Nothing Less

Chapter Five.

"You're sure you're okay, right? Remember Sophia said you can stay with her for the weekend if you aren't comfortable."

The name Sophia feels odd in my mouth, but calling her Sophia helps me not ache at the sound of her name.

                        Tessa nods, "It's okay, really. I have to work most of the weekend anyway."

            I can't begin to guess how this weekend is going to go. It's either going to be a relief, the two of them holding hands and skipping down the road of reconciliation, or one of them may burn the place down. Hardin's known for burning buildings, but that's another story for another time. 

            "He's taking a cab from Newark, so he'll be here in about an hour, given the traffic," I close the door and look at Tessa. Panic bubbles in my chest.

            It's not fair for me to ask her to be okay with him coming here. I should have told him to stay in a hotel, there are hundreds in the city. Tessa is my best friend and I should have made him make other arrangements. Then again, the burning flames of hell can't keep that man away from her, so why try?

            I rub the stubble budding across my chin. "I feel like this isn't going to go well. I shouldn't have agreed to it.

            Tessa pulls my hands away from my face. "It's fine," her eyes are on mine, "I'm a big girl; I can handle a little Hardin Scott."

            I sigh. I know she can handle him. She's the only person in this universe that can handle him. That's not the problem. The problem is that handling him usually comes along with a war. I try to think of this situation as if it's a battle. Tessa on one side, her sword drawn, Nora and her army of books behind her. Then there's Hardin, stone faced and alone, his tank ready to roll over anyone in his way. I find myself in the middle of them, waving a puny little white flag, but preparing for carnage.

            I follow Tessa out into the living room to finish putting away the rest of the clean laundry.

            "Will you-know-who be around this weekend? I don't know how that will go over..." I picture Robert, the pretty boy waiter, crushed by Hardin's tank.

            Tessa reaches for her black apron from the top of the pile. "No, he works all weekend, too."

            I don't know if that will make things better or worse? Should I offer to send Robert to Mars for the weekend?

Maybe.

I hate being stuck in the middle of them, but I do my best to be as neutral as possible while still being a good friend to both of them. Tessa is working all weekend anyway. Working with Robert.

            Between Dakota possibly cheating on me the entirety of her life in New York, the city that I moved to for her, and Nora storming out of my apartment, my life has turned into a teen drama. No, not teen. I'm a grown up now. Well sort of. So it's a New Adult drama. Is New Adult a thing? I heard two women debating this on the subway the other day. One of them, a short woman with brown curly hair and a two-hundred-thousand-word manuscript, was livid that a twenty-year-old got a publishing deal writing something called "New Adult".

            "What the hell is new adult anyway?" The other one asked her, clearly intent on getting her riled up.

            "Some shitty sub-category that the publishers created to put their shittiest work. Too young for romance, but not young enough for YA." The aspiring author barked.

            As I wiped up the coffee rings on the table next to them, I thought that I would like to read some new adult books. A lot of the books I love to read are considered Young Adult, but what about those of us who want to read something a little more serious, more relatable to our actual lives? Not every underdog can save the world, and not every love is magical and life changing. Sometimes even the nice guys get the short end of the stick. Myself included. Where are those books?