"To mermaids," Lauren says, holding up her beer.
"To a woman who tears my brother's interest away from bass fishing," Nat retorts.
We all clink glasses and drink. "I dunno about that. Anyway, we're just friends."
The raised eyebrows and small smiles tell me that these women think otherwise. Which makes me giggle. I miss having girlfriends, since I'd had so many at the park. But because I didn't want Brent to know where I was going, I'd told only one woman where I was headed, and she'd promised to keep my new location a secret.
For the next half hour, we talk about the bar and what I'm going to do with it. Turns out that Lauren has a huge social media presence and is teaching local businesses how to leverage Instagram. Mermosa is tailor-made for social media, she tells me.
"Let's do a video where you teach me how to swim as a mermaid," she squeals.
"I love that! Yes."
"I just created a whole social media calendar for another business here. Have you heard of Salty Sadie's Pirate Cruise?"
I nod. "I've seen the brochures around town."
Lauren talks excitedly about what she did for Sadie Greco, and I notice that Isabella's taken out what looks like a T-shirt.
"We could do the photo shoot here," she says to Kate. "The white walls would be a great backdrop."
Everyone turns toward Isabella. "What are you taking photos of?" I ask.
She holds up the small shirt, which is printed to look like a tuxedo. "We were going to put Steve in this shirt and take photos. It's Ginger Hastings' birthday, the mom of all of them," she gestures at the other women, "and we thought we could put him on the party invite."
I burst out laughing. "Does he like dog clothing?"
"Steve likes whatever people like. He's quite an amenable little man," Isabella answers.
"You know, I recently saw another funny dog costume on Facebook." I point to the coffee shop bag.
"Tell us," Natalia says.
"Hang on. I think I have the other props." I get up and walk behind the bar. It doesn't take me long to grab scissors, tape, a long rubber band, a hole punch, and a clean, white, plastic, coffee lid.
I set them on the table in front of the four women. "I'm kind of into stationery, so I have a lot of craft tools," I say.
They nod. "We are your people," replies Lauren. "I've become a planner addict."
"Can I have the café bag?" I ask.
Isabella hands it to me. Over the next fifteen minutes, I explain the dog costume that I saw online, and by the time we're putting it on Steve, we're laughing uncontrollably.
The door swings open, and we all look up.
"Well, well. Look who it is. My little brother." Natalia's settling the coffee cup on Steve's head, like a hat.
"Well, well, well, what's happening here?" Remy grins and walks to the table. I open the final beer and hand it to him.
"Thanks. Oh, no. No. What are you doing to that poor dog?" He looks down at Steve.
I giggle. "He's a..." I can't talk because I'm laughing so hard. Remy puts his hand on the small of my back.
"He's a Pug-kin..." Kate rests her head on the table in hysterics.
Lauren sets the dog on his feet. She's wrapped the paper bag around his midsection so that the coffee cup logo is on his back. The lid is perched on his head. He looks up with his adorable, bulging eyes.
"A Pug-kin spice latte," she says through her cackles.
