“April’s?” Zoe asked with a grin.
“Ding. Ding. Ding. I swear that girl has her sights on being President one day. She’s so smart and determined.”
“Good for her.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was your spawn. That girl drives me to drink.”
“Speaking of...” Zoe set her glass down and crossed the kitchen. Pulling a bag of lemons from the counter, she held them out to Elba.
She took them gingerly. “What’s this?”
“Call me life.”
“Huh?” Elba’s look of confusion was almost comical.
“When all the shit started with Mark and I said ‘fuck it,’ I was trying to explain to a friend how I could make such an impromptu decision. I said, ‘when life gives you lemons’ and she said, ‘do tequila shots?’ She was trying to imply my decision was drastic and over the top, but I was like, yeah. Hell, yeah. Who the hell wants to go through life drinking freaking lemonade?”
She pulled a bottle of Patrón out of the freezer. “My plan for tonight was to do a couple of shots and start crossing things off my to-do list. Want to join me?”
Elba’s eyes widened. “Oh hell no. I’ll help you unpack, but I remember the last time we did tequila shots. I shouldn’t—but I do.”
Zoe took two red plastic cups from the stack on the counter, unscrewed the top on the bottle, and poured. “It wasn’t that bad.”
Elba handed the lemons to her. “I puked for twelve straight hours.”
Cutting open the bag, she sliced a lemon into wedges on a paper plate. “We were drinking cheap, crappy tequila. This is much better.”
Holding out a wedge and a cup, she said, “One shot. Call it a celebratory drink to welcome me to North Carolina and the start of my new life.”
Grumbling, Elba took the shot. “Only because I love you and missed you and am really happy you’re here. Where’s the salt?”
They both licked the backs of their hands and dusted them with salt.
Picking up a wedge of lemon, Elba held out her drink. “What are we drinking to?”
There was so much she could toast. To not being the perfect wife or daughter. To turning her back on everything that sucked the life from her soul. To everything she wanted to accomplish. To being on her own for the first time in her adult life with nothing but a dream and a to-do list.
She touched her cup to Elba’s. “To new beginnings.”
