Kathleen waited.
“…then we did it again in her classroom. I asked her to dinner.”
“Before or after the second time?”
“After.”
She nodded slowly, putting down her glass and clasping her hands in front of her.
“You’re in love with her,” Kathleen said.
I actually laughed out loud at that, shaking my head. “Christ, Kathleen—no, I’m not in love with her. I hardly know her.”
“All the time I’ve known you, you’ve always said you don’t do locals,” she said. “She’s in your life—firmly in your life, she’s your kid’s teacher. Your kid already knows her, I assume likes her. That’s probably why you were attracted in the first place, right? Because she’s good with Nell.”
I was still shaking my head. “I thought you were an architect, but here I am getting the third degree. You with the FBI or something?”
“Wouldn’t that be a fun plot twist?” she asked. “But…no, I’m just good at reading people. Andyou, my friend, are in love.”
“If that’s the case—and that is a big, glaring,massiveif,” I said, “that sucks for me, because she said no to dinner. No to it all. Because she’s my daughter’s teacher and she just got out of a five-year relationship, and I’m a washed-up bartender wholives in a glorified shack and has a higher body count than most people in the state of Vermont.”
“Woe to all the poor, misled women who’ve taken you up on a good night,” she laughed. “Seriously, Nash? The self-flagellation is a bit absurd.”
“It’s not?—”
“It is.” She kept pressing me. “This girl, the teacher—you got together twice, right? What do you think that means?”
“That she was lonely and I was here.”
“You think that’s the only reason anyone ever fucks you?”
I opened my mouth…closed it again. Stared at her, then grabbed the bottle of whiskey to pour her another glass.
“Why am I getting relationship advice from my fuckbuddy right now?” I muttered.
“Because you’re in loveand someone has to be honest with you.”
I let out an exasperated sigh and walked away, taking an order from someone who had just walked in. The other bartender, Tess, was getting slammed.
And that’s when the door opened…and I realized that maybe Kathleen was right.
Because Maggie had just walked in, and it felt like my chest caved in when I figured out she was with another man.
They weren’t touching at all—just talking, walking together, walking over to a corner booth. She was also with the secretary from the school and some other guy, and the two of them came over to the bar…and sat right next to Kathleen.
Kathleen looked from me to Delia and back to me.
Her eyebrows went up and she took a long sip of her drink.
“What can I get for ya?” I asked.
“Three beers,” she said, “whatever’s good on draft.” Then she paused. “And whatever Maggie usually gets.”
I fixed my stare on her.
She smiled back.
“Screwdriver,” I said. “Heavy on the OJ.”
