Him

HIM

A NOVEL

by

Carey Heywood

~*~

Him

Edited by Yesenia Vargas

Cover design by Okay Creations

ISBN 978-0-9887713-6-9

Copyright 2013 by Carey Heywood

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

HIM is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To Seth. I met you seven years before our first date. You will always be my HIM.

 

 

HIM

 

 

 

Chapter 1

Present

 

 

 

After closing the refrigerator door, I pause, juice in hand, to look at my brother's wedding invitation. It's held up by a local pizza place's magnet and I've looked at it at least a hundred times. I should probably start packing. I'm normally so good at it, always prepared in advance for whatever trip I'm taking. This time is different, I'm headed home. When I got the save the date card a year ago, I called my brother, the groom. I tried to sell Brian on the idea of a destination wedding. Someplace tropic, Aruba or maybe Cabo. No, his fiancée, Christine was set on Decatur, our hometown. Something about dreaming about getting married in the little white church there and having all of her friends and family with her. Ugh.

There is no getting out of going, kind of a requirement of being a sibling. Plus, Christine, the bride, wants me to be a bridesmaid. At least the bridesmaid dresses are pretty, I picture the pale blue dress hanging in my closet. I take a sip of my drink as I walk into the living room. Our condo has an amazing view of the Rockies from the picture window in the living room. Sawyer has her mat laid out in a patch of sunlight in our living room and is going through a series of yoga poses. I sit on the sofa, waiting for her to finish.

After ending in a final child's pose, she turns to me, her gray blue eyes bright. She rolls up her mat before joining me on the sofa, tucking her legs under her as she sits.

"Dude, have you packed yet?"

"Dude?" I cock my head at her. "You never say dude."

She blushes. Sawyer also never blushes.

I pick up a pillow and throw it at her and laugh. "But I know somebody who does!"

"Don't change the subject." She avoids what I've said altogether. "Packed yet?"

I flop back onto the arm of the sofa. "No, I haven't." I groan. "I don’t want to go."

I know I'm whining, but I really don’t want to go. She stands, holding out her hand to help me off of the sofa, which is laughable considering how much smaller she is than me. "Stop being a wuss." I let her pull me up. "I'll help you pack."

"Fine," I grumble and follow her, my shoulders slumped the whole way to my room.

I tried packing last night and had gotten only as far as pulling down my shiny red rolling suitcase. It still stands, proudly, next to my closet. I lift it and lay it open across my bed. Sawyer buzzes around me, throwing stuff into it.

"I don't think I'll need so many dresses," I argue.

"You never know. Maybe you'll hook up with a groomsman."

I pick up one of the dresses she's flung in my suitcase and neatly refold it. "Unlikely. All but one are married or already have girlfriends."

She smirks, lifting a brow.

"What?" I shrug my shoulders. "I asked Brian last time I talked to him. Even asked him the name of the only single guy, but he had to hang up before he could tell me."

"Why? Were you planning on practicing doodling his name on your binder?"

I roll my eyes. "I don’t do that."

"Right, Sarah. Your last real relationship was in high school. Can you repeat after me? High school." She uses air quotes.

"I've dated," I argue weakly.

She gives me a look like, really?

But I'm gaining speed. "Yeah, remember that guy? What was his name? The one who had the three legged dog."

She nods. "That was a really cute dog. If I remember correctly, you spent more time with Rover than Jeremy. And why do I remember the name of the guy you dated and you don't?"

I look away. "Did not."

She keeps going. "So why did you stop seeing Jeremy?"

I lie. "I forget."

Sawyer's always been able to tell when I lie. "Liar! You stopped seeing him because he flossed! Who does that? Who thinks flossing is a con?" she says in disbelief.

"You know that's not why. It’s not that he flossed. I like that he flossed. It's that he had to tell me every time he was going to go floss. Why? Why did he do that? Was he trying to prove something? Hey, look at me." I wave my hands in the air. "I'm going to go floss now!"

Sawyer throws a pair of socks at my head. "He was a dentist. You are a crazy person."

I turn to pick up the socks from the floor and put them in the inside pocket of my suitcase "He just wasn't for me." I grin, looking up. "I would've kept his dog, though. His name was Tank by the way."

Sawyer brings my bridesmaid dress out of the closet and sets it on top of everything else, folding it in the middle. "I'm worried about you."

I freeze. "Why?"

She shakes her head. "I know you, and I want you to know I am so proud of everything you have accomplished. But."

I raise