Plus, the rest of the night had been ruined.
I always had anxiety around eating out, but I’d been looking forward to going somewhere fun with him. Everything was more entertaining with him in the mix, and I didn’t feel quite as on-the-spot in his company as I did with some people.
The awful way I was feeling was all my fault. I knew he didn’t mean anything by asking me to go out tonight, but I’d built it up in my head, so in the end, I was probably the angriest withme, but I also had a few choice words for Miss Know-It-All Lacey who thought she could meddle in my life. It had been funny when we were pulling one over on Edgar, but it didn’t feel as nice to be in the hot seat.
Maurice:Where are you?
Lacey:We went to Big Jim’s and now we’re at The Sloppy Frog. Do you know where that is?
I didn’t bother replying because even though I’d never been there I could look up the bar on my phone, and I didn’t need her directions, which would involve seven hundred landmarks and telling me what I would see if I went too far down the street they were on.
By the time I got to the Sloppy Frog, which had an outdoor patio that surrounded the building and overlooked the river, I was ready to spit bullets. The parking lot was overflowing, and a few people in trucks and jeeps had left their vehicles on a small strip of lawn between the lot and the street. It took a minute to find a spot, then five more because I had to wait for the drunk person parked on my left to get into their car so I could open my door. I was pissed off again as I got out into the cool night air. The trip across the lot made me feel like I was in constant danger because no one seemed to be watching where they were going, whether it be in or out of their vehicles. I shook my head and glared at the large green glass frog next to the entrance. The base had a light inside that turned the statue into a brilliant beacon, and the amphibian was wearing a sailor’s hat and had a stogie sticking out of its mouth. I snorted and a tiny smidge of my irritation vanished.
Once inside, I bypassed the bar because I knew Lacey, and she usually tried to grab a table. In a place like this she would be outdoors, so I didn’t stop until I found the patio. I spotted Edgar first, and he shook his head as he noticed me coming. The coward jumped up from the table and headed inside toward the bar, not even slowing down as he passed me. Lacey laughed when her gaze met mine and didn’t have the decency to stop as I sat down across from her and slammed my hands onto the table. Cigarette smoke drifted to us from a nearby table and my nose wrinkled.
“You’re going to do it!” She pointed.
I sneezed and my eyes watered while she cackled.
“What the hell did you think you were accomplishing?” I asked, sniffling.
She snickered and played with the hoop pierced through her bottom lip, using her teeth to bite at the metal. “It was okay to set up someone else but not you? Where’s your sense of humor?” Her eyes sparkled and she wriggled her shoulders.
“Mr. Guidry is my boss.”
She tipped her chin toward me. “Oh, now it’s Mr. Guidry. What happened to Wick? What happened to snuggling up against his side. What happened to,oh, I’m here and you’re safe.” She fluttered her eyelashes at me, then took a long, annoying sip of the red slushie drink in front of her that made an awful noise with the straw. The wench was beside herself with glee as she shook her head and grinned at me.
“I have to work with this guy, Lacey.”
Some of her amusement faded and she bit the corner of her mouth. “I thought you liked him? You talk about him all the time, and you tell me about all the things you do for him.”
Dread settled over me like a wet blanket. Yep, this was all my fault. “Part of my job is to run around after him!”
She frowned. “But you have atonewhen you talk about him.” She fluttered her fingers and stared directly into my eyes, as if trying to convince me that whatever was going on in her head was true.
“A tone?” Thankfully the Sloppy Frog was busy because I was getting too loud, and we would’ve been getting looks by now otherwise. Music blared from a speaker in the corner, and nearby a table of men erupted into loud hoots and laughter.
She shrugged. “You sound content. Happy. I don’t know. You like him.” Her dark eyebrows furrowed.
I ran a hand along my jaw and sighed. “It doesn’t matter if I like him or not. He doesn’t like me.”
She crossed her arms and settled back against her chair. “He wasn’t acting like a man who hates you tonight.”
“He’s friendly. He wouldn’t be mean to anyone, not even Edgar. He might’ve thought it was funny to make Edgar feel stupid for barking up the wrong tree, but he wouldn’t be outright rude. He’s not that kind of person! He’s a good guy.”
Her smile was back, a quirky twist of her lips that let me know she was thinking the wrong things again.
“Damn it!”
“Look, I’m sorry.” Her smile didn’t dim at all. If she was sorry, it was the type of sorry where she not-so-secretly didn’t give a single damn, and how was this my life?
“That isn’t good enough!”
Her face pinked up and she leaned closer to me. “Matthew was an asshole and we both know it. You’ve let that drag you down for long enough. You need to get out there. Edgar was supposed to be harassing you into finding a date to double up with us. I told him to do that. You talk about Wick a lot, and when I ran into the both of you at that bar, which is uber-expensive by the way, and it seemed like he was buying your drinks, I thought maybe you two were almost dating and needed—” She shoved at the air in front of herself. “You know, a push.”
I tossed up my hands. “Edgar was pressuring me to find someone to go out with. I didn’t like it.”
Lacey’s hands balled into fists and she pounded the table so hard she rattled her glass. “What you like is the nice rut you wore in the world, and you aren’t trying to get out of it. You need help.” She pounded the table once more in my direction.
