The Trouble With Snowmen (8 page)

Chapter 16

Haley’s face burned and her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. “That just happened.” She plopped down on the love seat.

Regina sat down beside her. “Let me see if I have this straight. You snowmanned Larry White, the famous author.”

“I know, I know,
I know
!”

“And he’s your boss’s boyfriend.”

“He told me Brenda, I didn’t know her name at the time, was a friend. He said nothing about a girlfriend! Nothing!”

“And he thought you were a streetwalker.”

“I don’t even know how to feel right now. He just called me a prostitute. I should be furious, right? But I’m embarrassed and humiliated. I thought he liked me. But no, he thought I was a prostitute the entire time.”

“Why would he think that? Oh wait, I remember you that night. I remember thinking, why is Haley wearing those slutty clothes?”

Haley stood up and inhaled a gulp of air, letting it out through her nose. “I was trying to be sexy. I thought I looked sexy, but apparently I looked like a hooker.”

“You should know that you don’t need any of that stuff. Now I, on the other hand, I can use all the help I can get.”

“I was worried that I acted a little promiscuous.” Haley put her hand flat, right above her waist. “But this moves me all the way up the whore rating scale!” She raised her hand as high as it would go. “He thought it was my occupation, for goodness’ sakes!” She let her hand drop.

“I’m sorry, Haley. I can’t help but feel a little responsible. I’m the one who brought up the entire snowman theory. I should’ve just said Travis is an asshole, and left it at that. Which, for the record, I still think he is. I’m really sorry I sold the place to your boss . . . or ex-boss. Really sorry. I had no idea.”

Haley felt faint and wished she could pass out, sleep it off, and wake up and it all be a dream. “That’s right. Let me recap. I was fired from my day job. And after last weekend, after I didn’t call in
one time
, Kicker’s cut my hours. I don’t even work tonight. And I’m pretty positive I’m not going to have a place to live.”

“I don’t think they’ll kick you out,” Regina said without conviction.

“She hates me, you saw! She hated me before I slept with her boyfriend in her apartment. I don’t think she’s going to let me stay.”

“She can’t kick you out right away. She has to honor all my standing contracts. So you have until your lease is up.”

“Pfft. You don’t know Brenda. She’ll figure a way around it.”

“I’m really sorry, kid.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I did this. Well, at least now I can stop pining over Larry.”

“Ah-ha! I knew you didn’t love Travis!”

“It doesn’t matter. If I can’t find another job by the time the lease is up, maybe I can go back to Lufkin and stay with my parents until I figure something out.”

“That sounds a bit extreme.”

“Well, I extremely screwed up. The only thing I’m grateful for is that Travis left last night. This whole thing would’ve been fun to explain to him. Yes, Travis, I was heartbroken over you, and so Maximilian told me to be you, and I did but instead of being a snowman, I was a snowslut.”

Haley took her hair out of the ponytail and then put it back up, a replay of Larry White standing in her living room running through her head. It had taken her a second to recognize him from his online pictures. She was pretty sure if she hadn’t looked him up, she might not have recognized him at all. He wore a nice suit, but more importantly the beard and long hair were gone. “He looked really good, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how I missed that the other night.”

“He didn’t look all polished and gorgeous. Do you remember the hippy?”

“Yeah, I kind of do. Maximilian had introduced him as writer, as a matter-of-fact. I don’t remember him saying his name though. Crazy. Wow, you slept with that? Totally not your type.”

“I know. That was the point. Maximilian told me to find someone who I wasn’t attracted to. Funny thing is he’s on the opposite spectrum of not my type. He’s intimidating. I wouldn’t have approached him because I would’ve thought I wasn’t
his
type.” Haley put her hand on her throbbing forehead. “I can’t believe they bought this place. Maybe they’ll landlord from afar.”

“Well, not exactly. He’s staying in Apartment Four.”

“What? Why?”

“From what I gathered, so he can write and be close to her.”

“Nice.” Not only would he be here, but he would be here with Brenda. This was not happening. And the fact that their time together had all been a lie, that none of it had been real for him, cut deep. Embarrassment eased into sadness and tears ran down her face before she could stop them.

Regina responded immediately by jumping up and giving Haley a hug. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. Why don’t I postpone my trip with Scott? I can meet up with him later. I hate to leave you like this.”

Haley took a step back and wiped at her tears. “Oh no you don’t. Scott’s a great guy. I’m super happy for you. You better not let him out of your sight.”

“Are you sure, hun?”

“Positive. I’m not going to be responsible for screwing up someone else’s love life too.”

Regina nodded. “I’m sure everything will be fine. Things have a way of working themselves out. You’ll see. Things will get better.”

Haley didn’t see how they could get any worse.

Chapter 17

Larry walked inside his new apartment and looked around. Brenda had done well in this respect, but he wasn’t sure how long it would last after he told her he couldn’t see her anymore. In an instant, everything had changed. Haley was a not a prostitute. She worked as an attorney’s assistant during the day and bartender at night. A bartender had to deal with a lot of jerks. A bartender worked at night. A bartender! He smiled.

Haley was right there, in a quaint little apartment across the hall. He’d barely had the chance to see where she lived but he did notice all the photographs of people on her walls. He smiled as he remembered their conversation about her being one of those crazy camera people, and he wished he’d had a chance to take them all in. Take her in, see through her eyes.

He wanted to talk to her alone, but how should he approach her? Maybe he could talk to Regina first.
Wait a minute
. . . Regina. She had said, “You snowmanned Larry White.” Haley had said something about snowmen before, and he’d thought the same thing Brenda had. Snowman was a word for sex.

He removed his jacket and slipped out of his tight dress shoes before sitting down at the shiny new desk Brenda had picked out. He opened his laptop, connected with the house’s Internet and typed ‘snowman’ in the search box, and then read several definitions, all of which were about men made out of packed snow.

“I know what a snowman is, why am I looking them up?” Larry closed the computer. His desk was in the same spot as the séance table had been. Haley had sat right there and said, “I’m the snowman!”

Larry jumped up. “What did she mean?” If he marched over to Haley’s apartment and asked her point blank, would she answer him? But he couldn’t go demanding anything of her right now. Too soon. But he knew there had to be something to it, something he missed. Because Haley never said the words ‘bartender’ or ‘law assistant’ or ‘secretary.’ She had been vague, now that he thought about it. Had she pretended to be a prostitute? No, because she had seemed genuinely surprised when he’d said it earlier. Appalled, really. “Shit.”

Then why had she hit and run that day if she wasn’t a prostitute? She had left without saying goodbye, without even giving him her number. Maybe she didn’t like him. A one-night, er, two-day stand.
That’s
right. For those few minutes, after seeing her, he had forgotten about all that. Perhaps the reason she was appalled had more to do with the fact that he’d found her when she hadn’t wanted to be found.

He’d been walking back and forth in his socked feet when he suddenly heard footsteps. Where was the noise coming from? The bedroom? He turned toward the hallway. The sound moved closer, but no one, nothing was there.

Even though he had researched ghosts, wrote about ghosts, had even gone on a few ghost hunts, he was still indecisive. He always figured it was one of those things that you had to see to believe. So as he stood there, hearing a noise which sounded like footsteps, he became, not quite a believer, but a mayber.

“Hello?” he said, taking a step toward the hallway. “Is someone there?” If this had been one of his novels, it would’ve ended with the ghost manifesting into some hideous form before dragging him off, kicking and screaming.

He took another step and then waited. Brenda had said that his bed would be delivered today. Maybe they’d already arrived and were in the room. But as the footsteps became louder, and his hands began to shake, he knew he could not place this sound in the bedroom. There was one final resounding stomp, and the footsteps stopped. Larry stood silent.

The front door swung open. “Hey, Larry White!”

Larry jumped and let out a little scream even though he saw it was Maximilian.

“I haven’t received that reaction in a while. Is it the hat?” He straightened his fedora.

Larry glanced back to the empty hallway. “No . . .”

“Is this a bad time?”

“Actually,” Larry said, “more like perfect timing.”

“I’m good at that.” Maximilian looked around. “I see you are back to your handsome self and have moved in properly, but I can’t believe you’re going to stay in here with Mr. Chase. Are you going to sleep, at night, in the dark, in here?”

“I suppose.” Larry inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, realizing that his hands still shook a little bit.

“Awesome. You’ll have to come to my apartment in the morning and tell me all about it.” Maximilian added with a raised eyebrow, “If you make it that long.”

Larry noticed Maximilian’s black pointy shoes, thinking it was an old house and perhaps he had let all the ghost nonsense get inside his head. He must have just heard Maximilian stepping on the old hardwood floors. He shook his head. That was all it was. And he didn’t mind the apprehension. The excitement would help him write his next scene. “Deal, but you have to do me a favor first.”

Maximilian peered at him sideways. “Sure, anything.”

“Answer one question. What is a snowman?”

Larry watched a sequence of emotions cross Maximilian’s face. First his eyes widened in fear, then he frowned as though trying to think of a way out, and then a sly smile appeared. Larry spoke before Maximilian got a word out. “And don’t tell me it’s a man made out of snow.”

“Oh,” Maximilian said. “I was afraid of that.”

“I was introduced this morning to the other tenant, a Haley Monroe. You may or may not know that we met at your séance.”

Maximilian shrugged.

“Well,” Larry continued, “I thought Haley was a hooker.”

Maximilian sucked in a loud breath and covered his mouth.

“Now, I know she isn’t, so that is not the question.” Larry began to pace, one finger pointed to the ceiling. “The question is, Maximilian, what is this snowman I keep hearing about?”

“You thought she was a hooker?” Maximilian giggled. “A hooker? Haley?”

“Okay, let’s get past that. I haven’t talked to her about everything, and I want to, but first I want all of my facts straight. Something else is going on. And by the look on your face, you know what it is.”

Maximilian began distorting his facial features, moving his mouth and blinking his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m interested in her,” Larry admitted. “Even when I thought she was a prostitute, I thought we had an instant connection, but she left without saying anything. I want to know if she feels the same way, and I think this snowman thing has something to do with all of it. Will you help me?”

“I think this information is worth more than how your night with the ghost goes. I’ll tell you what you want to know, but then you’ll have to drop your pants.”

“What?”

Maximilian rolled his eyes. “Don’t look so scared. My goodness, I’m working on my new men’s clothes line, and I need to see it walk.”

“Oh, yeah, right. Of course. Deal. Try on clothes. I can do that.”

Maximilian stepped into the living room area. “Classy. Nice. I didn’t really see you as a leather type of guy.” He sat on the sofa and petted it like a cat. “So soft.”

Larry sat across from him in the recliner and cleared his throat. “Now, this snowman thing, what is it?”

“Okay.” Maximilian crossed his legs. “I guess I’d better start from the beginning. Haley was dating a guy, Travis, who I and Regina refer to as a snowman. Snowmen are pretty much jerk-offs. Travis proved himself as such by dumping Haley with a text message.”

“Oh, I see. But what does that have to do with me?”

“The other night, when you met her here, she was trying to get over Travis by meeting someone new. Believe it or not, she’s, you know, inexperienced, and kind of went overboard with the sexy stuff and had way, way too much to drink. And you know the rest.”

Larry shook his head. “Why did she leave without saying goodbye? When I was in Haley’s apartment, Regina said Haley had snowmanned me. I thought it meant ‘had sex with,’ but now I’m thinking there’s more to it.”

“No, that’s right.” Maximilian nodded. “That’s exactly what it means. We use it for that too. Like, oh man, did I snowman him tonight. Or, let’s go to my room and snowman. Or I licked his—”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Larry rubbed his chin that had already began to stubble. “So y’all really like that word.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Fine,” Larry said, guessing it made sense. “There’s one more thing. Did she say anything to you? About me? Does she know who I am? Should I leave this alone? Should I leave her alone?”

Maximilian, who’d had some sort of goofy expression the entire visit, became serious-faced as he said, “She knows who you are, but I can’t speak for her. Sorry, handsome, but you’re going to have to ask her all those questions yourself.”

Larry didn’t get much sleep that night. Not only did he think he kept hearing footsteps, doors closing, and voices, he couldn’t get Haley out of his mind. He had been the rebound after a bad breakup. Maybe the reason she took off was because she wasn’t ready to commit to someone right away. She didn’t want to get hurt again. It made sense.

That didn’t mean she’d never be ready. Maybe she had needed a little space, a little time between relationships. Maximilian was right. He needed to talk everything out with Haley. But for some reason that made him nervous.

Haley was the complete opposite type of woman he usually dated. He dated Brendas of all shapes and sizes. Ever since college, he’d dated independent women who didn’t need their guy around every second, or even every day because he stayed behind his computer almost constantly. You can’t be successful unless you put in the time, was what he told himself when he weighed a decision that could very well end a current relationship. His writing was his number one priority.

Under different circumstances, he didn’t know if he would’ve taken the time to get to know Haley. More of a habit, he guessed—go for the career driven, self-sufficient, rich women who only wanted and/or needed a man in her bed.

Not that he didn’t think of Haley as smart and independent, because obviously she was both of those things. But something was different about her that made every other girl he had ever dated seem shallow and self-centered. Haley had character and a whimsical freedom. And she made him relax and even feel a little free himself.

He wanted nothing more than to sit down with her as himself and her as herself and talk. Talk all day and all night, and laugh, and get to know one another. And he wanted to take her in his arms again, and hold her, touch her, caress her. He wanted to be with her so much it hurt.