“Lainey?”

There’s no answer on the door of the guest room when I knock on it and I stand there, leaning against the frame for a minute before trying again.

“Lainey, you alive in there?”

When there’s still no response a minute later, I push open the door and glance into the room, finding it empty. I must have been really out of it this morning because I didn’t hear her leave. She can be pretty quiet when she wants to be but usually someone with a nasty hangover, as I’m sure she has after last night, isn’t too concerned with how quiet they’re being.

I made a complete fool out of myself last night and I wasn’t even completely drunk so I can’t blame it on the alcohol. I made a move on Laina even though I know she’s dating someone else and that’s so wrong. Of all people I should know how wrong that is but I still tried. It really says something about her that as drunk off her ass as she was, her values were still there and she pulled away before anything happened.

I’ve let my renewed feelings for Laina get out of hand and I need to get them back in check. My relationship with her was one of the best, if not the best, that I ever had but that doesn’t mean I need to revisit it. I need to take a step back from having any part in discussion about Wes with her because my biased opinion shouldn’t be affecting her relationship with him.

Trace is probably right when he says that I should forget dating for now. I haven’t really been fully single for a while. After Laina and I broke up I was only really single for a couple weeks before I met Janice and that whole thing started. And then even before I broke it off with Janice I was having these feelings for Laina. Maybe I just need to forget about all these feelings and just enjoy being single. It’s not the most horrible thing in the world.

Drinking last night caused the smallest of headaches to form behind my eyes so after taking a couple Aspirin, I get into the shower. It turns out to be the exact remedy I need and by time I’m getting dressed, I fell better. Better enough to risk going over to Laina’s cabin and find out what exactly she remembers from last night. If I’m lucky she won’t remember me trying to get her into bed. That could make things awkward.

As I put on my sandals, I’m suddenly aware of my pink toenails and that causes a smile to come to my face. Last night may have been slightly embarrassing for me but it was fun. Sober Laina is fun enough but drunk Laina is hilarious and I can’t believe she managed to talk me into painting my toenails. I’m never going to hear the end of this.

The weather outside is shitty and I jog across the grass between the cabins so I don’t get too wet from the spitting rain. The door leading into Laina’s cabin isn’t locked and I let myself in after a brief knock.

“Lainey?” I call, shaking the rain from me. “Where you at?”

I don’t get a response but that doesn’t surprise me because sometimes Laina just randomly ignores people when she doesn’t feel like raising her voice enough to let you know where she is.

It doesn’t take long to find her in the kitchen, standing by the stove. She’s wearing some old concert t-shirt and a huge pair of sweatpants that are barely hanging on her hips with her hair up in a messy ponytail. And somehow that brings an instant level of comfort to me.

“How’s the head?” I ask, dropping down to sit in a chair at the table.

She turns halfway to face me, leaning her hip against the counter. “Not as bad as I would expect,” she says, pushing a spatula around in her frying pan. “Do you want some eggs?”

“I don’t think I can handle any food,” I reply. I push my chair back and stretch my legs out in front of me. It’s quiet for a minute before I force out my next words. “So we both drank a lot last night.”

“And we need to forget about all that happened last night,” she finishes for me, not making eye contact. “Okay?”

I’m so glad she doesn’t want to analyze everything to death. Janice would make me sit here and talk about it for hours. But not Laina. One more reason why she’s amazing.

Okay I need to stop listing reasons why she’s amazing. That’s doing nothing to help the situation.

“Okay.”

She glances at my face and then her eyes move down my body. A smile slowly forms. “But let’s not forget about those fancy toes you have going on there.”

Smiling, I tilt my head back and stare at the ceiling. “Yes. They are pretty fancy,” I agree, shutting my eyes. “I have to find some nail polish remover before I leave.”

“After all my hard work?”

I scoff and lift my head as she sits down at the table across from me with a plate full of scrambled eggs. “It wasn’t THAT good of a job, Lainey.” I yawn and tilt my chair onto the back two legs. “When are you heading back to LA?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Early.”

“Probably around six.” She turns to look out the window and sighs. “I wish it was nicer out today.”

“Yeah, it’s gross,” I say, staring outside as well. It’s quiet for a minute and my mind gets to thinking. As much as I don’t want to discuss anything about last night I do feel like I should apologize for my behavior. “Laina.”

“Hmm?” she murmurs, not looking away from the window.

“I know we’re not talking about it but I just need to say that I’m sorry for all I said last night. It’s not going to happen again.”

She turns from the window and her eyes connect with mine. She only stares at me for a few seconds before nodding. “Alright.”

It feels great to have that off my chest and I feel like now we can go completely back to normal. “So what are you going to do today?”

She shrugs and puts a forkful of eggs into her mouth. “Not sitting outside, I guess.”

“Jess has a lot of movies at the cabin. You can come over and we could watch some if you want.”

She shrugs again. “Sure.” She puts her fork down and stretches her arms over her head. I see the smallest sliver of her stomach appear and I force myself to look away.

“Do you want to shower or change before we watch anything?”

Her arms drop to her sides and she frowns at me. “What’s wrong with how I look now?”

“Nothing. I like you like this. You’re all comfortable looking.”

She stands up and picks up her empty plate. “I didn’t realize I had to get all dressed up to spend time with you.”

I roll my eyes and reach out my foot to lightly kick her leg. “Don’t be a bitch. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

She gives me a wide smile and goes over to the sink. “Your momma would have your ass if she knew you just called me a bitch.”

The corner of my mouth turns up as I watch her put her dishes in the sink and run water over them. “Except my mom knows you and would probably agree with me.”

“Shut the hell up. Your mom loved me.”

That’s the total truth. My mom thought Laina was amazing. I think she just liked that Laina wasn’t caught up in the Hollywood glamour and that she kept me grounded. I can never get too much of a big head around Laina because whenever I do she always manages to find something to say to make me feel like a complete moron.

Before I can respond, the phone mounted on the wall above my head rings. Laina gives me a look over her shoulder.

“Be useful,” she says and then turns back to the dishes.

Smiling at her, I reach up and grab the phone from above my head. “Hello?”

There’s too long of pause before a male voice asks. “Is Laina there?”

Shit. That kind of sounds like Wes. “Yeah. Hang on.” I put my hand over the mouth piece and hold it out to her. “Lainey.”

She takes it from me and raises it to her ear. “Hello?” She’s quiet for a minute and then frowns. “He’s out here staying in the cabin next door.” She’s silent again and then a short laugh escapes her. “It was a bit of a coincidence. Oh, because you would have torn yourself away from your precious work for an entire weekend?”

The last thing I want is to sit here and listen to her and Wes fight so I get up and leave the kitchen. It’s starting to actually rain outside and by time I get back to Jess’ cabin, my clothes are drenched.

Taking Laina’s cue, I change into a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. The smell of Laina’s breakfast made my stomach start to growl and I’m feeling better enough to eat something. After preparing myself a large bowl of cereal, I plant myself in front of the TV and wait for Laina. Hopefully she’ll get rid of Wes quickly and come over here.

It only takes five minutes before I’m bored and by time Laina arrives at the cabin twenty minutes later, I’m ready to kill myself from just sitting here alone.

“Finally,” I state when she comes into the den. “I’m dying of boredom over here.”

She plops down on the couch. “It’s gross outside.”

Her neutral statement tells me she doesn’t want to discuss the phone call with Wes so I don’t push it at all. “I bet it’s gorgeous in LA.”

Her socked feet push against my stretched out legs, giving her a little more room on the couch. “Like you’d really rather be in LA.”

It only takes one glance over at her, seeing her curled onto the couch across from me, looking completely comfortable, that I know my answer. “You have a point.”

- - -

“Man, what the hell are you drinking?”

I look away from Bella running around the yard to Trace. “A strawberry and cream frappuccino.”

He snorts in laughter and crosses the yard to join me by the pool. “I didn’t know they sold drinks like that to guys.”

I ignore him and take another sip of my drink. He can make fun of me all he wants but this thing kicks ass.

“So how’s the thing with Laina going?”

Trace and my mom are the two people who get to ask me whatever they want and who I’ll always give an honest answer to. I told Trace about my feelings about Laina basically as soon as I figured them out not that he was really surprised about it. It doesn’t matter if I try and hide it, he usually figures it out pretty quick.

“I’m done with it,” I say. “I can’t waste my time going after someone who has a boyfriend.” I stretch out my legs on the grass in front of me. “I just want to be single.”

“I told you that.”

“You were right. It’s been too long since I’ve been single.”

“So you’re over the Laina thing?”

“I made myself get over it after I made a fool out of myself this weekend at the cabin.”

“So it’s over just like that.”

“It has to be. I don’t need to revisit me and Laina. There’s a reason we broke up in the first place,” I say, pretty proud of myself that I can say those words with actual conviction. Hardly any doubt in those words at all.

Trace nods and leans forward to pet Bella, who’s come over to sniff him. “So have you talked to her today?”

“Laina? No.”

“She and Wes broke up last night.”

This grabs my attention and I turn away from Bella to him. “Serious?”

“Yeah. I guess she finally got sick of him working all the time.”

“Not that much of a surprise,” I finally say after mulling over Trace’s words for a minute. “From what I knew it sounded like they were always fighting anyways.”

“Sounded like it.”

“Probably for the best,” I say vaguely.

“So does that change things?”

I look over at Trace. “Change what?”

“Your whole wanting to be single thing. She’s free game now.”

I shake my head. “No I’m serious about wanting to be single. It’s probably good that I realized that before they broke up.”

Trace looks like he doesn’t blame me and I don’t really blame him because I don’t know if I really completely believe myself. But I’m going to make myself be single for a while. I can easily force myself to do that, right? It won’t be that hard.

Before I can think about it anymore, I’m distracted by Trace giving me a disgusted look and getting up.

“Man, your damn toenails are pink. I’m getting out of here before you start growing tits.”