36. Her name was Haven

It took a bit of time before Willow answered my text if she wanted to come to visit. It's Sunday, so I assume she was sleeping in. She is on the way now, though. Simon, my mother's boyfriend, came home not long ago with a cake and gave me money as a birthday present, which was nice of him. He is not bad; I like him, and so does Jake because they play games together.

Weirdly enough, he has managed to spend more time with my brother than our own father has done this year. Simon has no children of his own but seems not to mind Jake nor me. I think, In a way, Jake has found a type of comfort in him. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my father, but he is too intense and isn't suitable to be a father, I would say.

"You can't beat me!" Jake says as they are playing on the console, some kind of car game. I smile while leaning on the doorframe. For some reason, it feels more like home than it's done in years. Perhaps it's because my brother has finally found a ground to place his feet on. He isn't sad as much as he was before.

Compared to my father, Simon is calm and patient. They are two completely different people. Maybe that was what my mother was looking for. I mean, my parents met when they were both young, and mom said dad changed a lot during the years. She thinks it was the pressure from our grandfather that took over him.

I turn in the direction of a knock on the door, and I smile, seeing Willow as I opened it.

"Hi," I say and take a step out into the cold to close the door behind me.

"Hi, Happy birthday," She smiles at me with her green eyes. Her black hair up in a ponytail, showing her cute cheekbones.

"Thank you; I'm sorry that I only texted today," I tell her, but she shakes her head.

"No, it's okay. I didn't have any plans for today; I would ask if you wanted to do something later. I thought you might want to spend the day with your family, but then you texted," She explains to me.

"Yeah, well, I told my mom about you, and she was the one who asked to invite you," I inform her shyly, and now she looks nervous.

"It's okay, my mom likes you, and you know them," I smile reassuringly at her.

"Yeah, okay," She nods.

"Come on then," I grab her hand to pull her after me inside to the warmth. She pulls off her jacket and hangs it with the others.

"Hi," My mother grins, coming from the kitchen.

"It's nice you wanted to come," She says, drying her hands on a cloth.

"I'm about to make dinner. Would you like to help?" My mother asks, more like pleading.

"Seriously?" I blurted out, which made Willow chuckle.

"No, I won't mind helping," She smiles nicely.

"Thank god, because I am not a good cook," Mom says nervously, perhaps knowing that Willow is amazing at making food makes her uneasy.

"You are not that bad," I disagree.

"Hush," My mother says, and Willow follows her into the kitchen. Great, I lost the one person I wanted to spend time with. I roll my eyes and find myself in a seat at the table.

"What are we making?" Willow asks, leaning on the counter.

"Lasagna, it's Harley's standard birthday meal, and I hate making it," Mom answers, and I feel my cheeks fire up as Willow turned to me, containing her laughter.

"Lasagna is something I have made a lot before, so that's okay," She smiles while my mother is pulling out pans from the cabinets and ingredients from the fridge.

"You are an absolute angel," Mom grins from ear to ear of happiness.

"No, it's nice to help," She shrugs.

While Willow was making the lasagne, my mother wouldn't stop talking. She had so many questions about everything. How she got the restaurant, and how she manages it. Things went well for a while. Until mom decided it was a good idea to ask about our relationship. I don't think I have ever felt more embarrassed in my entire life.

Willow and I haven't been together for long, and our relationship has been back and forth. Mostly because Will has been struggling along the way, and it's been hard on her to let Haven go.

"Have you been in a relationship before?" My mom asks, which caught my attention as Willow put the lasagna in the oven. She turns to my mother with a sad look on her face.

"Mom," I warned her, trying to make her stop.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry," She apologized.

"No, it's okay," Willow says, giving me a little smile.

"I was actually married," She explains, and my mom's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"Yeah, I know," Will chuckles at her reaction.

"Her name was Haven, and we knew each other since we were children. At fourteen, we noticed we had feelings for each other, and at eighteen, we got married," She smiles, and it makes me feel happy she is.

"You know as foolish teenagers do. Then a couple of years later, she started to get sick; we didn't really know what was wrong, so we went to the doctor, and we were told she had cancer," She pauses for a moment as she is gazing onto the floor.

"It was bad to the point where there was not much they could do, and she passed a year ago," Will says, and my mom stares at her endlessly with an empathetically look on her face.

"I feel like I need to hug you," Mom says, drying her eyes.

"Can I hug you?" She asks, and the embarrassment takes over again.

"Sure," Willow says unsurely but let mom hug her for a little while. This is certainly the strangest birthday I have ever had.

"Okay, you guys go; I will look after the Lasagne," She says, waving us away as she keeps on drying the tears off her face.

"Are you okay?" I ask Willow while she is following me into the living room.

"I'm okay," She smiles.

"I think you should be more worried about your mom," Will shrugs, looking back into the kitchen.

"She is fine," I say, listening to Simon and Jake being way into their game.

"That's Simon, mom's boyfriend," I tell Willow, who nods. The boys seem not to notice that we are here.

"It was very nice of you to help," I smile at her, but she only shrugs.

"It was," I pull her after me to a free couch, and that is when they became aware of us. Jake only said hi quickly with a grin, while Simon introduced himself to Willow and went back to the game.

"Do you need me to work full-time after the summer?" I ask.

"Are you offering or?" She asks uncertainly.

"Yeah, I don't have any other plans for next year," I say with a shrug.

"I can put you up on full time when you finish school. My mother is looking to hire a couple of more people, or at least forced me to it," She rolled her eyes, but with a smile.

"Why?" I wonder.

"The business is going quite well, and she wants me to stop overworking all the time," She explains.

"I totally agree with your mother," I grin.

"I'm fine," She disagrees.

"You are fine? Willow, you work every day, including paperwork on Sundays. That is not fine," I argued, and she let out a sigh with a letdown face expression.

"It's my escape, Harley," She said, but I narrow my eyes.

"What do you mean?" I ask, not sure if I am following.

"It takes away the pain," Will tells me, then take my hand into hers.

"But so do you," I smile at her words.

"And I should start to accept that I have feelings for you," She admits, taking me by surprise. I didn't expect her to tell me these things.

"As much as it hurts sometimes, I do like you a lot. It's hard to get my mind around it; it feels like I'm hurting Haven, even though she told me to find someone," I nod because I know it's been difficult for her.

"Simon, the tap is not working again!" My mother shouts from the kitchen. My brother groans in frustration as they had to pause the game, but still strolls after Simon.

"I want this to work, more than anything, and I will try and put my mind at ease," Willow says.

"Will, it's okay to think about her, and you should," I tell.

"Thank you," She smiles at me but then slowly leans towards me, starring down at my lips, as if she is asking for permission. I place my hand onto her cheek to pull her closer. Her lips meet mine, and they are so soft. She moves back after a couple of seconds, but I wanted more.

"What?" She smiles as she saw my reaction.

"Nothing," I answer, feeling embarrassed.

"Harley," She chuckles, pulling me by the hand to be able to rest her forehead on mine.

"What is it?" She asks again, but I don't say anything. I clash my lips onto hers once more. There is something about her that always manages to draw me in. I can't stay away from her. It's like a tidal wave keeps pushing me towards her. Every time we kiss just like now, I lose all sense of reality.

I feel a push on my shoulder, and we split apart. Will looks at me, dazed for a few seconds.

"You can't do that," She says; the way she said it made me confused. I'm not sure if she meant it as a warning or if she enjoyed it.

"I'm sorry," I tell her because I don't know what to say.

"No, Harley," She sighs with a smile.

"Every time I kiss you, it's such an incredible feeling, you know," Will shrugs, and my eyes widened while my cheeks turned to a different shade. I can't believe she said that.

How can someone like me make her feel that way? I'm just Harley, an eighteen-year-old who still goes to school. Who gets bullied every day and works as a waitress. What in the world does Willow see in me?

"Are you okay?" Will asks, and I meet her gaze.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I smile at her, staring into her green eyes. Willow is the most stunning woman I have ever seen. I thought she was wonderful when I dreamed about her, but when I saw her, really saw her for the first time; I couldn't believe my eyes. She is just that beautiful.