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Chapter 9 - Ethan: Let It Loose
I shouldn’t have come. I should have just grabbed my keys away from her and told her to leave. I should have told her that I didn’t want to go anywhere with her let alone to a town two hours away.
But here I was letting her drive my car. I would be lying if I said a part of me didn’t like the idea of getting far away from Riverroad. Would I have preferred to come alone? Maybe, but I didn’t mind Lily’s company.
She was a bit nosy at times, but she understood when to lay off. She didn’t push me like Grayson and Jade.
“You know,” Lily filled the silence, “you were a real dick this week. I know you are my boss and what not, but you were really unbearable.”
“I know.” I continued to stare out the window. “Sorry about that.”
“Huh.”
“What?” I turned to look at her. Her eyes were still trained on the road, but she had removed her hair from the bun she had tied it in. I remembered her hair being blonde. The brown still looked good on her, but the blonde was better.
“I didn’t think you would admit it. I thought, after telling you, you would yell at me again. You are worse than a woman during her period.”
My lips twitched upward slightly, but I didn’t say anything to her comment. I had been a real prick to her recently and she hadn’t deserved that. I had allowed my issues with Jade to seep into other areas of my life.
“So, what exactly will we be doing in Amberbay?”
“Today you get to pretend to be whoever you want to be. It’s a Friday and I am sure we can find a good bar to go to, but I was thinking maybe we should go and get something to eat first. How does that sound?”
I shrugged. This was her plan. I was just coming along for the ride.
“Do you still paint?”
I snapped my neck in her direction. I was surprised I didn’t click something. “How did you know that I used to paint?”
She spared me a quick glance before she turned back to face the road. The heat rose to her cheeks, tinting her face a gentle pink.
“You told me. It was a long time ago, but you said something about it to me one night. You even promised to show me one of your paintings, but you never ended up showing me.”
“That doesn’t sound like me at all.” I turned away from her, back to the view of the passing trees. “Anyway, I don’t paint anymore. It’s a thing of the past.”
Lily didn’t say anything else. We continued to drive in silence.
The last time I had painted anything was just before my mom got sick. After that I hadn’t picked up a brush or pencil ever again.
After another hour or so in the car, we stopped in front of a diner with the name Bishop’s in large obnoxious neon lights.
“Come on,” she hopped out of the car.
I followed her, taking in my surroundings. I had only been to Amberbay once in my entire life, and that was only because I was passing through. The town was a little bigger than Riverroad, but it still held that small-town charm.
We walked into the diner and immediately, I was reminded of Pop pop’s. Did all diners have the same template or was this just a small-town thing?
“Hey there,” a woman with big blonde hair and too much make up greeted us. “You two need a table.”
“Yes, please,” Lily replied, practically bouncing on her feet.
“Great, follow me.” She swayed in an exaggerated way, and her perfume was way too strong. She picked up two menus from the stand and ushered us to a booth.
Lily and I settled into the booth and took the menus from her.
“My name is Anne, and I will be your server today. Can I start you guys off with anything to drink?”
I browsed over the menu and quickly came to the conclusion that everything on the menu was either a heart attack waiting to happen or diabetes.
