“No.”
“Do you think you should be moving on so quickly after everything that happened with Chip? You do know you have to go home at the end of the summer, right?” I place my hand on her forearm, trying to show her I’m being serious. She was madly in love with him and I just . . . I understand everything she admitted to me earlier and it’s completely logical, but how can you shut your heart off like that? Jade has a way of working things up in her head to be a lot worse than they actually are and part of me wonders if she’s psyched herself out about Chip more than sheneededto.
“Yes,” she answers truthfully, “but, it’s either drinking, or distracting myself. Both are the same, I suppose, but flirting with men is healthier than drinking.Usually.”
“I just don’t want you to get more hurt than you are, and from what I’ve seen since I arrived, you have also been distracting yourself by drinking. I know you aren’t okay. How could you be?” I look at her hand holding the drink, remembering she removed her ring, making this end sort of more official than I want to imagine. “How’s Chip doing?” I wonder if she’s still talkingtohim.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked in a couple of weeks. He was completely understanding when I broke things off, more so than I deserve, but I felt like a coward after that and it has been hard to hear hisvoice.”
“Well, hello, party animals,” a voice shouts over the growing chatter in therestaurant.
“Cale!” Jade flies out of her seat and throws her arms around his neck. As he did last night, Jared looks less than interested to be here, but maybe that’s just how he looks all the time. We exchanged less than a dozen words lastnight.
The stool beside me, which is the very last one at the end of the bar squeals against the ground, forcing me to whip my head around. I forgot there was an empty seat there, but it’s right in front of the tap, and I didn’t want to be sitting in front of that all night. It’s Liam, straight-faced and miserable looking, which seems to be normal for him. “Long time no see,” Itellhim.
“Mmhm,” he grunts, shooting his hand up, looking for our waiter—Sterling. Liam’s head is bobbing around as he peers over the heads of everyonesurroundingus.
“I’m sure the waiter will be back in a minute. We ordered about fifteenminutesago.”
Liam drops his arm onto the bar and scratches at the back of his head with hisotherhand.
“Okay.”
“Cheer up,” I tell him. “You’re out of work and at a bar. Don’t look so miserable. You’ll never find a girl that way.” I don’t know why I said that. It’s rude, especially since I don’t know what his dating situation is. I don’t know anything about him at all,actually.
“Dude!” I look over to where the ‘dude’ is coming from, and Sterling’s hand shoots past me to shake Liam’s. No. No. Why? How small is this freaking area? “How’s itgoing?”
“Can’t complain,” Liam lies. Right. Who needs to complain when you have misery written all over your face? “Catch any good ones thismorning?”
“Yeah, man, I think we hit a couple of five-footers. It was high tide and prettydecent.”
“I was thinking with how windy it was, the swells must have been pretty decent. I’m glad to hear that,”Liamsays.
“You haven’t been in the water all week. What’s up with that?” Sterling asks him. Does Liamsurftoo?
“Work has been crazy this week. We have a new grunt and you know how that goes.” No way. He better not be talkingaboutme.
“Ech,” Sterling groans. “Sorry to hear that. Hopefully this one isn’t as bitchy and stuck up as the last one.” I feel my face heating up as anger rages through me, but I can’t give him what he wants right now. He knows exactly what buttons he’s pressing. I take my drink and slug a few big gulps. Ass.Ass.Ass.
“I should be there in the morning, though. Will you be there around seven? It’ll give me a good hour at least,”Liamasks.
“Yeah, seven works.” Sterling gives Liam another handshake and looks down at me. “Your food will be right up.” He winks at me as he turns to leave, and goddammit, my stupid heart needs to stop dropping into the pit of my stomach and flopping around like a fish out ofwater.
Liam laughs. “Oh God. You’ve metSterling,huh?”
“Yeah,so?”
“Watch yourself,” he says. Like I should be taking advice from Liam of all people. Okay, I’llwatchmyself.
It only takes a nano second to ponder the real reason he’d be telling me to beware,though.
The quiet dinnerI had in mind didn’t exactly pan out the way I expected. Instead, our night is slowly becoming overcrowded. I had hoped there would be a decent night life here, but it’s Monday, and it’s so busy it looks like it should be theweekend.
I’m not sure where the drinks keep coming from but every time I turn around, there’s either a shot or a mixed drink sitting on the coaster in front of me. I haven’t indulged since the endless graduation parties. I was left with a week-long hangover that forced me to give my liver a hearty break for the past month. Plus, Jade left and everyone else in our little group of friends slowly disappeared into the real world—something we all promised each other we wouldn’t do. It’s like a dark hole everyone falls into when they’re forced to faceadulthood.
Being here now, I realize I’m not just moving on from my old life, I’m starting over. Even when I go back home, things won’t be the same, and I’ll have to start overagain.
“I’ve got to say, I’m pretty impressed with how well you handle your liquor,” Liam mutters against his tall glass of beer. He hasn’t moved from his seat since he arrived, nor said a word to Cale or Jared. Why bother coming out if you’re going to be miserable and slump over a bar for hours while everyone elsehasfun?
