’m going to be your outside man tonight. You are insurance investigators, known worldwide for your ability to prevent the theft of priceless artifacts and jewelry. Through an interview with a known high-end jewelry thief, you know there is a two-hundred-and-fifty-carat diamond located inside the auction room of a century-old building. The potential thieves are on their way, and you need to prevent them from stealing the diamond to save your company the high payout and save the client from a major loss. The only problem is that the diamond is so important to the auction house that they’ve not only secured it, they’ve hidden it. The auction house and the diamond are owned by an eccentric old man, who’s been a victim of a theft too many times and has vowed to never let it happen again. His name is Anthony Miller. He’s recently had some problems with his memory, so he left himself clues to ensure he wouldn’t forget where the diamond is hidden and the location of th
e safe. Your job is simply to find the diamond and remove it from the auction house before the potential thieves arrive. Mr. Miller is currently on a plane and is unreachable, so you’ll have to do this on your own to prevent the theft. The good news is that I’ve got some information that can help you, and I’ll be right outside in the van, keeping a lookout.” He seemed really into his job. Charlie was trying to absorb the whole story but was having a difficult time, because she just kept thinking about how Hailey had done this for her based on a silly story about her favorite book and a memory from her childhood. He handed Hailey a walkie-talkie. “I’ll radio in anything I find on my own and if you need me, just radio. You can use the radio three times before the thieves will be able to tap into our frequency and know we’re here. We also need to catch them in the act, or they’ll just try it again later, so we’ll call the police when I see them outside and…” He kept talking.

  Charlie tried not to think about how ridiculous the scenario itself was and just enjoy the moment. Ernie finished up by telling them they’d be locked inside the room and would have sixty minutes to find the diamond. If they didn’t, the thieves would arrive, and all hope would be lost. He walked them to a door, opened it, and walked them in. He showed them the timer hanging above the door and told them to hit the button on the wall if they needed to evacuate, or, in reality, needed to give up, or there was an emergency. He wished them luck, set the timer, and closed the door behind them.