“It’s the off season for scheduling anyway as school lets out. Let me know if something changes, but whatever is going on here … well, you know it’s not good, right? Maybe you just need a break. Find your passion again. We all need breaks sometimes, Ana. It’s going to be all right.”
Inhaling, I was about to launch myself into another argument. I could fix this. Only, obviously, I couldn’t. Feeling like a heavy rock was sitting on my chest, I nodded.
“I’ll give you a call to check in,” Kim said.
“I’d appreciate that,” I choked out.
“Get some rest.”
7
SUMMER
Ilaughed so hard by the end of trivia that I cried. Smears of glitter coated my cheeks, even after Dom tried to wipe them away. So many shots later, and the winner was announced by Brenson’s all too excited game-show-host voice, but neither of us paid attention. Neither of us had won.
Still, I rocked forward in my chair, pointing my finger at Dom. “See? I won. I’m the trivia champion.”
He laughed and shook his head, not bothering to correct me.
Now, what was I winning again?
For a moment, I thought the prize was how he smirked and glared at me, all at the same time. I leaned my head on my fist as I watched him down his shots for each category he had lost to me.
I pointed and laughed again—loudly. “HA!”
“You need to be quieter.” He reached out to grip my hand.
The warmth of his skin was all I needed to be completely silent. Two shots were placed in front of us.
“Well, what do you say, Ana? One for the ditch?” Dom asked.
“Is that where we plan to end up?” I was thinking of much better places as I looked at him. The diner across town for something more than limes to eat. On the river to watch the moon reflect off the water. My bed.
I looked at Dom’s lips as they pressed together, waiting for whatever else he thought I was about to say.
My bed sounds better.
I was supposed to be sworn off men. I was supposed to be sober from them. I was supposed to be a fierce, strong, independent woman who finally understood that she was powerful all by herself. But I already knew that. I’d known that for a few years now even if, deep down, I wanted to share that power with someone else. This life I had made for myself was meant to be beside someone else, someone who cared for me unlike any other in all the years prior.
I hadn’t found that someone yet, but that didn’t mean I didn’t deserve to take all that the universe offered me. And I wasn’t ready for this night to end.
I hadn’t had so much fun around anyone in ages, and it was nice. It was nice to talk to him. To be next to him. If only for a little while longer.
If the moon and stars allowed. And they did.
My heart thrummed loud in my chest. I leaned in closer to Dom, holding on to his shirt to find a bit of steadiness. I spoke so only he could hear my slightly slurred words. “If that’s where you think we should end up after tonight, you need to have a much better imagination.”
We lifted our small shot glasses.
Salt. Tequila. Lime.
As I stood up off the chair, maybe it wouldn’t be the desperate college girl who fell over tonight. She had left at some point along with half of the bar. It would be me, sprawled out on the sticky bar wood floor if Dom didn’t keep that hand right where he had it around my waist.
“You all right there, Sparkles?”
“Not if you are going to keep calling me that.”
Dom chuckled, leaning in closer to me. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was swaying with intoxication, because he was talking so low over the loudspeakers in the bar, or if it could just be intentional for me to feel his whispers caress my cheek with each syllable.
