Enemies with Benefits

Chapter Thirty-Six

- Rachel -

My toes and fingertips were all but numb. My ass was numb. God, I'd forgotten how cold the city got in these damn rows of buildings. They were the perfect setup for wind tunnels, and my circulation was paying the price. I got up, moving around a bit to try to warm myself up.

I checked my phone. Three a.m.

Where the heck is—

"Rach?"

I turned at Hailey's voice. Walking towards me in a long wool coat, she looked like she fit in a hell of a lot more than I did anymore.

"What are you doing here? Much less alone out here at three in the morning?"

"I texted you," I waved my phone around like she might be able to see what I meant without opening the messages. "I wanted to see you, plus I missed this place."

Mostly the truth. I always wanted to see her. And I did miss the city—in theory. The smells and noises were—

A loud bunch of honks and distant yelling of curses sounded, and I couldn't help but laugh a bit.

Hailey looked at me as though the traffic had just called me on my bullshit. "You sure?"

I laughed again, harder this time. She had me there.

"I'm sorry, I never saw your text. It's been a long night," Hailey explained as she unlocked the door of her building.

When she started up the stairs, I caught sight of the design on her stockings beneath her long coat. The only reason I knew them to be thigh highs was because I'd been with her when she'd bought them, saying she had to have them for her favorite lingerie.

I snorted a knowing laugh and flicked the fabric of her coat up, tossing the material up like a light breeze would've. "Yeah, I see that. Hot date, huh?"

She shot me a wink over her shoulder.

Her apartment was messier than I'd ever seen it, though I just attributed that to her having been in California the last almost two weeks. But as she stood in the kitchen in her changed shorts and oversized sweater, her back to me as I heard the glasses clinking from cupboard to counter, I frowned at the lack of warmth I was used to from her. The lack of flowing conversation I was used to hearing. The lack of life I was used to seeing.

Then, she turned to me and caught my eye, and her head started bobbing to whatever internal song she started to sing. With a laugh and the realization that I was merely overthinking in my own current state, I shrugged my puffy jacket off and tossed it over the back of the couch.

Hailey held a glass of red out to me. "Talk to me, Goose."

I laughed again and shook my head, settling on the comfortable cushions of the couch. "What makes you think there's something to talk about?"

"Well," she sipped from her own wine, "because you're here. In New York. At three in the morning."

"Okay, that's fair. I just," I started tapping the pad of my finger on the curved glass of my cup. "Caleb asked me if I was sure I wanted to be with him."

Hailey eyed me up with a wide, judgmental stare. "And your answer wasn't just to go home and think, nor to just leave the room. But you decided to leave the entire fucking state and top that dramatic answer off by coming to the whole ass other side of the country?"

I rolled my eyes and set my wine on the table, maneuvering through the clutter of mail and belongings. "No, you dick. But we did decide to take a sec and let the truth mellow out between us, and we wanted to give each other time to miss one another. Or—" I sighed, sinking into the cushions behind me.