“But I do remember being jealous of having to share my mom.She was a teacher, and she cared about all these other kids all the time, so I would make up reasons to steal her away from it.Have her all to myself.Eventually, she figured it out, and we made a deal—I would pick an activity, and she’d make the time for us to do it together, as often as we could.Just the two of us.They’re my favorite memories of her.”
“That’s really sweet.She meant a lot to you.”
I nodded, then held out what was left of my drink in a toast.“To formidable women.”
Tiffany clinked our glasses together with a chuckle.“Jesus, only you would use four-syllable words when you’re drunk.”
“I’m not drunk.”
“Tipsy, then.And she was.A fucking amazing woman.Same as my mama.”
“I can see where you get it from.”
“Careful, honey, or I’ll start to think you like me.”She winked.Surely, the warmth in my chest had everything to do with the whiskey we were drinking and nothing at all to do with the term of endearment she’d used.
Although, I wasn’t about to tell her to stop.
“So, tell me,” Tiffany started, and I steeled myself for whatever was going to come next, “what brought you back here?”
I’d later blame the alcohol for what I said next.“A broken heart.”
There was a long silence as I drained what was left of my glass before walking over to make a new one.
If my admission surprised me, it was nothing compared to what Tiffany admitted.“I don’t think I’ve ever been in love.”
Abandoning my original plan of mixing another cocktail, I walked back to the sofa with the bottle, filling both our glasses.“Never?”
“Most people only want me for sex.”
“I doubt that’s true.”
She reached a foot out to poke me in the thigh.“Do you want to tell this story?”
“Carry on.”I caught her ankle before she could retract her limb, tracing the soft skin as she spoke.
“I think the closest I ever came was in high school.I’d already realized I liked guys and girls, and I had the biggest crush on this chick.I’ve forgotten her name now … Wow, that’s terrible.I really should remember that.”
“What happened?”
She blew out a breath.“We kissed a couple of times until she told me she wasn’t ‘like that’ and that she was just experimenting.That hurt.Then, she outed me to half the school, and the bullying got bad enough that I had to transfer to another school.Mama was pissed.”
I swallowed, knowing I was teetering on the precipice of another dangerous decision.But Tiffany had opened up, and at that moment, with the soft glow of the streetlights extending through the window and the delicate feel of her under my fingertips, I felt the truth slipping past my defenses.“Her name was Piper.We met at a young entrepreneurs event,”
“Of course you fucking did,” Tiff groaned, making me smile.It eased the ache in my chest and made the memory easier to bear.
“I fell straight away.She was incredible.Larger than life.My first bar was already a success, and I was looking for investors to start a second.Piper was the one who rallied for capital.It felt like kismet.”
“Destiny, Sam?Really?”Tiff stretched out her other foot, brushing my thigh.“What happened?”
“I was blinded by love.After the second bar was a success and I was planning for the third, I asked her to be my business partner.We’d been dating for a few years at that point, and we were in love.I thought it was forever.We decided that I’d continue to run the business, and she’d handle the investors.We made a great team.So, I signed over half of everything over to her.It was my way of committing to her since I never wanted to get married or have kids.Only, when we broke up, she had better lawyers.She told me I could go quietly and keep benefiting off of the company’s reputation, or she would tie me up in court until I had nothing.So, I took the payout and came home.”
“Fuck.”
And that one word, empty of pity and full of everything I’d been unable to say about the situation myself, was probably the most perfect thing she could have said.
Laughter bubbled out of me, unexpected but freeing, until I was doubled over with it.Like a dam broken, the release left me light-headed.Or maybe that was just the alcohol.
Tiffany eyed me like I had lost my mind, and maybe I had, but honestly, it felt good to let it go like this.Months of pain, first the heartbreak of losing the person, the partner, I’d spent the better part of nine years with, then the loss of my business.My hard work.
