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“Right this way.” Martha grabbed two menus and led me past the growing crowd to our favorite booth in the back. “Steve will be right with you.”
“Thanks, Martha. You’re the best.” I slid into the booth, smiling in appreciation of her kindness. It had been a long few days since I’d returned from the cruise, and the last thing I needed was to stand by anxiously in a crowd wondering when we might get to eat. Since I’d left Sitka, eating had been my friend. It was stupid to try to drown my sorrows in junk food, but that was my MO, and there was no sense in trying to change it now.
I’d been perusing the menu for a few minutes when Lucy dropped down into the booth across from me. “Good grief. When did this place get so popular?” She looked frazzled, but that was nothing new. After a long day at the office, she always seemed rattled. Yet another reason why I appreciated the fact that I got to work from home. If I looked like a mess, no one needed to know it but me.
“Thankfully, Martha snuck us in,” I told her just as Steve came over to take our drink order. Lucy ordered her favorite martini, and I did the same. I needed some alcohol in my life—just like I needed something greasy chased by something full of sugar.
“Well?” she asked as soon as he’d walked away. “When do I get to hear the story?”
I stared at her blankly for a long moment, not sure what she was getting at. “What story? I have no story. Work. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. That’s my story.”
Lucy rolled her eyes and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Bullshit. You still haven’t told me all the details about your handsome lover.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “That’s not what that was, and you know it,” I reminded her. “He was just a guy I spent the night with. Nothing more.” I inadvertently glanced at my phone for the four thousandth time since I’d said goodbye to Beau. I knew it was a long shot that he might call me, but I couldn’t help but hope that he would. Or at least send a text. Didn’t he even want to make sure I’d gotten home all right? I was a loser, and I knew it. Why couldn’t I just accept the situation for what it was and file it away as a lovely memory?
“Girl, you’re so hung up on him, it’s not even funny.” Lucy shook her head, making me feel even more pathetic.
Steve arrived with our drinks, giving me a short reprieve while I tried to come up with something to say in response to her accusation that would sound even slightly believable. I had nothing.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now,” I told her, continuing to lament my failed fling. “He’s a bazillion miles away, probably happily going on with his rich life while I sit here in this restaurant with you thinking I’m never going to get laid again, so at least the last time was a good one.”
Lucy’s grin widened as she took a sip of her drink. “When do I get to hear the details of that?”
I opened my mouth and closed it. As much as I’d like to go over all of that again with someone just for my own pleasure, I respected Beau too much to let the intimate details of our private encounter become the public knowledge of my best friend and anyone else who might be listening in. So my one-word answer was, “Never.”
Lucy wrinkled her nose up at me. “You’re no fun,” she muttered, sipping her drink through her straw. “What are you eating anyway?”
I was torn between getting a big greasy cheeseburger with onion rings and seafood. I’d never been one to go for fish when I had other options, despite living in Seattle. But ever since my excursion in Sitka, I’d been leaning a little more toward the same kinds of dishes I’d eaten there.
“I’m not sure,” I said, trying to buy more time to decide. “What are you having?”
“Argh,” Lucy lamented, staring at the menu as she tapped her chin with one long fingernail. “My stomach is telling me to get the steak, but my thighs are telling me it’s time for a salad.”
“Please.” I wanted to reach across the table and smack her. “You could go over to the hostess’s station right now and blend in with the other toothpicks.”
Lifting her eyes, Lucy stared at me for a second before she burst into uncontrollable laughter. “Good one, Georgia. But seriously, I’ve been so busy at work this week, I haven’t had a chance to work out much at all. We need to go on another hike.”
“Why? You got a client who wants to give you another great prize? Like maybe taking a nice dip in an active volcano or skydiving over the Andes with no parachute?” It was my turn to eyeball her as I took another drink of my beverage, starting to feel the effects go to my head.
My friend only grinned at me. “Lighten up, Georgia. You ended up having a good time, didn’t you?”
“No thanks to you,” I retorted.
“If it wasn’t for me, you never would’ve met Handsome Rich Guy, now would you have?” She shrugged and went back to the menu. She wasn’t wrong. I just didn’t want to give her any of the credit.
“It doesn’t matter now. Handsome Rich Guy has probably moved on. He hasn’t even sent me a text to see how I’m doing.” I couldn’t stop the loud sigh that came out with my next exhale.
Lucy’s sympathetic look made me feel even worse. “Has he responded to any of your texts?”
Before I could answer her, Steve was back to take her order. Lucy ordered a salad with chicken, and I ordered surf and turf—the best of both worlds. She gave me the same sort of look my mother used to whenever I’d eat a second piece of dessert. At the moment, I didn’t care.
“Well, has he?” she repeated.
“Oh, no,” I said. “He hasn’t responded to any of my texts.” That was the truth.
“Then fuck him,” she said with an irritated tone. “If he can’t answer a damn text, you don’t need him in your life anyway.”
“That would be true if I had sent him any,” I admitted, looking around the restaurant. A few nearby tables held happy couples. It made me sick to my stomach to see them gazing at one another lovingly.
