“I think you’re done. I’m cutting you off.”
“I ain’t drunk.”
“No, but you’re on your way. I smelled the liquor on you when you came in.”
She grabs the glass from in front of me, and my stuttering heart aches a little. She sets it in the sink, then grabs one of theclean ones she dried off, blasting it with a soda gun and filling it with water.
She slides it toward me. “Drink.”
I stare at the perfect, clear water.
I can’t.
It won’t sink into my burning insides like Jack and I know I won’t taste Slim in it if I take a sip.
“You know, my dad always said men only get one real love in their lifetimes,” Mel says.
My eyes dart back up to her, then down towards my fleece shorts and white tee, searching for whatever part of me that screams “I’m in love!” but everything still looks the same.
“That’s what you think? That I’m in love?”
She chuckles. “C’mon, Pup. It’s all over you. On your lips, your breath, and especially in your eyes.”
As soon as I look back up at her, she stares into them.
“My dad says a woman has the capacity to experience different types of love for different types of men until she meetsthe one. Then she realizes all those other men she loved were just lessons. Maybe one taught her that communication is the backbone of a relationship, and maybe another taught her that love doesn’t have to hurt. But men only have the capacity to experience one real love, and that love teaches you everything.”
“Hm. So your mama was your daddy’s one real love?”
She sputters out a laugh. “Hell no. If she was, I wouldn’t have spent half my childhood in one place and the other half in another. Heactuallyran from his real love. She was his high school sweetheart at Wesley. Shit, he ran his ass all the way into a miserable existence because he swore he didn’t deserve her. I guess that explains why he could never shake this place, and now I can’t shake it either. It’s like we’re stuck.”
I swallow a mouthful of stale air as her eyes trace my face like she’s waiting for me to shout from the depths of my soul that I think I’m in love with Lovie Sinclair.
She chuckles, slapping the bar. “I can’t believe a big, strong man like you is running from love. I hope you get over this. It’s such a sad way to live.”
Another clap of thunder shakes the building.
“I think it’s time for you to go home. I’ll close you out.” She turns around but stops midway and holds up her finger. “By the way—they stopped calling your daddy the big dog around here a few months ago.”
She smirks, walking off.
As soon as I walk out of Jazzy’s, heavy raindrops nick my skin.
I look up at the dark sky, and a full moon stares back at me. Sometime during my first and last drink, the sun set, and another day slipped by while I tried to throw myself back into my old life. If Mel was standing back in front of me, I’d tell her ass I wasn’t running from love or from Slim.
I scoff to myself. “I’m just tryna get us back to some sense of normalcy—back before I found her in my kitchen—back when the only thing on her mind was putting herself back together.”
I swallow the remnants of that French 75 and walk toward my truck with wobbly knees. A flash of lightning lights up the dark sky, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand and that part of my brain that Slim broke into, opens wider. She might be waiting for me on my porch. She knows how I feel about the rain.
I walk faster, trying to shake those thoughts out of my head while another crack of thunder rumbles.
I pick up my pace and pull my keys from my pocket.
Throughout the heavy rain that falls I catch a glimpse of my truck’s tailgate in the back of the parking lot and a smaller car parked next to it with its lights on. I know this car—the sixteen-inch alloy wheels, the ding on the left side of the back bumper, and the license plate.Ibought this car.
I walk closer and the driver’s side door opens.
Arnez climbs out in leggings and a Nike hoodie so big it falls to her knees. She stares at me with glossy red eyes as sheets of rain fall on and between us.
