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“No, thanks.”
He looked back at his companion and she smiled, sweetly, cocking her narrow shoulder out.
“You’re sure?” Barrett asked, appearing reluctant to let me pass.
“Positive. I was just leaving.” Before he could stop me, I said, “Have fun on your date.”
Walking past him, I reached the elevators and paused. Barrett returned to his table, but he didn’t sit down. He said something to the woman and she pouted. Then he was coming toward me again.
“Come on,” I hissed, poking the call button of the elevator. But Barrett got there first. He stood silently at my side and I looked up at him. “What are you doing?”
“Going with you.”
“Aren’t you on a date?”
He shrugged. “I told her we’d reschedule.”
The elevator arrived and we each stepped in. Neither of us said anything on the entire journey to the ground floor. When we hit the sidewalk he kept pace silently at my side.
“You didn’t have to come with me,” I said, annoyed by his company. “I don’t even know where I’m going.”
“Have you had dinner?”
“No.” But I still wasn’t hungry. This no appetite thing was uncharted territory for me.
“I know a place up here.” He led me around the corner and we popped into a bustling pub.
The blue lit restaurant was simple with brick walls, a varnished bar, and beers on tap. The air smelled of burgers and fries so I didn’t object when he asked for a table for two.
“We’ll start with a round of shooters,” he told the waiter. “Bring us your best tequila.”
“You’re feeling ambitious.”
“I don’t feel like playing guess the mood. In my experience, tequila’s the fastest way to get a woman bitching about her problems. And you look like you have something on your mind you need to bitch about.”
“I don’t need to bitch.”
“Sure.”
Thirty minutes later I was three shots deep, hunched over a plate of sweet potato fries spilling my guts.
“He just dropped that bomb on me, like he was talking about a sort of coffee pot he owned or a pair of boots he liked.”
“So you have sisters. Why is that necessarily a bad thing?”
“I do not have sisters. I have a father who abandoned me to live his best life in Pennsylvania with his new family since his old one didn’t meet his standards for whatever fucking reason.”
“Did he give you a reason for leaving?”
“He said Oregon never felt right.” I shoved a fry in my mouth. “We could have moved! As a family!”
The waitress approached, but before she could interrupt my meltdown, Barrett swirled his finger in the air silently ordering another round. “I’m sorry he disappointed you.”
I scoffed and flopped back in my seat. “It’s not even him. I expected this to be complicated and emotional. It’s everything else.”
“Are things okay with you and Hale?”
I waved a hand. “We’re fine.” When he waited for me to go on, I confessed, “Elle and I had a fight. A big one.” I held out my hands like I was measuring a trout, then extended them as far as my arms could reach. “Huge.”
