Chapter 50
After changing into a new three-piece suit, Barnett went straight to his living room and texted Lily to meet him at his midcentury house for coffee. After making a pot and pouring them each a cup, he paced in front of his recliner and waited for her to arrive.
Lily stumbled through the front door around noon. She was immaculately dressed in a white sundress with a yellow belt, a big floppy yellow hat, and yellow gladiator sandals. However, she wore no makeup, and large white sunglasses covered her bloodshot eyes.
“This better be good, Uncle Barnett,” she growled. She accepted a cup of coffee from him and collapsed on the couch as he sat down in the recliner.
“Nice to see you, too.”
Lily took a long drink from her coffee before answering.
“You know how I am after a party like that.”
She held her head in one hand, the coffee cup in the other.
“Yeah, well, I don’t seem to give two shits after your best friend rejected me,” he snapped.
Lily tilted her sunglasses forward, her eyebrows raised.
“She rejected you?” she asked, her voice a mix of astonishment and amusement.
“Yeah,” he grumbled.
“Well, what happened? You can’t just dangle a juicy carrot like that in front of me and then pull it away.”
Barnett rubbed his chin, trying to figure out how to start the story. Finally, he decided the direct approach would be best.
“After I made sure she got home last night, we slept together—”
“You slept with her when she was that drunk?” She leaned forward and lightly slapped him on the arm. “She was too impaired to give consent, Barnett!”
Barnett lowered his head slightly, ashamed.
“In my defense, I was drunk, too,” he murmured.
She slapped him again.
“You were more sober than she was. You should have known when to stop.”
“I…that’s not the point!”
“Consent is always the point!” Lily shook her head. “Anyway, continue.”
“As I was saying, we slept together last night. This morning, Anna told me that she wanted to act as though it never happened. She treated me like a fuck buddy!”
Lily snorted, coffee spilling out of her mouth and back into her cup.
“‘Fuck buddies?’ Really, Uncle Barnett?”
Barnett rolled his eyes, though he looked as though he were trying to suppress his own laughter at Lily’s amusement.
“You know what I mean.”
“Are you really surprised? You had sex with her while her inhibitions were down, and she was probably embarrassed to wake up in bed with her old hockey coach—and her best friend’s uncle.”
Barnett took a long drink from his coffee as he considered that point.
“But she didn’t take my feelings into account—”
“Feelings that you’ve never expressed to her.”
Barnett pursed his lips.
“Feelings that she should have figured out by now.”
“She’s not a mind-reader, Barnett.”
“What else would she think, considering everything that I’ve done for her?”
Lily leaned on the arm of the couch, her head in her hand.
“I don’t know, maybe that you’re being nice to her? Have you ever considered that?”
“But after everything I did creating Soul M8s just to get the two of us together…there wasn’t even anyone else on there! I made it just for the two of us, and we were perfect matches. Now, Anna has the audacity to say that she doesn’t want anything long-term?”
Lily settled back on the couch, willing to let Barnett get everything out before she responded.
“And I only came to your party to see her…”
Lily’s hand flew to her chest in mock-surprise.
“And here I thought you came to celebrate the birth of your favorite niece.”
Barnett ran his hand through his hair, stopping short of pulling any out.
“No woman has ever treated me like she has before. I don’t understand her. She always surprises me, like a charming contradiction.”
Barnett sighed and shook his head.
“I just thought that she had liked me more than this, for a long time.”
“For how long?”
Lily smiled, as she was pretty sure she knew exactly how long Anna had liked Barnett.
Barnett suddenly turned bashful and studied his mug intently, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Well…I’m pretty certain that she’s liked me…a lot…since I coached her back in high school.”
Lily barely kept herself from laughing.
“Oh? So scandalous! How do you know that?”
He hesitated.
“Well, just before Anna hurt her leg, she…kissed me while I was taking a nap in the lounge attached to the school gym. Some of her hair tickled me during it, and I woke up, and I had to suppress a sneeze to keep from scaring her off. Then she ran off anyway and…well…hurt herself running down the stairs and was out the rest of the season.”
Lily stared at Barnett for a minute, then burst out laughing. Barnett’s face turned crimson.
“It’s not funny!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, it is. I mean, she hurt herself running away from your first kiss, and she didn’t even know you were awake for it. You have to admit, that’s pretty funny.”
Upon seeing the look on Barnett’s face, Lily quickly sobered up.
“I’m sorry, it’s not that funny,” she said. She sipped at her coffee. “There is a simple solution to all of this, though.”
Barnett crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin defiantly.
“And what is that?”
“You could admit to Anna that you like her.”
Barnett fell silent for a moment.
“You do still like her, right?”
Barnett nodded.
“Then what is stopping you from telling her?”
He sighed.
“I told you, everything is complicated with Julia right now. You saw what she did when people only implied that Anna was involved with me. Julia is crazy, and so are her fans.”
“And you don’t think that you can protect Anna from Julia and her fans?”
“Of course I can!”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
Barnett didn’t respond.
“If you want to be more than ‘fuck buddies’ with Anna, you have to tell her your real feelings. There’s no way around it. Do you want someone else to swoop in first?”
Barnett merely took a drink of his coffee.
Lily sighed.
“Look, unless there’s anything else you want to talk about, I think I should go and nurse this hangover headache.”
Her eye twitched as she put her sunglasses back on.
“Besides, I only told my driver to take a few laps around the neighborhood. He ought to be getting bored by now.”
“Since when have you cared about that?”
Lily shook her head, earning her another throbbing head pain.
“I have a heart.”
Barnett huffed out a laugh and waved Lily away.
“Go on.”
Lily set her mug on the coffee table and stood up.
“Thank you. I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks for stopping by. Oh, and happy birthday.”
Lily flashed a smile over her shoulder at him.
“Thanks.”
Barnett watched Lily leave. As soon as she was out the door, he turned to his phone and brought up Anna on his contacts.
You have to tell her your real feelings, Lily’s voice echoed through his mind.
