Page 7 of Moist!

chapter seven

HAYDEN

My laptop closes with a snap. Google has been decidedly unhelpful.

Not even my favourite niche horror or supernatural conspiracy blogs have turned up anything remotely useful.

“So, are you going to tell me what happened back there yet?” Avery looks at me pointedly from her bed in our all-beige double occupancy hotel room, her jet black hair and pale skin completely out of place amongst the seven different variations of off white in the room.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” I’m not great at lying, but the truth isn’t really on the table right now. Even with my best friend.

“Sure. You’re on the trip of your dreams, buried in a laptop with a perpetual frown on your face because everything is totally fine.”

I scoff at that.

“I’ve been on my laptop like ten minutes-”

“An hour, plus the fact you were glued to your phone all through dinner.”

I glower at her. I don’t bother trying to contest her claim, though. Avery is observant. Always .

“I just think I missed something in my research, that’s all.”

It’s not technically a lie. It is unsettling that even the deepest corners of buried Reddit threads don’t challenge the official stance of the solid Scottish sphinx. Let alone what being bonded to one could mean.

Avery’s eyes narrow.

“That’s not possible. There’s finite information out there, Hayden. I highly doubt you, of all people, haven’t gone over all of it tenfold.”

She’s so annoying when she’s right.

But I wasn’t looking for something so specific before.

“I have to ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me.”

That snaps me to full attention as anxiety floods my veins. I’ll be hard pressed to lie to Avery with a direct question. More importantly, there’s no way she won’t pick up on it if I do.

“What is it?” My mouth is suddenly so dry, I’m not sure I’ll even be able to answer her at all.

“Did you take something as a souvenir, like a stone from the Sphinx?”

I laugh. I don’t mean to, but the relief is palpable.

“No. Of course not. I’ve been a devoted Leave No Trace follower since you tackled me and made me put that pinecone back in uni.”

She snorts indignantly, waving her hand as if I’m being dramatic. Like I don’t still have the faded scratches on my knees.

“That was fifteen years ago, you need to let it go.”

Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes.

“I’ll let the tackling part go when you let the pinecone part go.”

She raises her hand dismissively. We both know she won’t be letting it go in the slightest.

“Then, seriously, what’s going on with you? I can’t think of anything else you could have done besides that to explain why you’re being so cagey with me. Well, besides calling Tati, but I had your phone.”

I don’t mean to flinch at that, but I do. I wasn’t even thinking about my ex, let alone calling her.

“Oh my god, Hayden. Did you use someone else’s phone to call her?”

The horror on her face is priceless enough that I almost want to pretend I did.

“No, quite the opposite. I had the thought cross my mind that I’m glad she’s not here.”

Verbalizing it shakes me a little. At some point, missing her turned into missing me, and resenting the fact that I had to file so many edges of myself down to suit her, and it still wasn’t enough.

Sometimes I think she’d have been happier if I’d done away with the things that make me, me, altogether.

“Obviously, being here has brought up some feelings about the whole thing.” I continue, acknowledging the space Avery is giving me to speak.

“It’s a bit surreal being on this trip when I’ve imagined it a dozen times over, each time ending with me on one knee holding a ring.

” Avery nods, but still doesn’t say anything.

“Just because I was ready to spend my life with her doesn’t mean I’m not a bit relieved it didn’t work out. Once I saw the issues-”

“They’re hard to unsee.” Avery finishes.

“Exactly. Besides, high-school sweethearts is a nice love story, but there are other nice ones too.”

Even if it took a few months to let go of the fact I thought I knew what mine was.

“I’ve always been partial to love at first sight.” Avery sighs to herself as she focuses back on her phone. A familiar app reflected in her glasses.

I think I might be, too. It’s a bit early to be thinking that, though. Isn’t it?

“Shopping?” I tease as I sneak a look at the time.

Only a few hours until I can see Lachlan again .

“Yup.”

She swipes right a few times. Well, that solves the need to sneak out.

It only takes her an hour to secure a date and head out the door with blown kisses and promises to be back before brunch. I only manage to wait another minute or two after her footsteps fade away before I slip out of bed, pulling on a skin-tight pair of yoga pants and my hoodie.

Desperate to get back to the man I can’t stop thinking about.