“Don’t go back unless you want to. You’ll figure something out.”
She looks at me like she’s never seen me before as we pull up to Kemper’s.
“Thanks for the ride,” she says, opening the door. I give her a sharp nod and drive off to the office.
Penny and I were closer when we were children. Once I hit my late teens, I wanted nothing to do with my younger cousin and twin brothers. Our lives went separate ways, besides family gatherings. But it’s been recently that I’ve started to actually pay attention to her. I’ve been so caught up in my own shit I never really cared to dive deeper into what her life must be like.
Maybe I’m not the only fucked-up one in the family after all, and it’s wrong, but it’s nice to find solace in someone else’s pain.
6
PRAISE ISN’T GIVEN, IT’S EARNED
I’mat my desk fantasizing about all the epic ways I could quit my job. Throwing a drink in Tabitha’s face, screaming,I quit this bitchis at the top of my list right now.
Sharon, from accounting, heads over to my desk and looks around. “You want to cut out early, head to Mutiny for some drinks?”
“You had me at cut out early.”
I pull the drawer open, grabbing my purse and leaving all the private investigator’s information behind as I hightail it out of the office.
Mutiny is a little hole in the wall place right around the corner from the office. The amount of my paycheck they get is honestly obscene.
Sharon lights up a cigarette next to me as we walk, but she’s courteous enough to keep the smoke from blowing anywhere near me.
“Who's on your shit list today?” I ask her.
“Zach,” she groans. “Listen, I know his father is dying, and he’s more than likely going to inherit at least half of the company, but does he have to be such a stuck-up asshole?”
“At least he hasn’t been in the office as much.”
“Yeah, only to swing by and pick Tabitha up at the end of the day.”
“They are truly a match made in Hell,” I say, and Sharon barks out a laugh.
“Collin let them run wild. I think Aiden is feeling the weight of that now,” Sharon says.
I nod my head, feeling sorry that my cousin has to constantly deal with them.
The air conditioning inside of the bar is welcoming as we take our seats. Sharon is a friend, I guess. But she’s the kind of friend that’s situational. We both work at the same place, and have the same gripes. But she’s in her mid-fifties with two divorces and two teenage sons under her belt, besides working at the same place we don’t have much in common.
“So what’s new with you?” she asks.
I know Sharon would be absolutely riveted if I told her about Avalon and the Key Club, but it’s my secret. Even if asked point blank about what I’m doing, I’m going to lie. It’s my dirty little secret and I plan on taking it with me to my grave.
So, instead, I tell her about my search for my parents. “I hired a private investigator to look into my birth parents.”
“No shit?”
“I just want some closure there, ya know? I don’t have any grand ideas of wanting a close relationship with them. I just need to know why.”
Sharon takes a sip of her drink and looks at me with a motherly softness.
“No matter what you find out, just know that you have so many people who care about you.”
I swallow thickly.
“Thank you, Sharon.”
