Deconstructing Bridges

Chapter Ten

Matt lifted his head as Hayley walked in the following morning, dropping her jacket on her desk.

The woman confused him, as if his thoughts weren't confused enough. It certainly was tempting to lose himself within the comfort of another woman. And Hayley... there was so much about her that appealed to him. Her sweet nature, her relative innocence, her youth, her obvious attractiveness and her apparent obliviousness to it. It all would have endeared her to any man.

And he was allowed to like her.

He did. He liked her. That was the problem.

He liked her too much to use her, and he still felt that was exactly what he would be doing if he went through with it. Eddie's point had finally gotten through. But even if being friends was probably not the wisest of ideas, as he'd said yesterday, he needed that. Perhaps it was selfish, perhaps he was still playing with fire, but he needed someone to hold his hand and tell him that he could get through this. He needed to be calmed down and reminded that enacting revenge upon Rose was the wrong thing to do. And a part of him wanted it to be Hayley.

His sister Ellie had called last night to ask for news and he'd finally admitted that Rose was now in police custody. She'd immediately jumped on that piece of information, wanting to know exactly what had happened and what he knew.

"There has to be a reason, Matt. She can't be bad. She just can't. You have to get her to explain."

Resisting the strong impulse to hurl the phone against the brick of the house exterior, he had settled for squeezing it tightly.

"Ellie, it's more complicated-."

"She's my friend, Matt. You owe it to her."

The idea that he owed anything to the witch was laughable. But Ellie wasn't laughing.

"El, be on my side. Please, please be on my side."

"Don't give up on her."

"She fucking killed someone, Ellie!"

He'd finally screamed into the phone receiver. There was complete silence on the other end.

"She's not who you thought she was, Ellie. I know you care about her, I know with Mum and Dad gone she was part family for you, but it was a lie. Trust me. She is not who you thought, who either of us thought."

Soft cries sounded and inwardly he had cursed. She'd hung up on him without another word, and he had gone to work this morning still feeling like a complete asshole.

Hayley walked over to his desk, and he noted she was clutching a coffee tray.

"Is one of those for me?" he asked with a small smirk.

"I didn't think there would be any convincing you to leave the building today," she noted as she passed one along.

"Here you go, friend."

She was so good, so sweet, he mused as he removed the lid from the cup to blow across the surface of the steaming coffee. It was not her attractiveness which appealed to him right now, it was how obliging she was, how she was making an effort to help him.

One day soon, he told himself. Once all this had blown over, if he was still standing, he might be able to see where this spark could potentially lead.

"Hey, Matt?"

He glanced back up again.

"Just as friends, I promise. You want to grab a bite to eat tonight?"

He considered all the reasons to say no. His unresolved case, his feelings of attraction growing to the point where he was tempted to exploit her admitted feelings.