It's a Match! (22 page)

COLE WAS BEGINNING
to feel a bit better, at least physically. He felt awful about how he had treated Claire, though. He needed to make it up to her. What was he afraid of? He felt like something was standing between them. Something was blocking his way to her, but he had no idea what it was. Was it the ghost of failed relationships past? Was it Sutton’s ghost? Perhaps it wasn’t a ghost at all.
 

Maybe Claire just wasn’t the right one.

Cole realized he needed to give her a chance. A real chance.

Cole picked up his phone and stared at it, debating whether or not to text her. Not Claire, but Sutton. This had gone on long enough. He wanted his friend back. Sutton had been there for him for over four years. She had been there for every low, every high. And he had done the same for her. That had to mean they would survive this weird separation … right?
 

Cole typed a message to Sutton:

Can you talk later?

It was simple and direct. Surely she’d at least agree to a conversation.

Ten minutes of staring at his phone later, he began to ask himself the questions he hadn’t yet been able to answer: What had happened between them? Why had she pulled away? Was he actually the one who had pulled away? What was going to happen now? Could he mend this?
 

Cole shook his head emphatically and tossed his phone on the floor by his bed. A minute or so later, he heard his text notification. He scrambled to pick it up as fast as he could. He sighed as he read the text:

Hey babe. Just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing today. Xoxo.

It was Claire. It was his girlfriend, and he had been disappointed when he read the text. There was most certainly something wrong with that. He decided not to respond yet, and placed the phone on his bedside table next to the many empty bags of chips he had collected over the last couple of days. He would respond eventually. But for now he needed to sit.
 

He needed to sort this all out.

SUTTON RETURNED TO
her room after the gym and immediately took a shower and changed into her comfiest sweats and t-shirt. She still had mountains of homework to do and she couldn’t really avoid it anymore.
 

Sutton sat down at the desk and opened her laptop. Then she heard her phone vibrate in her purse on the floor. She picked it up and saw a text from Cole:

Can you talk later?

Sutton’s heart sank a bit. She wasn’t sure she was ready to talk to Cole. She still really had no idea why they had stopped talking in the first place. Maybe it was simply because they had realized they didn’t know each other as well as they thought they did. But over a few bad dates? It seemed like a silly reason to freeze a friendship.

But maybe it was more. Maybe the distance had come between them … and maybe that was to be expected.
 

Sutton had thought their friendship would survive any distance, but so far that didn’t appear to be true. She decided not to respond, at least not until she figured out what to say. So she returned to her short story.
 

The distraction of a fantasy world of her creation was just what she needed.

SUTTON WAS ATTEMPTING
to pack light, but she was
going to be home for a few weeks and didn’t want to forget any necessary items, so her attempts were futile. She was nervous to see Cole again. They hadn’t really talked for a while. He didn’t even know about her whirlwind relationship with Jesse.

She wondered what it was going to be like. Would it be like no time had passed at all? Like they never stopped talking in the first place?
 

Sutton pulled up to the mansion and sat in the car, trying to prepare for seeing her parents again. She had only talked to them a handful of times while she was at school, and they seemed as disappointed as ever. She was actually mildly excited to see her brother. She saw him so rarely when she lived at home that it was almost as if he didn’t exist. Her parents rarely even mentioned him to her. Sutton and Grant had never been never close, but the distance had made Sutton miss him a bit. He
was
her little brother, after all.
 

Exhausted from the drive, Sutton decided to bring her stuff in later. She opened the door, and walked through the arcade and up the stairs to her bedroom on the fourth floor. She figured her parents were in the living room, where they always were—but not this time. Sutton was surprised and horrified to see her parents sitting on her bed. She couldn’t read their expressions, but they certainly didn’t look like parents who were excited to see their daughter.
 

“Please sit, Sutton,” Scott said sternly.

“Nice to see you guys too, but I’ll stand, thanks.”

“We have something to talk to you about,” Justine added.
 

“What is it this time?” Sutton’s patience had already worn thin. She thought she might at least have gotten a hug and a
nice to see you
.

“Your mother and I thought about it and decided it might be best for you to stay somewhere else during the next few weeks when you’ll be home.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Why?”

“You decided to go off on your own and completely disregard our wishes,” Justine continued.
 

“What about my wishes?”

“Irrelevant,” Scott said, in a cold tone.
 

“Honey, we just think that as long as you aren’t valuing our help, it’s best you remain independent,” Justine said.

“Where am I supposed to stay?”

“You will figure it out,” Scott replied.
 

“Get out of my room.”

“Maybe we can do dinner around Christmas time,” Justine added, in an attempt to appear genuine.

“Yeah … maybe. Can I at least stay here for a few minutes to figure out what I’m going to do?”

“Of course,” Scott responded, as if they were doing her a huge favor.
 

Sutton’s parents left and closed the door behind them. Tears escaped her eyes as she pulled out her phone to call the one person she knew could make this better.

Cole’s phone rang several times before he answered. “Hi, Sutton.”

“Hey.”
 

There was a minute of silence before Cole attempted to break the ice. “How have you been?”

“Okay,” Sutton replied softly.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just got home and my parents informed me that I won’t be welcome here during winter break.”

“Why on earth would they say that?”
 

“You know my parents … disapproval and all that.” Sutton walked over to her bed and laid down on her side, curling up into a ball.
 

“I’m so sorry. You’ll come stay with us.”

“I don’t want to get in the way of your time with your dad.” Sutton hated imposing on people.
 

“Nonsense. We have a lot of catching up to do anyway.”

“Are you home now?” Sutton asked, anxious to get out of her former home.
 

“Yeah, we’re about to have a late dinner. My dad actually got a Foreman grill while I was away and apparently has been perfecting his burger recipe.”

“That sounds great.” Sutton paused for a moment, overwhelmed with emotions. “Hey, Cole … thank you.”

“That’s what best friends are for.”

It didn’t even seem like they were best friends anymore—the distance between them was so vast—but Sutton was still very much looking forward to seeing him. “I’ll be over shortly.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

SUTTON CRIED ON
the drive over, and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot when she arrived at Cole’s door. He opened it after a couple of knocks and they stood staring at each other. He looked at her sympathetically and pulled her in for a hug. The moment his arms were wrapped around her, it was as if no time had passed. She felt a wave of relief wash over her.

As they released from the embrace, Sutton walked inside and looked around at the little house. It was perfect. It was decorated with strings of multicolored Christmas lights and they even had a small tree, which was covered in tiny ornaments: bells and reindeer and bright plastic candy canes no bigger than her pinkie—all of them still shiny and new. Obviously Ralph had wanted to make this first Christmas break special for Cole. “It smells great in here. Ralph has apparently stepped up his kitchen game.”

“Well, we haven’t tasted it yet,” Cole replied, with a laugh.

“I’m sure it will be great.”

“Is that Sutton I hear?” Ralph shouted from the kitchen.

“Yes, Mr. Hansen!”

She walked over to the kitchen and found Ralph wearing a San Francisco Giants apron, covered in splatters of some sort of grease. He rushed over and gave her a hug. “It’s good to see you, kiddo.”

“Good to see you, too,” Sutton replied, smiling warmly.
 

“Cole explained your … situation to me, and I want you to know you are more than welcome here for as long as you need. I turned the garage into a kind of guest room, so you’ll have your own space. We don’t want you sleeping on the couch the whole time. I want you to feel at home.”

Sutton felt a twinge of sadness as she heard the word
home
. She barely even knew what the word meant. She wasn’t sure she had ever truly felt at home in her life. Home, to her, was supposed to be about the people you shared the space with, not about the actual house itself. And she’d certainly never felt at home with her parents.
 

“Thank you, Mr. Hansen.”

“And stop calling me Mr. Hansen. It’s Ralph to you.”

“Okay, thank you, Ralph.”

“No need to thank me. We’re family. Now, are you ready for my burger masterpiece?”

“I can’t wait.” And Sutton really couldn’t. It was everything she wanted at that moment.
 

They sat down at the small dining table and Ralph brought out a plate of burgers. He set it next to a plate of buns and several bottles of condiments. Sutton was starving. She excitedly put a burger together and took a bite. The burger was so overcooked it was basically a hockey puck. She forced it down and said, “Delicious.”

Cole looked at Sutton, his facial expression displaying a similar reaction. “Yeah, dad. It’s great.”

“I told you I was going to perfect my cooking skills while you were away,” Ralph replied proudly. “So, tell me about college, Sutton. Are you enjoying it?”

“Yeah, it’s fun. It’s different, but a good kind of different.”

“That’s good to hear. How’s your roommate?”

“I adore her.”

“That’s great,” Ralph replied, with a full mouth.
 

Sutton smiled and forced down another bite.
 

“Hey dad, did you meet anybody special while I was away?” Cole asked, sounding anxious to figure out what his father had been up to and if he had followed through with his promise to try to move on.
 

Ralph looked down at his plate and was silent for a moment. “No, no one special. There was the one lady at the grocery store, but it turned out she was just being friendly because she works there.”

“Oh,” Cole replied. It didn’t seem he knew what to say in respond to that.