“It’s a Thursday night. I’m allowed to drink.”
“Don’t you have work in the morning?” I ask, dropping into the empty seat next to her.
“Today is my Friday. No work for me.”
“Ahh. Well, that makes two of us.”
Sienna snaps for the passing waiter and orders me my usual glass of gin and ginger beer. Nothing fancy orover-the-top for me.
“Please tell us what happened.”
Sienna brushes her perfectly sleek, dark auburn hair over her shoulder. She is nevernotperfectly made up.
The same for Imogen, even if her blue eyes are glassy. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a low bun, secured at the nape of her neck, not a hair out of place.
My best friends are stunners.
“I missed filing the paperwork for the preseason trade deadline, and now I’ll be lucky to have a job tomorrow.”
“Wait, I thought that was next week. You’ve been talking about it for the last month, it seems,” Sienna says.
“No, I haven’t.”
I smile at the waiter as my drink is dropped off. I take a gulp, needing it to cool everything that is floating inside me. The juniper taste explodes on my taste buds.
Imogen rolls her eyes at me. “Yes, you have. You’ve been using it as an excuse for not coming out even though it’s a few clicks of a mouse.”
“See? Even we know what your job entails,” Sienna confirms. “Pretty sorry excuse to blow off your best friends.”
“I’m not blowing you off,” I huff. “I’m busy. I have work.”
“We all do, love. You make a point to stay busier than the rest of us.”
“Nothing wrong with wanting to do a good job.” My voice is indignant as I settle back in the uncomfortable high-top chair.
This is why I don’t like coming to these places. Limited seating, overpriced drinks, and too many people.
“You need to let your hair down and live a little,” Imogen tells me. Her hand grabs the clip holding my brown hair in place and lets it flow around my shoulders.
“That wasn’t necessary.” I grab the hair accessory from her and clasp it around my purse strap.
My very favorite Mulberry bag. The forest green, pebbled leather purse with the gold clasp was my treat to myself when I got this job.
The very same one I might be losing tomorrow.
“Okay, let’s say you do lose your job. Maybe tonight you do something out of the ordinary.”
“What would be out of the ordinary for me?”
“Anything,” Imogen says.
“Well, that’s quite rude,” I fire back, sipping on my drink.
Sienna waves her off. “Ignore her. She hasn’t had sex in a month, and it’s doing things to her head.”
I nearly spit out my drink. “Sienna! You cannot say things like that.”
“It’s true,” Imogen confirms.
