Page 99 of Love Felt Like This

“What about you?” she volleys back.

“I’ve never…hmm. I don’t know. I’ve done a lot, Beverly. I won’t lie. I got my start in bars. Got way too drunk every night and embarrassed myself too much. Did a lot of things I’ll never remember and a lot of things I’ll never forget.”

“Interesting.”

“Are you judging me?” I joke.

“No!” Her eyes widen. “No. I just…you’re not alone in that. I’ve done stuff I’m not proud of too. Maybe not the same, but I get it.”

“I find it hard to believe you’ve ever been arrested.”

She gasps. “Have you?”

“Shoplifting,” I answer. “I stole an ashtray once.”

“Thief.”

I shrug. “It was pretty, and I was a sixteen-year-old rebel. Honestly, that was kind of a trend.”

“Did you even smoke?” Beverly asks.

“Like a chimney.”

“Really?”

“What about you?” I ask. “Any arrests?”

She freezes, then raises her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “Uh…no, not really.”

I pause. Her eyes avoid mine.

“Go on,” I coax.

Beverly bites her lip. “I’ve only gotten in deep trouble one time. I was suspended from a school play. My senior play. Last one. It was devastating.”

“Why?”

“I…me and…Beau—”

“The butt.”

She huffs out a laugh at my jab, but it fades to a groan.

“What happened, Bev?”

“Well…we had”—she glances at Ava, then censors—“S-E-X in the sound booth. And got caught.”

My lips twitch, and she gives me a sheepish smile—the one with her beautiful pink cheeks growing pinker by the second.

“Beverly Alice Lark.”

“We were eighteen and reckless. So I got suspended and didn’t perform in my very last high school production.”

“I’m sure they missed their golden boy, too, huh?”

“Oh, no. He was the lead in the play that year, so he didn’t get in a lot of trouble. They couldn’t afford to lose their Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors.”

And just as quickly as I was intrigued, I’m irritated. I scoff.