Page 199 of The Compass Series

HAILEE

“ I told you I wasn’t going to that festival, Kate.” I’d been reading my newest book in my apartment for the past few hours since I’d gotten off work, and Kate was determined to pull me away from my introverted ways.

“You told me you had to work,” she replied, plopping onto my couch. “But I just saw Mr. Lee, and he told me you had the evening off, like the rest of the staff due to the festival, and that he was running the front desk.”

I groaned. “Mr. Lee talks too much.”

She reached across to me and shut my book. “Get off your bum. We’re going to the festival. It will be fun! They have all kinds of rides and stuff.”

“It’s a festival dedicated to my ex-boyfriend. Why don’t you see why that’s weird?”

“Oh, I see why it’s weird, but there’s deep-dish pizza and fried cheese. I’d go into a dungeon with all my exes for some deep-dish pizza and fried cheese.”

“I guess we all have our limits,” I joked. I went to reopen my book, and she slammed it closed.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance book, thanks to you getting me addicted. But hear me out. How about for the next few hours, you stop reading about fictional characters living life and start actually living your life?”

My nose scrunched up. “Tempting, but where’s the fun in that?”

“I’m glad you asked.” She stood and walked to the backpack she brought over. She unzipped it and pulled out two matching forty-ounce black Yeti water bottles. She handed one to me.

“Don’t tell me this is a mixed drink.”

“It’s not. Drink it.”

I took a sip and cringed.

“It’s straight vodka! It’s not mixed at all!” She laughed. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a jug of lemonade. “Now we mix it.”

I should’ve known. “Or we can just read books about people getting drunk.”

“Hailee. We’re in our twenties. Soon enough after your gap year, you’ll be in getting your masters followed by your PhD, and you’ll have babies and crap, and your life will become packed with baby vomit and dirty diapers.

So, we have to live in the moment. You have to get drunk on a Saturday night with your friend.

Plus, I never have Saturdays off, so this is a very rare, unique occasion, and my boyfriend is busy tonight. ”

“You don’t have a boyfriend.”

She pouted and whined. “I know, which makes this so much more depressing. I heard some local band is headlining the stage with their country music tonight.”

“It’s like you’re trying to get me not to go,” I joked.

“Come on, Hailee. This is our Coachella.”

“You do realize how sad that is, right?”

“We live in Leeks, Wisconsin. Sad is our middle name. Which is why we must take every good moment, grab it by the balls, and milk that sucker until the cows come home. What do you say? Let’s get drunk, go to a festival dedicated to your ex-best-boyfriend by a town of lunatics, and ride the Tilt-A-Whirl? ”

I smirked. “Stop with the puppy dog eyes.”

“I can’t until you say yes,” she whimpered, nudging me in the arm with the bottle of lemonade.

“Fine. But you’re buying me fried cheese.”

“I’ll toss in a corn dog, too, if you play your cards right.” She untwisted the top on my water bottle and poured lemonade into the cup, then did the same to hers. She held the bottle in the air and toasted. “To our twenties and bad decisions!” she declared.

I took a long drag from my bottle and cringed at the realization that not nearly enough lemonade was mixed into the drink, but oh well.

Bottoms up.

It seemed as if everyone in town was at the festival that night, conversing, laughing, and partying it up like it was indeed the Coachella Music Festival.

I’d never seen so many people in our town at the same time, not even for the annual chili festival.

The festival was taking place right on Lake Michigan, and the weather was perfect.

I had to admit, getting out of my apartment was the right thing to do. I was glad Kate pushed me out of my comfort zone.

“Is that your ex-best-boyfriend’s face on a cookie?” Kate asked me in complete awe as we walked over to the bakery stand where Mama’s goodies were all displayed.

“That is definitely his face on a cookie,” I said as I pulled out my cell phone and took a shot of Mama’s display. “I made them myself.”

“You had to make ex-best-boyfriend cookies?”

“Yup, all night last night.”

“Your life is oddly traumatic. I hope you tell your therapist that.”

“Trust me, she knows,” I joked.

“We have to buy one,” Kate ordered as she dragged me into the long line. “It’s a must.”

I wanted to argue, but then again, it supported my parents, so I went along with it. As we reached the front of the line, Dad gave us both a grand smile. He wasn’t allowed to bake the goods because he was a professional at burning things, but he sure could sell them.

“Hey, ladies. Welcome! What would you like to get your hands on?” he asked.

“Two Aiden Walters faces, please and thank you,” Kate said, pulling out her cash.

“You’re in luck. Those are the last two here. They’ve been selling like hotcakes. I guess that’s what happens when they are made by the best baker in town,” Dad said about Mama as he gave me a slight wink. Gosh, he loved that woman so much. It would’ve been gross if it wasn’t so cute.

We grabbed the cookies and walked to the side to eat them. Kate stared down at the sugar cookie in complete awe.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing, nothing. It’s just… very realistic.”

I laughed. “I think that’s the point.”

“No offense, Hailee, because I know he’s your ex and all, but Aiden Walters might be the sexiest man alive.”

“That’s what the magazines seem to think,” I agreed.

“I mean, look at him. Those blue eyes! Those luscious waves of brown hair.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Tipsy.” She giggled. It was no secret that my friend was a lightweight, just like me.

I felt a nice buzz going on. “But that doesn’t change the fact that everything I’m saying is actual and factual.

Never in my life did I want to sit on a cookie just to know what it would be like to sit on Aiden Walters’s face. ”

“Kate!” I gasped, laughing as I linked my arm around hers and pulled her away from the crowd that overheard. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Did you do it, Hailee?” she asked, eyes wide with hope. “Did you ever sit on Aiden’s face?”

My cheeks felt flush, and I shook my head. “I refuse to answer that question.”

Kate gave me a devilish smile and nodded. “You little freaky freak. What other kinds of stuff did you do? Reverse cowgirl?”

“This conversation is over.”

She bit into the cookie and moaned, having the most orgasmic bite of her life. She closed her eyes and waved her hand in the air as if she’d died and gone to heaven. “This is the best cookie I’ve ever eaten.”

That made me happy. I took a bite of mine, too. Just as great as the night before. “It’s amazing,” I agreed.

“It’s not the first time you shoved Aiden between your lips, huh? I bet he’s quite the mouthful.”

“I’m done with you.”

She grinned and took a sip of her lemonade. “Never.”

We moved around the festival as the sky darkened over our heads and sparkled with stars.

The more we drank, the less worry I had about running into Aiden.

Liquid courage and all. The amount of confidence bursting from my seams was ridiculous, but I didn’t care.

I felt good. Life was weird, sometimes, so whenever there was an opportunity to feel good, I bathed in the joy.

Kate kept up the good time by buying me way too much fried food, and when our water bottles ran out of drinks, she purchased us alcoholic slushies. My toilet was going to have hell to pay come tomorrow morning, from either the top end of me or the bottom, but I didn’t care. I felt like a kid again.

“Aren’t you happy you came out tonight?” Kate urged after she drunkenly won me a stuffed tiger from a carnival game.

She was leaning on me because her steps were zigzagging, and I leaned back on her because mine were doing the same.

“We didn’t even run into—oh shit,” she muttered as we turned the corner, and without looking, I ran straight into a person, spilling my pink slushy all over them.

“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry I…” My words faded as I looked up to meet the person’s stare.

Not just any person.

My person.

Correction: my ex-person.

Aiden.

There he was, right in front of me, looking at me square in the eyes. Those blue eyes that seemed to match the deepest parts of the ocean. Those blue eyes that I’d loved since I was a little girl. Those blue eyes that made my heart shatter into a million pieces right then and there.

A white cotton T-shirt hugged his body, showcasing his toned arms, a T-shirt that was now stained pink.

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I, um… I…” I’d played the situation of us meeting face-to-face in my head a million times before. I’d had played almost every outcome out in my head, but shockingly, spilling my booze-filled slushy all over his chest was not one that crossed my mind.

Without thought, I started rubbing at his shirt with my hands, smearing the mess even more, feeling his rock-hard abs beneath the fabric. “I’m so sorry, Aiden, I didn’t mean to—” My stomach flipped as my nerves bubbled up. Now for another round of was it gas or anxiety?

Answer: it was neither. It was nausea.

I pulled back for a beat to try to push the rising sensation away, but as I parted my lips to apologize, vomit flew out of my mouth and landed onto Aiden’s shoes.

Oh goodness. I threw up on my famous ex-best-boyfriend.

I covered my mouth with my hand from shock as I looked up at Aiden wide-eyed. I was humiliated. If I could go hide under a rock, I would.

“Aiden—” I started, but my words stopped as he released a low growl.

Yup.

That was right.

He growled at me.

He took a step back. “ Don’t ,” he whisper-shouted, his voice low, rough, and controlled.

I looked up at him and saw those blue eyes that I once loved, and they seemed so different. Filled with… hatred? Was that hatred that flashed across his face?

He stepped out of his vomit shoes and slid off his socks, leaving them there in front of me.

He then turned his back toward me and wandered off completely barefoot, leaving me there drunk and embarrassed, and with a dash of heartbreak, too. I didn’t know what to expect from our first interaction, but it wasn’t that.

It was at that moment of him saying one word to me that reality set in for me.

Don’t.

One word was enough to break my heart. Even though I’d played out a million scenarios in my mind, it was clear that I’d secretly only wanted one.

I wanted him to hug me. To hold me. To tell me he missed me.

To tell me he’d thought about me every single day for the past few years.

I wanted him to still long for me in the same way I secretly dreamed of him.

Don’t.

It was cold, harsh, and truthful. He didn’t want anything to do with me. That crushed my soul a little bit more than I was prepared for it to do.

“Holy crap. I didn’t know Aiden Walters could look pissed off. Did America’s puppy dog just give you the evil eye?!” Kate murmured, stunned by the cold, harsh look Aiden shot my way when we made eye contact.

“I think so,” I said, a bit shaken up by the expression delivered my way. Chills raced up and down my spine as I tried to push away the odd feeling.

“You didn’t tell me you two had a bad break-up to the point that he hated you.”

“I didn’t know it was to the point that he hated me.”

“Don’t cry.”

“I’m not gonna cry.” I shrugged, rolling my eyes.

“Then why are your eyes leaking?”

Because I’m so deeply sad.

I brushed at the falling tears and choked out my words. “I’m drunk and lost my slushy. That’s why I’m crying.”

“Hailee,” she said so softly. She must’ve sobered up from my painfully awkward situation. “You still love him.”

“What? No. No. We were a thing such a long time ago,” I muttered, starting to walk ahead.

I waved my hands around in a dismissive way.

“Ancient history. Nothing to see here,” I blabbered.

“Anything I felt for him is long, long gone!” I declared.

I stood as straight as I could. “I feel great! The tears are happy tears. I didn’t even like that slushy. ”

Kate gave me a concerned look. “You’re lying, aren’t you?”

Through my clenched teeth.

I held my hand out to her. “Can I go home now and read romance books?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Let’s get you home.”