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“My dad.”
Nora raises her glass. “Fuck death.”
Lexy's smile fades. “In a way... it stole my mom too.”
Confusion crosses Nora's face. “They both died?”
Lexy shakes her head. “No. My father was killed. My mother...” She glances at the whiskey glass still clutched in Nora's hand. “She decided to let his death become hers too.”
Neither woman speaks for a while before Lexy pushes the glass of water closer.
“I watched her spend years trying to drown her grief in alcohol and sleeping pills. She wasn't trying to die. I don't think she even realized what she was doing at first. She just didn't know how to live anymore.”
Nora looks down at the whiskey. “Did it work?”
Lexy doesn't answer immediately. She waits until Nora looks up before answering.
“No.”
Her eyes drop to the glass. “It made things hurt less for a little while, I guess. But when it wore off, everything was still there.”
Nora stares at the amber liquid in her glass. “My husband used to say food tasted like memories.” Her voice is so quiet I almost don't hear it. “Now, I can't taste anything anymore.”
Something tightens in my chest.
She says it like someone talking about the weather, like she's accepted that's simply who she is now.
“Damn...” Dex mutters under his breath beside me. “She's one angry woman.”
“No.”
My eyes drift back to Nora.
The clenched jaw. The white-knuckled grip around the whiskey glass. The way she flinches every time someone laughs too loudly.
She may have everyone else thinking this is anger, but not me.
This isn't anger.
This is one big, scary shield protecting what's left of a life burned to the ground.
“She's terrified.”
Dex follows my gaze.
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He claps a hand on my back and goes back to serve another customer.
Lexy nods towards Nora’s whiskey. “You don't have to drink it.”
Nora stares at it for a long time before picking it up and downing it in one.
“Yeah, I do.”
***
