After a few comments about the women ripping into each other, the students, teachers, and carpenters ate breakfast as if nothing were unusual. They talked about their upcoming tests and plans for when the session ended next week.
Afterwards, they passed their empty dishes to the tables’ end. And without hesitation—even as Polly keened and clawed her pale, thin arms (they’d all seen glimmers of her behaving like that)—Crescent, who with Trevor’s guidance was now a conscientious student, and Peter, who excelled at everything theoretical, carted plates into the kitchen.
Brian lingered, anxious as always about Trevor overstepping his supposedly supernatural bounds. And even more anxious about Hailey, simply because she was shielded from his sight.
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
He had never suffered such love before. Brian had loved Carla as well as he could, which meant he had accepted her wishes, hid his impatience, and recognized without jealousy her attempts, great and small, to attract other men. Having grown up with no adult affection, but besieged by his younger brother’s constant, mischievous love, Brian had managed mild satisfaction with women. They enjoyed his steadiness and common decency. And they knocked themselves out, displaying affection.
And if any of them demanded more, Brian would ask: more what? We get along without tears or insults or long, grudging silences. They were lucky, Brian had thought.
Now, however, Brian couldn’t think. Hailey had beset him with unquenchable desire. She had filled his heart with desperation and exaltation. So that now—it was the strangest thing—he felt bereft without Hailey close to him. Even a few hours hurt.
Go with it; revel in it, because extremes exist briefly. Even the wildest passions pass. Wasn’t that the conventional wisdom?
Brian wished he could block out Trevor’s role—the whole thing being so irrational. Except no way around it, Trevor had planned this. He had chosen and tested Hailey to be Brian’s “one love.”
The idea might infuriate him—such brazen presumption—except here Brian was, waiting by the picnic table for Hailey to finish cleaning the kitchen. After breakfast, Hailey attended a painting class and then worked at the café. Meanwhile Brian should be designing final exams.
And then—wait: something bad. Hailey was running from the backdoor, holding an ice mitt to her cheek. She was silent, her eyes lit not with glee but pain. In his arms she shuddered and cried. He pulled the envelope of packed ice from her cheek.
Not far from her ear, a cabinet handle had gouged a deep cut. That part of her face was swelling and bruising.
Brian could scarcely believe it. Carla did that? Carla doesn’t care that much. Not about Brian; he knew that.
“Either you’re wrong about that,” Hailey said, “or there’s some other problem that she’s decided to call Hailey-stole-Brian-from-me.”
“I’ll talk to her. Physical violence? It’s insane.”
Hailey leaned into Brian as they approached his cabin. “Don’t talk to her, Brian. Everything’s settled. Angelina and Trevor mediated.”
They sat on the back porch and as Brian dabbed arnica oil on her wound, she explained the new agreement: Hailey, Carla, Trevor and Angelina had convened in the main office. Trevor sat beside Carla. Without saying anything explicit, though Hailey suspected he mumbled chants, Trevor convinced Carla to work in the café from now on. Angelina had pointed out that Carla owned a share of the café now. Didn’t she want to look after it personally?
“All right,” Carla had said. “Where am I supposed to live? Asheville?” Trevor stroked her arm. He laid his head on her shoulder.
Angelina said, “You can live here, Carla, providing you keep your distance from Brian and Hailey.”
She scoffed at that. “Don’t worry.”
“And,” Hailey said, “I’m in charge of all Consortium meals from now on.” Brian started to object, but Hailey preferred it. The money was easier.
Carla had continued sulking until Trevor picked up her hand and stroked each finger. Hailey had seen an almost invisible white light run like a current between their hands.
“Fine,” Carla said, “I’ll find a place in town.”
Trevor reminded her that “Awake” was playing tonight and tomorrow. He wanted her there, both shows. “Made her promise.”
“But that’s only one step,” Hailey told Brian. “There’s still the trouble with Polly. And Chief Clay’s daughter. About that, Angelina’s really mad at Trevor; she told him not to get involved. The Chief and Lauren got away fast, but not before Trevor talked ‘da big boss one’ into letting Trevor take him to dinner at the café tonight. Before the new Monday night Avalon gig.”
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