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Chapter Five
The next day,I stopped at the grocery store to grab a few things, and I found myself drifting toward the alcohol aisle. I didn’t drink much, just socially, but I couldn’t get the memory of the drink Esme had made for me out of my head. I put a random bottle of tequila in my cart and then went in search of the other ingredients.
On my way, I bumped into my third-grade teacher, the nurse at my doctor’s office, my mom’s lawyer, and I ended up having to hide from Wyatt and Emerald’s mom.
She and I had gotten pretty close when he and I had dated, and I missed her, but I couldn’t see her without wanting to tell her how much of a fucking fuck her son was. Like, it wasn’t her fault that he was the way he was, but I wondered if she ever talked to him about his behavior, or if she just let it go. Wyatt walked around with the kind of energy that everyone he’d ever encountered had let him get away with shit and he’d never been told no. Weird, because Em wasn’t like that at all. I guess I didn’t understand those kinds of sibling dynamics. I was an only child.
I thought I was safe, but then I got in line to check out and was putting my items on the conveyor belt and heard my name. Foolishly, I turned to find Katherine Witmer giving me a big smile that reminded me so much of Wyatt, it was like a punch in the chest.
“Hey,” I said. “Um, hi.” I forced my hands to keep putting things from my cart on the belt.
“How are you doing?” She seemed completely fine, which made me feel even more weird. I kept dropping things and I was so flustered that I was sure everyone could tell.
I wanted a hole to open up in the floor and suck me in. Why was this happening?
“I’m fine,” I said, because what else was I going to say?
“Good, good,” she said, and I noticed just a little bit of tightness around her eyes as she smiled at me again. “It’s nice to see you. Say hello to your mother for me.”
She’d been waiting behind me, but she got out of line to go to another register, which made me think she wasn’t as composed as I’d originally thought. Maybe she did know what her son was like?
Somehow, I got through the rest of the process without any further embarrassment, but it was a close thing. I really needed a vacation from my life.
* * *
“Saw your mom today,”I said later, when I was hanging out with Em. She also had the misfortune of still living with her parents (albeit in an apartment above the garage, but still), so she escaped to my house when she could.
“Yeah? Did she say anything?”
I set down the knife I’d been using to cut lime wedges for our drinks. I’d texted her earlier about making the drinks and she’d been game.
“I mean, not really. Then she kind of ran away, so it was weird for everyone involved.” I cringed.
“Ugh, I’m sorry. My brother sucks.”
I sighed. “Yeah, he does. I wish I would have seen it sooner.”
“Do you want me to give you an update on him?” She asked, leaning on the counter.
I had to think about that. “No. I don’t want to know.” I went back to cutting the limes.
“Okay, so we need to rim the glass, and then pour it in the right order,” I said. I had my phone propped up on the tequila bottle and Esme’s video playing on a loop.
“Can I do the salt part?” Em asked. “I don’t know why, but that seems like the most fun part.”
“Sure.” I let her add salt to the glasses and then poured everything in, mixed it, and added ice.
“I don’t have a shaker, so whatever,” I said. “I couldn’t find one in the store and there wasn’t time to order one.”
Em picked up her glass and I grabbed mine.
“Cheers,” I said. We both drank and it wasn’t the same as the one Esme had made me, but it was still good.
“Not bad,” I said. “If I’m not careful, I’ll drink this too fast.”
“Same. I have to drive home, so I should take it slow.”
We parked ourselves on my couch and Potato betrayed me to sit with Em and get ear rubs. I’d also brought over a tray of snacks for us to amuse ourselves with post-dinner.
