“I guess you’re not going to answer that,” Ryan said, pulling me back to reality again. “Do you think your dad’s going to cold clock you when he sees you?”?
“Hard hitting questions today, my friend. You should have been ajournalist.” I took a long sip of my beer and avoided his stare-down.?
“All I’m saying is I need to try this Mrs. Wilkes’s fried chicken,” he said, shoving a website in my face and throwing his hands up. “They say it’s the best.”?
“You haven’t tried my friend Sutton’s cooking. You’ll fall in love,” I offered, feeling a pang in my heart for my friends like I did most every day.?
“Yo! Is she hot? If she can cookandshe’s hot, I call dibs.”?
I had to laugh. “She’s gorgeous. But stay away from her, seriously. She was like a sister to me.”?
Wasbeing the operative word there. I hadn’t talked to her in years, which sucked, because we were once so close.?I stared out onto the tarmac and let my mind wander back to a time when things weren’t quite as complicated as they were now… and had been for years.?
Chapter five
MAGNOLIA
Idecided to hire one of those traveling karaoke setups for a Friday night, hoping it would pull in a crowd of SCAD students or maybe a few wandering tourists if they heard “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasting out of our walk-up to-go window.
Kasey, the only staff member I hadn’t let go, was having a blast behind the bar, reliving her nineties wild child days and busting out her best moves. I gave her the heads-up that I was heading out for the night.
“Go, boss lady,” she cheered, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “You need to let loose. Have a great dinner with your guy, then go hang out with your weirdo brother. It’s not my kind of night, but you’ve been burning the candle at both ends. You deserve this!”
I watched as she unwrapped a CrunchWrap Supreme from Taco Bell, her twin top knots bouncing with every move as she threw up a peace sign when the DJ switched from Journey to Whitesnake. She belted out the tune between bites, occasionally garbling the lyrics as she crunched through her food, completely unbothered by the crumbs sprinkling across the bar.
“Anyway!” I shouted over the music. “I’ll be back around 11:00. You’ve got this?”
She waved me off with a smirk and another bite. “Seriously, do you think I can’t handle the eight people who’ll stroll in tonight? Go on. Have fun. Just go.”
I trudged up the back staircase and into my apartment, rifling through my closet for something that didn’t scream ‘disaster.’ This was our fifth official date, not counting the group hangouts, and I knew it was time to seal the deal. I was looking forward to it, but…
Just as I pulled out a sleek, low-cut maxi dress, my phone blared with the obnoxious siren of “Party Like a Rockstar,” a throwback to high school days.
“Hi. I really need to change this ringtone. What’s up?” I tossed a few more dresses onto my bed and sank into my desk chair, flipping open my laptop to check the camera feed from the bar below.
“Where are you guys heading tonight? I’m wrapping up this engagement party, and I’m itching for a drink. Are you hitting up Jordan and Doyle’s?”
I scrolled through the camera view, watching the five patrons at the bar. They were just sitting there like statues, not moving, not drinking, and definitely not paying any attention to the two hundred dollars an hour karaoke DJ I’d hired.
“Oh, well, excuse me, let me check my itinerary for the evening.” I said, jumping back into the conversation. “It was emailed to me around noon.”
“Someone’s definitely his momma’s son,” Sutton mused. “Speaking of, let’s hit the shops tomorrow for the party! We’ll start with a nice brunch at Clary’s, get a little buzz going, then hit the stores on Broughton. Maybe swing by Pence’s before I head over to the Wilders’ place. Sound good?”
I made a rather loud sound of disgust, and I could all but hear my best friend’s blood pressure boiling from the other end of the line.?
“Magnolia, don’t even start. What were you planning on wearing? Leggings? A t-shirt from that one time you ran that road race with me and walk-slash-cried the whole time? That was just a one mile fun run, by the way. Can we please get you a dress? Maybe something you don’t wear with your beat-up Chuck Taylors?”?
“First of all, I ran that whole mile! I only cried when we got to the end and they had run out of finish line beer.” I smirked while digging further into my closet. “And second of all, for the record, I have a nice top and a pair of jeans ready to go. Besides, I’m just going to sit on the veranda and get drunk until you’re done working. What does it matter what I’m wearing?”?
“You can’t run races just because there’s beer at the finish line. You own a bar—you can drink for free whenever you want. And honestly? What if Lee does decide to show up? You wanna wear your same old jeans from twelfth grade? Who, by the way, can still fit in those clothes besides you? And hi! We need to be showing off our new boyfriend and our banging body. We need a dress.”?
“So then, go get a dress,” I counter-offered.?
She huffed on the other end. “I have to wear a chef’s coat, you ass. And probably a hairnet.” I could hear her chopping up something in the background,her telltale sous chef soundtrack of Shania Twain blaring around her. “Come on, Magnolia. This is a big deal to Eunice, and she loves you more than her own children. Besides, I’m so bored. This is my fifth party in a week. I don’t want to think about flambé or gluten-free crusts. Let’s shop!”?
I groaned and pulled out a pair of dark-purple denim pants and my jean jacket from my closet, shoving the revealing maxi dress back in its spot. We weren’t dining upstairs at The Olde Pink House tonight, so I didn’t need to gettoodressed up.?
“Actually, Eunice and I saw some dresses when we were out getting silent-auction donations last week. I think she may have something up her sleeve, per usual. She liked me in this periwinkle dress I tried on. You know her, it’s probably going to show up any minute.”?
