Save Me #1

26| Changes

"His name is Liam," Abbey says with a big grin on her face.

I look at her with raised eyebrows.

"That's all?" I ask in amusement.

"He's thirty-two, a British ecologist, and super courteous," Abigail raves. Her happy face is so contagious, I can't help but smile along.

"How did you meet him?" I slide off the counter and start ruffling through the box with all the cheap Christmas decorations in it. Jack left it here and instructed us to accessorize the Diner with it.

"I met with Hailey and her new lover Benjamin at Nora's yesterday. Liam is a friend of Ben and he invited him for a drink." Abbey pulls out a red and green chain of lights and starts untangling it.

"So, you met Hailey's new lover?" I ask with a surprised face.

"Yea, he's nice," Abbey simply states and climbs on top of the counter to wrap the chain of lights around the hanging lamps.

"Nice?" I laugh. "Nice is just another word for boring!"

Abbey shoots me a blaming glance, but then laughs along.

"I don't know. I mean I've met him for the first time, but I can tell by the way he looked at Hailey that he's totally adoring her," she then says, and takes the second string of lights which I hold out to her.

I absentmindedly watch her arranging the festive decoration. It's somehow funny that all of a sudden everyone of our little friend's group seems to start dating. Except for Sadie, who hasn't found the right woman for her yet. And Nora. My heart aches as I think of the hurt in her beautiful blue eyes when I told her about Jackson. I wish I could take the pain away from her.

"Livie?" Abbey's snapping finger in front of my face makes me jump and brings me back to the empty Diner.

"Huh?"

"I just said that I don't know what's the point in decorating the Diner now. I mean it's only one week until Christmas. If anything, we should've decorated much earlier," Abbey rants.

"You know Jack!" I roll my eyes.

"Speaking of Jack, do you have any idea already what's up with him? The past weeks, he was barely present and acted even weirder than before," I question my best friend.

Abbey who just finished wrapping the fairy lights around the lamps jumps off the counter again and smooths her skirt.

"I don't know either. Maybe we overthink this, and Jack's just being his usual despicable self." She shrugs.

"Yea, maybe," I agree. I feel that something's up with Jack, I just can't put my finger on it, and I am not keen on talking about him anyways, so I change the topic.

"Are you still down for tonight?" I ask, and eye the shabby plastic Santa I just fetched out of the box.

"Of course, I am," Abbey retorts and playfully nudges my arm, "It's about time to have a proper lady's night again, right?"

I give her a big smile and nod. She's right, it's been two weeks since all five of us came together the last time.

Abbey and I spend the rest of the day with arranging Jack's ancient decorations, and as only a very few guests find their way to the Diner, we manage to leave Jack's shortly after 4pm. We set out straight for Nora's even though it's quite early.

"Hey you two!" Nora greets us when we enter the bar. She wears her ebony hair in a low messy bun today, which is rare. Her face is free of any makeup, and she has dark circles around her eyes.