- EDEN -
Nella and I have been so busy baby-shower planning in our time off work that I’ve not had a chance to even think about what I’m going to do with Austin, let alone make an actual decision, so things have just been carrying on as they were. Dinner, drinks, copious amounts of sex, sleepovers.
And despite it being my birthday today, I volunteered to stay and close at work considering Luna had another late birthing class, and poor Nella was so exhausted that she was practically falling asleep standing up.
So, it was just me and Heath now waiting for his last appointment of the day, who I had tasked with doing some final laundry while I was going through the appointments for tomorrow and sending out reminder texts to everyone. He complained a little, claiming if he missed the experience of watching this particular client walking in with the "glow of the setting sun on his supple skin" he might kill me, and when I saw who the client was, I stopped being mad at him for his threat against my life because it made all the sense in the world.
Miles was bending over in his shorts and a singlet to tie Echo up to the sign pole just outside the front of our shop. He turned and opened the glass door to walk inside, halting briefly when he first caught my eye and recognised me, and I’ve gotta say, I would have killed me too. He looks damn good with the setting sun creeping down on the horizon behind him.
"Eden?" he said, walking slowly over to the reception area I was currently occupying, apparently unable to move for fear of all the drool accumulating in my mouth in watching my very hot friend walk into my place of work like he’s been here a thousand times before. He looked me up and down, pausing briefly over both my bare legs and chest given the more-than-my-usual cleavage resulting from the strapless push up bra required to be worn with this particular burgundy halter dress I bought as a birthday present to myself from the local boutique down the road. "You look really… nice, but what are you doing here?"
"I work here," I finally said after swallowing, wondering how on earth this has never come up between us in all the time I've known him. "Started around the time I moved back at the end of last year."
He grinned at me, small at first but it grew once I could convince the muscles in my face to offer the same gesture back to him. It took a little longer than usual, and if the heat I'm feeling both between my thighs and in my cheeks is anything to go by, my face is turning a ridiculous shade of pink because of it, and I don’t quite understand why he’s affecting me so much today. I’ve seen his hot ass fill out this same pair of shorts a bunch of times now, and I’ve struggled to restrain from licking the sweat off those gorgeous arms just as many too.
"Well, shit. I'd have come in for a haircut sooner if I had known you would be here," he said with another smile, a coyish-feeling smile that has apparently made me forget that I'm rather fluent in the English language after thirty-three years exactly of speaking it, unable to give him a reply to what I could only interpret as him flirting with me again for the first time in months since he learned I was dating Austin. He hasn’t said or done a single provocative thing since that day he asked me out for a drink, and I don’t know what’s changed to bring it back today, but I’m a little startled by my glad reaction to it and how much I’m coming to realise I’ve missed it.
"Why, hello there, you gorgeous thing!" chimed Heath loudly when he emerged from the laundry room out back, his voice even more bubbly than usual. He must really have a thing for Miles. The boy has good taste.
"Heath, a pleasure as always," he chuckled, holding out his hand for Heath to shake, who ignored it and went straight in for the hug and kiss on each cheek. The left one twice. He's just so Heath it's hard not to love him, and I'm guessing Miles is familiar with Heath's Heathness as he just kept smiling and allowed the boy to do his thing.
"So, usual cut?" Heath said, and it now made sense why Miles’ hair was so well groomed and so accurately styled to his handsome face. I really should have known that Heath played a part in making it look the way it did. He really is an excellent stylist.
"Yeah, I guess so," he said, looking back at me as Heath ran his fingers through his hair. "Unless one of you has any better ideas?"
Heath laughed, like there was no possible way his appearance and appeal could be improved with a different haircut. "Eden? With a better idea than me? Puh-lease," he chuckled darkly, winking over at me when I threw daggers his way. "Well, she cuts better than I do, I'll give her that. But I am the styling queen of this establishment. Everyone knows that."
I rolled my eyes at him, which just spurred his playful banter on further. "It's not my fault I was made for this work, Eden. For some people it just comes naturally. Maybe you'll understand one day," he grinned at me smugly, looking back at Miles who was watching and laughing at me getting sassed by a boy more than thirteen years my junior. "I'll have you know, Miles, that I was also responsible for Eden's more recent hair styling when she arrived a few months ago, and look at her now---absolutely gorgeous!"
"She was just as gorgeous before this new haircut, Heath," Miles said confidently as he was guided into Heath's chair and cloaked in plastic. Meanwhile, at the same time, I legit slipped off the stool I'd been occupying from swooning. Me, a fully grown woman, swooning at a man---Miles, my friend---calling me gorgeous. I believe I am slightly ashamed of myself.
"Oh, she was," Heath complimented me as well. "Sad little thing, though." Miles looked at me in the mirror, my reflection no doubt giving away how embarrassed I felt that Heath outed me. I couldn’t even be mad at Heath for it because I was, no matter how much I tried to hide it. That was my truth back when I made the decision to move home. It seems so long ago now, though I know it's only been about four or five months. I guess your perception of time changes a great deal when you're in a different headspace.
"But now just look at me,” I said, desperate to divert us out of sad memory lane. “Happy as a clam!"
Heath was giving Miles an exceptionally long head massage in preparation for his cut, and he stopped moving altogether when he heard the phrase I'd used. ‘Happy as a clam.’ I don't think I've ever spoken those words together before in my life. I don't even completely know what a clam is. Despite being raised near the ocean, I don't eat seafood. I don't even know if clams are typically eaten by humans.
"I thought it was 'a pig in mud'?" Heath queried.
Miles laughed underneath him. "I actually thought it was 'happy as a pig in shit'?"
I actually snorted. Maybe not quite like a pig in shit, but nonetheless resembling a wild hog.
Miles is looking back at me in the mirror smugly, one corner of his mouth hitched upwards, like he's proud of making me laugh so hard that I ended up making sounds I almost never hear coming out of my mouth.
The bell chimed with the front door opening, and when I saw who was walking in, in an instant I felt an intense wave of cold sweep over me, despite there being no chill to speak of actually wafting in from outside. This was a bloody tsunami of debilitatingly freezing discomfort, and I guess I now have my answer about what I should do about Austin considering now being in the same room with both Miles and Austin at the same time---the man I most definitely still have a crush on, as much as I’ve tried to deny it over the past few months, and the man I've been dating said past few months---has me feeling sick to my stomach and wanting to swim out to sea and never return.
"Hey, babe," greeted a very well dressed Austin, confidently walking into my place of work without a second's hesitation carrying a beautiful bouquet of dusty pink roses, which he handed over to me on the other side of the reception desk. Whenever he’s taking me for dinner looks fancy, and I’m glad that I decided to make the effort to wear something nice to work today so I didn’t have to head home first to change. "What's so funny?"
"Pigs in shit," said Heath dismissively, quietly getting back to work by dowsing Miles' hair in water with his spray bottle before picking up his comb. “Nice to see you again, Austin,” he said politely without looking up from Miles’ hair and turning on the clippers to begin cutting his hair.
There haven't really been many opportunities for Health to meet Austin and them to get to know each other. Only the rare occasions when he’s come in for a cut or to pick me up from work before going out. But how little Heath must have come to actually think of Austin in that time really shows most startlingly when it immediately follows watching him fawn over another man. He may just be especially into Miles, and by 'may,' I mean I know that he is; but I suppose I wasn't expecting Heath’s reaction now to be so painfully similar to Luna, Nella, Wolfe and Mason’s disapproval. I’ve never seen that boy reserved or less gay and/or horny around a hot man in all the time I’ve known him.
"I'm not sure I get it, but glad you're all having a good laugh," Austin said, leaning against the reception counter in wait for a kiss he wants. Usually I'd not think twice about it, but today, with Miles sitting in the chair watching me through my reflection in the mirror as I know he is because I can feel his eyes boring into the back of my head, it makes me feel uncomfortable and perhaps even a little ashamed, like I'm doing something I shouldn't be. "You ready to get going, birthday girl? We've got a reservation."
I didn't know he had planned anything until about an hour ago when he said he was on his way to come pick me up for dinner. I'm so tired and was hoping to go home and sleep to be honest. Birthdays aren't a big deal for me. It's just another day. And besides, I have an early rise tomorrow with my boxing class followed by a late birthday breakfast with Piper and Penn. I desperately need an early night and good sleep to keep up with that kid’s energy.
"It's your birthday, Eden?"
Heath obviously already knew it was my birthday considering he, along with everyone else---including our clients at the time---had sung me a thunderous, detuned, acapella rendition of 'Happy Birthday' over a raspberry cheesecake that Nella made and brought in earlier today. And Austin is clearly aware as well. So it must have been Miles who was asking as he was the only one not yet aware, which was a deliberate omission on my part and something I've actively tried to avoid talking about with Wolfe when Miles has been around because I didn't want it to be a big thing.
I don’t know why, because I’d usually prefer to not celebrate or acknowledge my birthdays at all, especially this one considering I've been feeling all kinds of emotionally and physically shit the last couple weeks with all the Wolfe/Austin drama; but I feel bad for Miles not knowing. Mostly because when I finally look over at him to confirm that it is indeed my birthday, he looks so genuinely shattered that he didn’t know, and I'm sure someone incredibly adept at reading the truth in people’s facial expressions would be able to decipher in mine right now the guilt I feel for making him feel that way, as well as the sadness I'm trying to ignore that I didn't get to spend more time with him on said birthday.