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Wren wordlessly gets another bottle of beer out of the cooler, twists the top off, and hands it to me. The silence lasts long enough to start being uncomfortable.
“No one has anything to say about the demise of my two-year relationship or the fact that my boyfriend was cheating on me and took his whore on my dream vacation?”
Tess raises one of her hands high above her head like she’s a reporter at a press conference, waiting to be called on.
“Yes, Ms. Bennett, question from one of your oldest and most sacred friends who you cannot tell a lie to. I have to say I find it quite curious you led with the devastation of losing your vacation and not with the devastation of losing your relationship.” She smirks, lowering her hand into her lap.
“That’s not a question,” I mutter in annoyance.
“Still quite fun to say out loud when I’ve been thinking it for a few minutes.” She smiles. “And good riddance. Bradley was a twat.”
“I don’t hate many people, but I hated him.” Wren nods.
“Seriously, you guys? Can I at least get some time to mourn him?”
“You’ve had two weeks, and you didn’t even need those.” Tess rolls her eyes. “You did not love Bradley. You were never going to love Bradley. You saw him maybe twelve times in the last two years and only had sex with him a handful of lackluster times. You spent the last two weeks being sad, because you didn’t get to go to Hawaii, and you told us Bradley cheated on you like it was an afterthought. You don’t care about Bradley. No offense, but we don’t care about Bradley, and we’d much rather talk about Putz and if he can still make you tingle in places that only tingle when you fire up your vibrator.”
Tess wags her eyebrows, Wren giggles, and I feel my cheeks get hot and know they’re turning pink when just thinking about the guy, now that I’ve seen him in the flesh again, makes me squirm on top of the table and rub my thighs together.
Stupid, Putz!
“None of us will be drunk riding our bikes into the fishing pond in Summersweet Park tonight, and then calling me at three in the morning because you forgot you drunk-rode your bikes into the pond and need my help finding them, will we?”
The three of us look up when we hear my mom’s voice as she walks toward us, eyeing all the empty beer bottles littered on top of our picnic table until she’s standing in front of us with her arms crossed. Mom keeps her wavy blonde hair cut short to right above her shoulders with layers for extra bounce, but the three of us share the same bright blue eyes, and hers are now looking at us all judgey-like.
“That was one time, Laura, and we learned to never drink hard liquor mixed with blue-raspberry slush on Sip and Bitch night again after that, so it really provided a very valuable lesson,” Tess informs her as my mom lifts one of her eyebrows and the corner of her mouth twitches. “Beer only for us girls. It keeps us off the streets and out of ponds.”
“I really miss that bike. It was teal and had a white basket.” Wren sighs.
“Everyone okay?” my mom asks, taking a turn looking at each of us, but definitely spending a longer time on me.
I’m sure she already knows just as much as the rest of the island does right about now. I give her a smile so she knows I’m okay, even though I’m not really sure I am at this point in time.
Leaning in, Mom gives each of us a kiss on the top of our heads before stepping back and pulling the keys to her golf cart out of the black apron she still has tied around her waist.
“I’ll leave you three to your toast. If you could put the garbage in the dumpster for me, that would be wonderful.”
We say goodnight, wait until we hear her golf cart putter to life on the other side of the building, and wave to her as she zooms by to head home to her cottage before we end the evening.
“It’s late, and I have another early shift tomorrow morning,” Tess says, hopping off the table. “I have like, a thousand questions I want to ask your tight-lipped face right now, but it’s gonna have to wait, because I’m exhausted. This week, I’m sucking it up, because it’s been far too long since I’ve gotten decently laid.”
Wren groans, and I just laugh, because Tess seems to suck it up about this frequently.
“I’m sucking it up this week, because Owen is finally passing math, but now his baseball coach says he has an attitude problem at practice.” Wren sighs.
