Secondhand Boyfriends

by Jessa Jeffries

  Sam climbed out and popped his hood. He’d had that Jeep since long before we ever got together. It was easily ten years old, but he loved it to pieces. He had always vowed never to get rid of it until it was absolutely dead.

  “Sam,” Ayla whined. “I told you to get rid of this thing. We’re going car shopping first thing next Saturday.”

  Sam said nothing as he inspected random things under the hood and checked fluids and who knows what else. He was a smart guy, but he was never that great with mechanics. His talents were always best utilized for computers and video games. The guy hated to get his hands dirty.

  “Would you like a jump?” I heard Bennett ask them once again.

  “I think Sam’s got it under control,” Ayla said to Bennett. From far away, I could hear the irritation in her voice. “Sam, I’m calling triple A.”

  She raised her cell phone to her ear and waived her hand towards Bennett to leave.

  He turned back towards me, shrugged, and made his way back to his car.

  “She’s so freaking rude,” I snipped as he got back in. “What’s her problem?”

  “No clue,” Bennett said before reaching down and turning on the radio.

  Exiting the parking garage felt like some sort of maze, but several minutes later we made it to the ground level and were back on the city streets of Harrisville. Bennett was quiet, almost too quiet, as we drove back to our neck of the woods.

  “Thanks for coming with me tonight,” I said as I playfully rubbed his thigh. “I know it wasn’t exciting. Or fun.”

  Bennett said nothing.

  “I appreciate it,” I continued. I just wanted him to say something. Anything.

  I glanced over at him and he shrugged his shoulders, still saying nothing.

  “Can I just say something?” I asked. I was growing more and more irritated at his silence. I didn’t deserve it. I’d been nothing but sweet to him all night, at least in my mind.

  “What the hell is going on between you and Ayla?” I asked. “Why does she seem so annoyed with you? I’ve never known anyone to treat an acquaintance that way.”

  “Beats me,” he said as his eyes focused on the street and late night traffic. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “No,” I said as I turned my whole body towards him. “I don’t buy that.”

  We came to a stop at a red light. Sitting a good nine or ten cars back, we were probably going to have to sit through at least two green lights.

  “What don’t you buy?” he asked with a nervous chuckled as he turned to me.

  “The way you two talk to each other,” I said. “There’s animosity there.”

  He shook his head.

  “Did you date her?” I asked him point blank. “I don’t care if you did. I just want some of this to make an ounce of sense.”

  “I don’t talk about ex-girlfriends,” he said. “Not saying I dated her. I’m just saying, my past is my past. I don’t talk about whom I’ve dated or any of that.”

  He was really starting to piss me off, and in the heat of the moment, I could’ve given two shits that I was wearing the most uncomfortable high heels in the entire universe.

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and grabbed my clutch. The stoplight turned green.

  “Hey, where are you going?” he asked, bewildered.

  “I can walk from here,” I said as I opened the car door and climbed out.

  The look on his face was priceless, but I didn’t appreciate being lied to. I had decided to look the other way at the banquet, but their performance at the martini bar was where I drew the line.

  “Come on, Olivia,” he said through the rolled down passenger window as his car crawled alongside me.

  My heels clicked on the pavement, each step growing more painful than the one before. My heels were on fire, but I didn’t care.

  “Get back in the car,” he said. He leaned over and pushed the passenger door open, but it promptly slammed back shut with the force of the moving car.

  “No,” I said. “Have a good night, Bennett.”

  I took a few steps further away from the curb and ignored anything else he was yelling out the window. Eventually he gunned it and zoomed away.

  Fortunately, I was only a few blocks from home. By the time I’d reached my apartment, I collapsed into a heap on the sofa. I couldn’t kick my heels off fast enough. A perfect night had quickly gone to ruin, leaving me with nothing but burning feet and a bruised ego.

  CHAPTER 11

  Monday morning finally rolled around after a long and depressing Sunday. I’d spent most of the day in sweats, lying under my warm, downy duvet and watching sappy Lifetime movies in bed.

  “You’ve got to be upset if you’re watching Lifetime movies. You hate movies,” Claudia said as she walked in and sat on my bed mid-morning. “What the hell happened last night?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I sighed. I did but I didn’t. It was all I could think about as my mind replayed each and every segment of the night before all morning long. “I think Bennett and I are over.”

  “Really?” Claudia said as she inched closer to me. Her eyes were as big as saucers. “I thought it was all going so well?”

  “It was going well,” I said. “Almost too well. Until last night.”

  I zipped my lips, not wanting to say a word more. I reached over almost instinctively and checked my phone. Part of me hoped that Bennett would send me a text or reach out to me, but he didn’t. He was silent the entire day.

  By the time I got to work Monday morning, I looked like a hot mess. I hadn’t even bothered to put on an ounce of makeup that day, and my hair was pulled back into a low ponytail.

  I trudged along with my head held low and made my way to my little cubicle. As soon as I sat down, I was greeted with the biggest, most colorful flower arrangement I’d ever seen.

  Not believing it was for me, I glanced around the office to see if anyone had seen it being dropped off. I rifled through the exotic assorted flowers looking for a card of some sort, finally finding it buried behind an iris.

  “Bennett,” I said as I read the card and clutched it close to my chest. It was an apology.

  I smiled for the first time in over a day and sank down happily in my seat as I admired the gorgeous pretties in front of me. I leaned up and sniffed a few of them, taking in their sweet, subtle fragrances.

  “Flowers?” It was Julianne. “From that guy you brought to the banquet?”

  She walked up and sniffed the bouquet, just as I’d done, and smiled bright.

  “They’re gorgeous,” she said. “I see some exotics in there. This bouquet is not cheap!”

  I smiled and ran my finger across the soft petal of some wildly yellow flower I’d never seen in my life.

  “So, good morning,” Julianne said as she parked herself on the edge of my desk. “How was the little double date thing I arranged on Saturday?”

  Her face was lit up like the Fourth of July and her eyebrows were wiggling. I’d never seen her so excited. I couldn’t let her down.

  “It went well,” I said with a fake smile. “It was fun.”

  “Great, great,” she said as she slapped her knee with her hand. “I knew you four would hit it off.”

  I nodded and smiled, not wanting to say anything more. The details were better left unsaid at this point.

  “You know,” she said. “Ayla doesn’t have a lot of girlfriends. She never really has, and I just don’t understand it.”

  Ayla’s bitchy face popped into my head, and it took everything I had not to tell Julianne that I probably had a good idea as to why that was.

  “Would you ever want to hang out with her?” Julianne asked. “I know it’s weird. I’m her stepmom and trying to make friends for her, but her wedding’s coming up and I just know she could use someone to talk to.”

  “Doesn’t she have bridesmaids?” I asked.

  “All cousins,” Julianne said in
a flat tone. “Every last one. Pretty sure they all can’t stand her, too. They’ve always been jealous of her for some reason.”

  “That’s too bad,” I said, feigning sympathy.

  “Anyway, would you care if I set something up for you and Ayla? Coffee or something?” she asked with wide, hopeful eyes.

  “No, not at all,” I said. How could I say no to my boss?

  “Wonderful,” she said. “I’m glad to hear that! I just really want her to have a good friend. Especially since she’s getting married, you know? Sam’s going to be her entire world. That’s just not healthy.”

  She took a sip of her coffee before standing up to leave.

  “Julianne,” I said as I tried to catch her before she wandered off. “I have a weird question for you.”

  “Sure,” she said with one hand on her hip. Her blue eyes stared into mine through her thick-rimmed glasses.

  “Do you know Bennett?” I asked. “My date? You said at the banquet that he looked familiar.”

  She pinched her face and looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought.

  “You know, he did look really familiar to me,” she said. “But it’s so hard to say.”

  “Oh, okay,” I replied. I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice. I was hoping she’d be the key to unlock the secret. “You don’t think he dated Ayla, do you?”

  Julianne laughed. “There’s a very real chance. She’s dated a lot of men. I don’t think I’ve met most of them. Some I’ve only met once or twice. I can’t keep track of them all. Maybe that’s why he looked so familiar?”

  If Julianne was right, it would’ve made perfect sense.

  “Sam’s the only guy that’s ever really stuck around,” Julianne said with a fond smile at the mention of his name. “He’s been her longest relationship, if that says anything.”

  “How long have they been dating?” I asked, playing dumb.

  “Less than a year,” Julianne laughed. “That’s all I know. I hope that whatever she did to scare away all the other guys, she doesn’t do the same thing to Sam!”

  Julianne tapped the back of my chair.

  “I better get to work.” She turned on her heels and walked down the hall.

  Again, a pang of jealousy coursed through my body. Sam was marrying into that family whether I liked it or not, and they loved him. They loved him more than my parents ever loved him, and my parents were crazy about him. He was really lucky, and given his current circumstances, it was no wonder he had no intentions of ever having anything to do with me again.

  CHAPTER 12

  “I can’t believe you’re going out for coffee with Ayla Giovanni,” Claudia said as she perched on the edge of my bed while I got ready.

  “You’re telling me,” I lamented as I swiped on some blush. “I don’t want to go.”

  “I know you don’t,” Claudia said with sympathetic eyes. Secretly, I figured she was probably entertained by all of this.

  “Sam’s going to think I’m up to something,” I said.

  “Screw what Sam thinks,” she replied. “It’s not about Sam. You’re doing your boss a favor.”

  “True,” I agreed.

  “If Sam and Ayla weren’t dating, and your boss asked you to get coffee with Ayla, you’d have still done it, right?” Claudia stated.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “There you go,” she said. “Has nothing to do with Sam.”

  I checked my watch. “I gotta go.”

  “Good luck,” Claudia said with a wink and a laugh. “I’ll be thinking of you.”

  I rolled my eyes and bolted out the door. We were supposed to meet at some coffee shop halfway between her place and mine. I tried to take comfort in the fact that she was probably dreading it just as much as I was.

  “Ayla, hi,” I said as I walked in the door. I was a few minutes late, and she seemed annoyed. Then again, when didn’t she seem annoyed?

  Her long, dark hair was pulled back into a low, ballerina bun. She was wearing Aztec print leggings, brown, leather booties, and a button down, silky blouse. Only she could pull off that look.

  I immediately felt frumpy next to her in my jeans and top, but I brushed it off. She had already ordered a coffee and was sipping on it while checking her phone.

  “I’m going to grab a drink,” I said, getting back up.

  I returned with my warm mug of Chai and took a seat across from her.

  “I think it’s cute that Julianne is trying to…” I trailed off as I saw her face. I guess it really wasn’t cute. It was rather sad and pathetic. “She really cares about you.”

  Ayla shrugged and sipped her coffee.

  “So your wedding is coming up,” I said in an attempt to make conversation.

  “Yep,” she said with a smile.

  “How did you meet Sam?” I asked. I couldn’t help myself, and it seemed like a natural question.

  “Friends,” she replied. She was clearly in a one-word answer kind of mood. So rude.

  I wondered what mutual friends they had, but of course I couldn’t ask that.

  “That’s nice,” I said. “It’s good to have mutual friends.”

  Julianne said Ayla didn’t have any friends, I remembered. I wouldn’t have put it past Sam to have an online dating profile somewhere. I laughed on the inside as I was pretty sure that’s how they met. It was the only thing that made sense.

  “So are you excited to get married?” I asked.

  She glanced up at me over her mug of steamy coffee and scrunched her eyebrows.

  “Yeah?” she said in an almost offended tone. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  She had no personality. Zero. What the hell did Sam see in her?

  “Tell me about Sam,” I said. “What’s he like?”

  Her demeanor instantly changed and her shoulders seemed to relax a bit while her face softened.

  “He’s wonderful,” she said. For the first time since I’d formally met her, a genuine smile spread across her full, supermodel lips. “He’s more than I could ever ask for. More than I deserve, probably. He’s my whole world.”

  “How nice,” I said. On the inside, I died a little. That described him perfectly and I knew it.

  “He’s so good to me,” she continued. “He makes me breakfast in bed on my days off. He takes me shopping and spends hours waiting while I try on the entire store. He always lets me pick the movies and the restaurants.”

  “That’s good,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. That was Sam for sure.

  She rambled on a bit more about how great Sam was, but after a bit I tuned it all out. I already knew all those things.

  CHAPTER 13

  I couldn’t get out of that little coffee house fast enough. A half hour with Ayla Giovanni was a half hour too much. What the hell did Sam see in her? She was so into herself and so self-absorbed.

  My feet carried me swiftly down the sidewalk and back towards my apartment. I picked up my phone to dial Claudia, but she didn’t answer. I wanted to vent. I wanted to tell the whole world that Ayla Giovanni was nothing but a silly, vapid girl and that Sam was making a huge mistake. If he didn’t want to be with me, fine, but why her? Why someone so shallow?

  My fingers hovered over Bennett’s name on my phone. I still needed to thank him for the flowers. I’d sent him a text earlier, but it wasn’t the same. I bit my lip, swallowed a gulp of air, and pressed his name on the screen.

  “Hey, Liv,” he said as he picked up in the middle of the second ring.

  “Hi,” I said with a sheepish tone.

  “What’s up?”

  “I just wanted to thank you again for the pretty flowers,” I said. That and I just wanted an excuse to call him and hear his voice. “What are you up to?”

  “Just hanging out at home,” he said. “Long day at work.”

  By the sounds of his voice, he was lying down. I was pretty sure I could hear the TV on in the background as well and it sounde
d like ESPN or something sports related.

  “Do you want to maybe come over tonight and hang out for a bit? Claudia’s with Eric,” I said. I cringed. I didn’t want him to think I was insinuating anything simply because Claudia wasn’t home. I hoped he didn’t take it that way.

  “Um, sure,” he said at length. He must have been thinking about it.

  “If there’s a game on or something, I understand,” I interjected.

  “No, no,” he said. “It’s fine. I’ll be over in a bit.”

  By the time we hung up, I was climbing the stairs to my apartment. I rushed in to change into something more casual, then waited on the sofa for him to knock on the door. A good twenty minutes later and he was there, in the flesh.

  “Hey,” I said with a grin as I let him in. “Thanks for hanging out with me tonight.”

  “No problem,” he said. “I’m glad you called. I was beginning to think I’d royally screwed this up.”

  I waved my hand in front of my face and smiled. I really didn’t want to talk about last weekend. It was over and done with. No use in rehashing it.

  “Why don’t you have a seat and make yourself comfortable?” I asked while I pointed to the couch.

  He kicked off his shoes while I ran to the kitchen and retrieved an icy cold beer for him like the good little prospective girlfriend I was.

  “Oh, wow,” he said. “Thank you.”

  “I hope you like pale ale,” I said. “It’s all we have right now.”

  “Beer is beer,” he said. “This is perfect.”

  I sat down next to him and kicked my legs over his lap before handing him the remote.

  “I’m pretty sure you were watching basketball when I called you earlier,” I said with a wink.

  His face lit up. He was probably shocked that I was being so cool about everything. I could tell.

  He flipped on the T.V. and instantly tuned it to some college game. If he absolutely had to watch the game, I was glad he was going to be watching it with me.

  I grabbed one of Claudia’s many gossip magazines from the coffee table, repositioned the sofa cushion behind me, and got comfortable. If I didn’t know any better, we were settling into a relaxing Monday evening like some boring old couple. It felt good to have that with someone. I hadn’t had that for almost a year.