“I’ll pick it up tomorrow.”

“You got a ride to get it, or do you need one?”

“I have a ride,” I say, knowing Brie who I also work with will be more than willing to pick me up in the morning for work and then I can take a cab to get it in the afternoon. “Thanks for letting me know about it. I spaced that I didn’t even have it here.”

“No problem, and I get that. You’ve got a lot on your mind. I’m sure you would have remembered sooner or later.”

“Yeah, like tomorrow when I was walking out of the house to go to work, which would have been too late to remember,” I say jokingly.

He stares at me with a strange look in his eyes, then rumbles, “You’re going to work tomorrow?”

“Yes.” I frown at his tone.

“Do you think that’s smart?”

“Since I have bills to pay, I think it is,” I respond, and his jaw clenches.

“I think you need to take a couple days before you get back to work.”

“And like I told you earlier, I’m fine.”

“Hadley, you were in the hospital last night with a concussion. You got stitches in your forehead and bruising that I can’t see but know is there just by the way you’re holding yourself. You need to take a couple days to recover before you go back to work.”

“Since it’s me who was in the hospital, and me who has bruising, I’m the one who knows what I am and am not capable of, and I’m going back to work tomorrow.”

“Are you always so fucking stubborn?”

Yes.

“Fuck, you are always this stubborn. You don’t even have to say it for me to know.”

“You don’t know me, Cobi,” I point out, and his eyes darken when his name leaves my mouth, that darkness making a few parts of me light up in a way they never have before.

“I will.”

What the hell does that mean?

“I need to go to bed.” I stand, grabbing the remote and turning the TV off. “Thanks for coming to check on me.”

“Hadley.” I walk toward the door then look at him when he says my name. “Stop, I’ll be cool. Just come sit down.”

“I’m tired.” It’s not a lie; I’m exhausted. I just don’t know that I will be able to fall asleep when I get into bed. “I’m going to bed. I appreciate you coming, but you can go now.”

“Come sit down.” It’s an order, and that sets my teeth on edge.

“Goodnight, Cobi.” I place my hand on the doorknob and start to turn it.

“I’m not leaving, Hadley. You might be too stubborn to admit you don’t want to be alone, but I know you don’t want to be. Not right now. Not after what happened last night.”

“I’m not stubborn.”

“You are.”

“I’m not.”

He smirks. “Come sit down.”

“You need to leave.” I open the door, but he still doesn’t move; his muscles don’t even twitch as he stares at me.

“I’m not leaving, baby, and although you look adorable in that robe, I doubt you want the image of you in it to be all over the news tomorrow,” he points out. I look outside then slam the door when I see there are two news vans parked on the street. God, I really hope they didn’t see me in what I’m wearing. I hear Cobi laugh, and my teeth grind together as I glare at him. “Come sit down.”

“Is it normal for a police officer to show up at someone’s house and then refuse to leave when they are asked to… repeatedly?”

“You don’t really want me to leave, Hadley.”

“You’re wrong, Cobi Mayson. I really do want you to leave.”

“How do you know me?”

For some reason, that question makes my pulse beat so hard that I feel it in my throat. “What?”

“How do you know me?”

“I don’t know you.” It’s not a lie; I don’t know him. Even when we were in school together, I didn’t know him—I just knew of him.

“Why are you lying?” He frowns, and I let out an annoyed breath. If he thinks I’m stubborn, he should look in the mirror.

“We went to school together.”

“We did?” His frown deepens as his eyes roam over my face and hair like he’s trying to place me.

“I was a freshman when you were a senior. We didn’t know each other. We didn’t even have any classes together. I knew of you, because everyone knew of you.”

“I see, though I can’t believe I don’t remember you. Even if you were a freshman when I was a senior, there’s no way I’d forget a face like yours.”

His words are sweet, but he has no idea the girl I was back then. I was not just chubby; I was about sixty pounds overweight. I had acne, glasses that were three sizes too big for my face, and my hair was crazy. I was a nerd. I still am a nerd, but now I’m just a nerd on the inside.

I was teased all the time when I was in school, and I only ever had one friend—that person being Brie. I don’t know how or why Brie befriended me way back in fifth grade, but she did, and we stayed tight, even though she could have easily been in the popular crowd. At the beginning of our friendship, I thought she was nice to me because she felt sorry for me, but with time, I learned that was just Brie. She’s nice to everyone, she doesn’t judge, she doesn’t make assumptions, and she never thinks she knows someone’s story just from hearsay.

“I don’t look like I did back then,” I tell him when I notice he hasn’t taken his eyes off me. “At all.”

“Were you one of those kids who walked around in baggy clothes and all black all the time?”

“No, I was one of the girls who was overweight and awkward. Believe me, if you saw me in the hall, you wouldn’t have given me a second glance.”

“I doubt that,” he mumbles. “I bet you were beautiful even then.”

He’s so wrong, but I don’t think without proof he will believe me. Also him seeing the mess I was back then might scare him into leaving.

“Be right back.” I go to my spare bedroom and open the closet. I pull out one of the large plastic totes I have stored there then dig through it until I find what I’m looking for. I take it with me to the living room, sit down in the middle of the couch right next to Cobi, and open the yearbook in my lap. When I find my photo, I point at myself, thinking I’m glad the media chose to use my old Facebook photo instead of the one I’m looking at.

My hair is more frizz than curl. My purple plastic glasses take up half my face and make my nose look scrunched at the end from the weight of them. I’m smiling a weird smile that shows off my crooked teeth, and my cheeks are dotted with acne. Looking at the picture, I know that if I didn’t have Brie, I wouldn’t have made it out of school unscathed. Kids can be mean, and they were sometimes mean to me, but having Brie and her unwavering friendship, I never felt alone. I always had someone to sit with, someone to hang with, and she never made me feel like I didn’t belong.

“You were cute.” My head flies around to look at him, and I study his expression to see if he’s lying. “You were,” he says like he knows what I’m thinking. “Do you still wear glasses?”

“No, I had Lasik surgery a few years ago.”

“Bummer, those glasses were cute on you.” He taps my picture.

“Are you messing with me right now?” I narrow my eyes on his.

He tips his head to the side. “Messing with you?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out what the heck is going on. You being nice, sending clothes for me, and then showing up here and demanding to hang out to make sure I’m okay.”

“Not sure you’re ready for that much honesty.”

Okay, what does that mean? I don’t ask. Part of me doesn’t want to know. Really, I don’t think I could handle his honesty right now. “Maybe we should just watch some TV,” I mumble.

His eyes turn knowing and he smiles. “Good idea, baby.”

I don’t say anything more. I set the yearbook down, pick up the remote, and turn the TV back on. I flip through channels for something to watch and end up stopping on a show about treasure hunters. We sit in silence through two episodes, and never, not once, do the guys looking for treasure ever find anything more than some old pottery. Still, I can’t seem to stop hoping they’ll find what they’re looking for. When the third episode starts, my eyes get heavy, but I force myself to keep them open, not trusting that I will be able to keep the memories at bay if I fall asleep.