WINONA
It had been aweek.Between paperwork, the Rolling Hills, and… that other thing, I needed to let off some steam. When Friday finally rolled around, I texted Cher and Sarah to ask if they wanted to join me for an after-work drink at O’Malley's pub downtown. They both readily agreed. Cher was especially enthusiastic. She’d been sending me texts all week after I’d made the mistake of telling her a few details about the job. It was fine, I knew how to avoid the subject of men with Cher. This one in particular would be easy. The voice in my head laughed, but I ignored that, telling Flo we were going to have a nice, normal girls’ night out.
When I arrived at the pub, I found both women already there, a full pitcher beaded with condensation and three pint glasses on the table.
Cher poured for all of us.
“To Friday,” I said.
“And to non-assholes,” Sarah added.
I glanced at Cher, eyebrows up.
Cher grimaced, her eyes going to Sarah. This wasn't about me, thankfully.
“I guess that talk I had with Jamie didn’t go anywhere, huh?” I asked.
Jamie was Sarah’s boss. He was actually not normally a dick, especially when you compared him to recent dicks I’d known. But when it came to Sarah, he’d been acting inexplicably strange. I’d talked Sarah up to him just last week, but obviously it hadn’t done much.
“Yesterday, he just walked out of the meeting in the middle of Sarah’s update,” Cher said.
I sat up. “What?” I’d spent today putting out some fires away from the Rolling Hills, so I’d missed the regular status meeting.
“No notice, not even an ‘excuse me’.” Sarah’s nostrils flared, her jaw stiff. “He just got up and stormed out like he didn’t like how I was running it.”
“Unbelievable,” I said.
Cher swallowed her sip of beer. “Yup. Sometimes men are the biggest babies I know.”
“Sometimes?” Sarah quipped.
Once again, I thought of that grumpy asshole staring me down. And once again, I had to ignore the strange tingling sensation I felt inside as those eyes blazed in my mind.
“Honestly, these days only Ryan and Calvin are infallible,” Cher declared. “Winona’s brothers are the definition of good boys,” she explained to Sarah, who’d never met them.
“Not that it didn’t take a shit-ton of work to get them there,” I laughed. Then I bit my lip. “Actually, can I boast a little?”
“Always,” Cher said.
I tried not to explode with pride as I said, “Calvin got called by his dream restaurant this week.”
Cher gaped. “Shut up.”
I grinned. Cher loved those boys almost as much as I did. “Seriously. Just to talk, suss him out. But still.”
Sarah’s brows bunched. “Wait, I thought Ryan was the chef?”
“Calvin’s in culinary school,” Cher said. “Ryan’s the engineering genius in California.”
Besides the phone call I had with Calvin on Wednesday, this was the first time I’d felt fully relaxed all week. Itwas definitely the distraction I needed. “Ryan’s doing amazing too,” I said. “He got invited to do his co-op term at this sustainable battery power start-up he’s been obsessed with all year. Apparently, they’re filing for patents every other day.”
“Wow, Winona,” Sarah said. “You really did do a great job with those boys.”
Sarah knew I’d raised my brothers, though she didn’t know all the details. Even Cher didn’t know every detail.
Some things were better left in the dark.
“It’s all them,” I said, meaning it. “They worked so hard.”
