The windows on the far side of the room were huge, spanning from floor to ceiling. Lights were on outside, so I could see the backyard landscaping from where I stood, just inside the door. It would be awesome in the summer. I glanced around the spacious room. Beyond the view, the mammoth bed, and the sparkly chandelier hanging above, were a set of life-sized photographs in black and white.
The subject looked familiar. “Is that Tee?”
Hayden put his hand up in front of my face. “Don’t look at those!”
“Kinda hard not to when you hang them on your bedroom wall,” I said, but kept my eyes on the floor.
I remembered when I’d seen one of the photographs before. Tee had given it to him for Christmas. He’d opened it, his jaw had hit the floor, and he’d rushed to cover it up, but not before we all got a good look. That one was tame in comparison to the others. While I couldn’t see anything important, there was a load of bare skin.
“Lisa’s been taking photography classes. I think she did a great job,” Jamie said.
Like it was no big deal there were huge pics of half-naked Tee on the wall.
“Uh huh,” Hayden said and hit the lights, submerging the room in darkness. “Let’s go back downstairs.”
On our way to the landing we bypassed a closed door. “What’s in there?” I asked.
“That’s Tenley’s office,” Hayden muttered.
“I thought we were getting the full tour.”
He shrugged, acting nonchalant, but his posture told me otherwise. “It’s nothing special. Just a desk and some bookshelves.”
“So it’s cool if we see it, then?” I prompted.
Hayden sighed and turned the knob, pushing the door open. It was dark, but there was this strange pink glow inside, allowing me to make out the shapes of furniture. Hayden reached inside and flicked on the switch.
“Whoa.” Jamie cringed. “That’s, uh . . .”
“Yeah.” Hayden shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Did you let a unicorn with the stomach flu loose in here?” I asked. I was only sort of kidding.
“It was perfectly fine when we moved in, nice and neutral, but then Lisa offered to help Tenley paint it last week.” Hayden directed a glare at Jamie.
“Why are you looking at me like it’s my fault?” Jamie asked.
“Tenley might have picked a different color if Lisa had bothered to argue against this.” He gestured to the walls.
Jamie snorted. “Not likely.”
“Lisa could have at least tried. She’s supposed to be my fucking friend.”
I gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Sorry, H, it looks like it’s chicks before dicks on this one.”
One wall was painted black. The other three were a shocking electric pink. The room was difficult to look at, it was so bright. On the hardwood floor was a zebra print throw rug. The white stripes appeared deceptively pink, due to the way the walls tinged everything. Two of the pink walls were lined with bookshelves. It helped break up the color. Not really.
Tee must have picked the color purposely to rile Hayden up; the rest of the house was painted in the same neutral tones he always went with. It was kind of ironic, considering the sleeve on his right arm was so vibrant and eye-catching.
I looked around the room and noticed a cardboard box on the floor beside Tee’s desk. “Xbox and games” was written across the side. “Tee’s into video games?”
“Huh?”
I crossed over and knelt down beside the box. The tape had been removed, so I opened the flap. Carefully packed inside was an Xbox 360. It was a couple of years old, but it came loaded with games.
“Score, brother!” I rifled through the contents. “Are you telling me you didn’t know Tee had this?”
“Tenley and I don’t spend a lot of time in front of the TV.”
I had a million comebacks, all of which would probably set him off. I kept them to myself. “I’m hooking this up and we’re playing tonight.”
“I don’t know. This is Tenley’s stuff . . .”
“Why would it matter if I set it up for her? Besides, wouldn’t you rather I do it now, than have her take care of it later?”
He mulled it over before he finally relented. “Fine. Whatever. Hook it up if you want. Just let me shut the door. This room gives me the spins.”
I tucked the box under my arm and followed Hayden into the hall.
Five minutes later, I had a fresh beer in my hand and I was staring at the mess of cords behind the entertainment system again. “You said Tee was being helpful?”
Hayden shifted uncomfortably on the black leather couch. It was the same one from his condo, except now it was accessorized. I had no idea what the deal was with all the frilly pillow shit, but girls seemed to like them a lot.
“No. I said she was trying to be helpful.”
Hayden yanked a throw pillow out from behind his back and tossed it to the other end. Then he glared at it for a couple seconds, leaned across, and rearranged it so it wasn’t cockeyed. He repositioned it three times, muttering about the “fucking pillows.”
Meanwhile, TK, who had followed us downstairs, jumped gracefully onto the arm of the couch and trotted across the back. She rubbed herself against Jamie and continued to Hayden. When he didn’t pay her immediate attention, she head-butted the side of his face and climbed down his chest, curling into his lap. He cooed at her and scratched under her chin. He’d turned into such a sap. It was good to see.
I held up the nest of tangled cords. “Everything you own is wireless. Why are there so many damn wires?” I’d already done this for him once before, when he bought the condo. Things had been set up perfectly. All he had to do was move it and hook into the new system.
Hayden didn’t bother to answer. Honestly, what could he say that would make any sense? Instead, he drained his beer, picked up TK, and draped her around his shoulders like she was a scarf. Then he pushed up off the couch and headed for the kitchen.
“Nice pussy wrap,” I called after him.
He flipped me off. It was a classic evasive Hayden maneuver. He’d never win at poker because he always gave away his hand. He had tells, things he did that made it clear how he was feeling. He was pretty good at letting me know when he was pissed.
But things had changed. Hayden wasn’t nearly as explosive. Not since Tee had come back from Arden Hills. The recent shitstorm surrounding the trial over his parents’ murders had been difficult, but otherwise Hayden was less anal, more relaxed. Except right now. At this very moment he was antsy. I had a feeling there was more to his dodging the question than just letting Tee set up the electronics.
“What do you think that’s about?” I asked Jamie when Hayden was safely out of hearing.
He shrugged. “No clue.”
I didn’t have any experience with solid relationships. I was currently dating a girl who waitressed at a strip club. While she didn’t get naked on a nightly basis, there was a chance it would go that way.
It was either that, or she would quit. Again. Maybe this time for good. The alternative wasn’t something I wanted to consider. I couldn’t stay in another relationship where I had to worry about whether the girl was going to bang some dirtbag for an extra couple hundred bucks a night. Sarah wasn’t anything like Candy had been, but things could change. And I didn’t want that to happen. I liked Sarah a lot, enough that I didn’t want to be with anyone else. Candy had been the only other person I’d tried that route with, and it hadn’t worked out that well in the end.
I pushed the worries aside and moved the entertainment system away from the wall so I could get at everything. Hayden returned with more beers and grumbled about the mess. His anxiety over what was behind the TV console was obvious. It was fun to watch him get all flustered over something that wouldn’t bother most people.
“Seriously, you look like you’re going to shit a brick right now. What’s the deal? Why let her do this when you know it makes you crazy?” I asked.
“Look, man, she said she wanted to do it, and who am I to tell her she can’t? She set it up in her own place, so I figured she had to know what was going on. Obviously, I was wrong. Besides, it was that or I let her unpack the kitchen, and that sure as hell wasn’t an option.”
Jamie looked up from the magazine he was leafing through and snorted.
Hayden rolled his eyes and pointed a finger at Jamie. “Don’t even pretend you don’t cave for Lisa all the time.” He turned back to me. “If it meant the difference between getting action or not, wouldn’t you let Sarah hook up your TV?”
I blinked and thought about it for half a second before I replied, “No, H, that would never happen. Sarah knows better than to mess with my TV. I’d also like to point out that if you’d asked me to set it up when you first moved in, I wouldn’t have to undo all this crap.”
“Just fix it, please.”
He sat down and nursed his beer, as if it made it less obvious that he’d traded in his man card for a pussy. The fact that TK was still wrapped around his neck was more proof of that.
Forty minutes later, the cord extravaganza had been removed and everything rerigged so Hayden could control not only the entertainment system but his entire alarm system from his laptop and his phone.
Hayden was the most neurotic person I’d ever met when it came to personal security. He’d moved from a condo in a building with twenty-four-hour surveillance to a house with a pass code and retina display. It wasn’t surprising, considering the scene he’d walked in on when his parents were shot to death in his childhood home.
He hovered around while I finished checking things over to make sure everything worked properly. As soon as I moved out of the way, he started with the rearranging. I didn’t take it personally. It was just his way. To help, I’d bundled together the few cords I couldn’t get rid of so they could easily be hidden.
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