I twisted dutifully to look at her friend, shaking the ice in my glass. “Pretty.”
“Gorgeous. Kel’s a writer…the glamorous kind. Fashion reporting, mostly. She’s been inVoguea few times.” Kimber wrinkled her nose and leaned in. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but—no, never mind.”
“Tell me,” I prodded, grinning like an idiot, my thoughts humming in a vodka haze.
Maybe Vally’d been right to drag my ass out. Impending retirement and my shit show of a personal life had been hovering over my head like a dark cloud for months. I needed a break from the gloom, and this felt nice and?—
“She knows your ex.”
Screech.
I froze, my brows furrowed. “My ex.”
She nodded, dipping her chin in a sympathetic gesture that grated like a fork scaping dried food from a plate. The hum and buzz in my brain were replaced with sudden icy wariness.
And yet, Kimber barreled on.
“I’m so sorry about what happened. You deserve better.” She splayed a manicured hand on my chest and added, “Let’s make her jealous.”
Kimber lifted her arms to my shoulders as a camera flashed in my face, blinding me for a beat and effectively killing any remnant of interest.
“Yo! I need this guy for a second.” Vally stole my drink and deposited it on the bar, hooking a hand in the crook of my elbow. “You wanna go home?”
“Affirmative.”
Vally’s ride was waiting in front of the hotel lobby. I slipped into the back seat, my head pounding as the neon lights along Wilshire Boulevard whizzed by in a blur.
“Shit. I’m sorry, man. She was giving spider vibes, but you seemed into it…for a while. And a little distraction is a good thing.”
I snorted, scrubbing my jaw. “Yeah.”
Vally punched my biceps. “You okay?”
“Oh, sure. I’m great.” I didn’t bother hiding the sarcasm. “I’ll probably end up on some celebrity blog in the morning, or an influencer’s post in the next ten minutes—and the world will pick apart my sorry-ass life and remind me that I’m officially a has-been now. But hey…it could be worse.”
My friend sighed. “Dude. You need a vacation.”
“Funny enough, I was supposed to take one.”
“With Alli?”
I nodded distractedly. “Hawaii. She wanted to stay at the fucking Four Seasons, wanted sunshine and eighty degrees in January. I’m so fucking tired of sunshine, warm weather, and palm trees. Aren’t you?”
“Uh…no. I think you’re losin’ it, Si.”
I closed my eyes briefly, pissed at my outburst. That didn’t stop me from adding, “I think I am, too. I’m gonna go home, pull the covers over my head, and hibernate for the rest of winter. Or maybe the rest of the year.”
Vally let me wallow for a block or two, then nudged my knee. “You should go to my place in Vermont.”
I shifted to face him. “You have a place in Vermont?”
“It’s an investment property in…” He tapped his temple as if to jiggle a memory loose. “Wood Hollow…some tiny town in the forest that’s having a mini renaissance.”
“You freak me out when you use big words,” I snarked.
Vally frowned. “I’m serious here, man. Mental health matters, and pardon the honesty, but you’re fucked up. You need a change of scenery…stat.”
Maybe I did.
