Page 17 of Closer than Ever

They both laughed.

In truth, Anna was having a hard time not staring at Hayley enjoying her food. There was something about the way she savoured every bite. She ate slowly and with a kind of unguarded pleasure. Her mouth was simply delicious. Anna had always thought so. They fell into a comfortable silence while they finished eating. Anna did better not to stare.

“Have you always lived here by yourself?” Hayley said, dabbing her mouth with a napkin.

“Um.” Anna hadn’t expected that question. “I did when I first bought it. But no, my ex-girlfriend, Tiffany, lived here with me for a while.”

“What happened? I hope it’s okay to ask?”

“Of course it’s okay, you dafty.”

Hayley laughed. “Cool. It’s been a while since we chatted like this, so I just wanted to check.”

Anna found Hayley’s eyes, which were a bit unsure. Anna had no idea why. She seemed to really want to know, though. “Well, Tiffany was a bit younger than me. She wanted to go out and party a lot, whereas I was wanting to be more chill, you know. Stay in most nights. I mean, we were always out but it was never enough for her. We drifted apart.” Anna paused. There was much more to it than that, but she wasn’t sure how comfortable she was yet to share more with Hayley.

“Sounds pretty amicable?” Hayley’s eyes were soft and open. Anna was reminded of how safe she used to feel with Hayley. How safe she felt now.

“It wasn’t really.” Anna sighed, quietly. “We argued all the time. I was her first girlfriend, and she wasn’t ready to commit. She wanted to sleep with other women. She pulled away from me, said I was too needy and that she couldn’t give me what I wanted. I got my heart broken.”

“Anna, I’m so sorry.”

Hayley rested her hand on Anna’s forearm, causing goosebumps to rise involuntarily. Damn, would her body never stop around Hayley?

“I had no idea,” Hayley said, with one caress of her thumb over Anna’s skin.

Anna sat back, resisting the urge to pull her arm away. There was a lot that Hayley didn’t know about her now. Anna had a need for security. She also felt an intense loyalty to this town and Glenbuinidh distillery. She had become routinised. But despite all that, sometimes it felt like no one had ever understood Anna as much as Hayley had all those years ago. Sitting at the table across from her again, it felt like she’d been adrift for a decade.

She took a cleansing breath. “It’s all in the past. Anyway, tell me about you. What was your last relationship like? I feel like I hardly know anything about you any more.”

Hayley frowned, then it disappeared. She took a sip of water. “Her name was Leah.”

“What?”

“Didn’t I tell you I was bi?”

“No. No, I don’t think you did.” Since when did Hayley have relationships with women? Why hadn’t she told her before? For such an outgoing person, why would she hide this? Not knowing this about Hayley kind of hurt. Was she the last to know? Anna cursed the fact that she wasn’t on social media. It was probably all on there.

“I’m sorry, I thought I had. It’s not a secret.”

Anna was not important enough to tell. “Don’t worry about it.”

Hayley bit down on her lip.

Anna shook off her disappointment. “How did you meet?”

“On a dating app.”

“How long were you together?”

“Two years.”

“Why did you split up?”

“I wasn’t happy. She was a great girl, but I felt stifled. We stopped having fun together.”

“Fun is very important to you.”

“It is. Before Leah, I was with Kim and before her, there was Ryan, who I think you might have known about.”

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