I lift the bottle. “We need to talk.”
She stares at our tried and true truth serum and sighs. “Well, this is going to be bad.”
That it is. “I just think certain talks require certain things.”
Meredith takes a step back. “Come on then. We only drink this when we are in pain or know we’re about to be.”
“Can it be both?”
Her eyes widen. “That’ll be new for us, but I’m sure it’s possible.”
Jake comes down the stairs, reading something on his phone. “Oh, hey, Tessa. I didn’t know you were coming over.”
“I didn’t either.”
He looks at the bottle. “Oh fuck.”
Meredith and I both laugh. Too many times Jake found us drunk as hell, crying or laughing beyond hysterics.
She walks over to her husband and kisses his cheek. “You look scared.”
“I am scared. If you have tequila, it means the two of you are about to be out of control and I have to, somehow, handle you.”
“I think you’ve done a great job so far.”
He eyes her warily. “I’m not so sure of that. Remember that tomorrow we have breakfast with my boss, okay?”
She nods. “I promise I won’t get too drunk.”
I don’t know if that’s a promise she can keep. Once I tell her this, she’s really going to want to wash down the memories, but I don’t say anything.
Who knows? Maybe Meredith won’t care? It could happen. It’s highly unlikely, but still, a girl can hope.
That leads me to my second worry, what if she does react great and tells me she doesn’t really care about any of it. Then what? Do I go to Killian, talk to him about how I’m feeling? I’m not sure that anything he said when he was drunk is what he really feels. Lord knows my father lied when he drank.
There’s only one way to find out, and it starts with talking to my best friend.
We go into the living room, and she grabs two shot glasses, placing them in front of us while I pull the top off and then pour.
My thinking is to just get it out there. Rip the Band-Aid off quickly and efficiently. The less time I sit and make us both stew, the better it’ll be.
So, we both lift our glass, clink them, and I say, “May we survive this conversation with smiles on our faces in the end.”
Meredith laughs and then we take the shot, slamming the glasses down.
She looks to me, and with a pit the size of a boulder in my stomach, I blurt it out. “I’m in love with the guy I’ve been with for the last few weeks.”
“That’s what we needed tequila for?” she asks. “Jesus, I thought this was going to be bad.”
I wish.
I shake my head and pour us another shot.
Once they’re both down and we’ve had two shots in us, I tell her the rest. “No, the man I’m in love with and have been sleeping with is named Killian Thorn.”
The blood drains from her face, and her jaw drops.
This is it.
