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She pushes the glass up the table with both hands. “Well then, that’s my first and last time drinking whiskey. I’m more of a wine-slash-champagne-slash-give-me-something-fruity kind ofgirl.”
“Whiskey is stronger on the heart than champagne. You can’t go wrong with trying to forget with whiskey. I promise youthat.”
“In that case, order me another.” She pauses to wag her finger at me. “Wait, if it’s such a heart-mender, why aren’t you drinkingit?”
I shrug. “I planned on being good tonight withbeer.”
She holds her empty glass up. “I planned on champagne. If I’m drinking it, so areyou.”
I smile for what feels like the first time in months and hold my hand up to tell the bartender, Maliki, we need anotherround.
“This’d better work,” she says when Maliki drops off our drinks. She knocks the whiskey down like a pro, inhales a deep breath, and squints her eyes when it’s gone. “Shit, that one was evenstronger.”
“It’ll help. I promise.” I tap the table before draining mine. It burns as it goesdown.
“Do you miss her?” she asks out of nowhere, as if the question had been on the tip of her tongue allnight.
My jaw flexes. I’m surprised at her question. “Every fucking second of the day.” My honesty shocks me. I’ve shut down every conversation my family has tried to have with me about Lucy. “Do you misshim?”
“Every fucking second of the day, and I hate myself for it. I can’t stop missing the parts of him that weren’tterrible.”
Maliki, like he can read my mind, brings us another round. She takes another long drink, and I still in my chair, all of my attention on her while I wait for her to goon.
She scoffs, “This isnota conversation I thought I’d be having tonight. No one brings him up, for fear I’ll want him back if they mention hisname.”
I nod, a cloud of grief passing over me. I want to be mad that she’s complaining about losing someone she can take back at any second because I don’t have that option. I’d be irate, pissed, and ready to spit out fire if anyone else had said that tome.
But not withWillow.
I grip my glass and watch her take another sip of her drink. The strap of her green dress hangs off her shoulder, giving me a glimpse of the light freckles sprinkled along her pale skin. I’ve never looked at her,really seen her, until tonight. Her red hair is pulled into two tight buns at the top of her head, a few spirals of perfect curls falling out ofthem.
“How about we make a toast?” sheasks.
I hold up my glass. “To what are wetoasting?”
“To getting wasted. To going numb. Toforgetting.”
I like the way she thinks. “To drinking the pain away.” I tap my glass against hers. “Let’s drown oursorrows.”
We drink our pain away. We forget our troubles. Hell, we forget everything and everyone aroundus.
My brain isn’t functioning when I ask my next question. It would’ve never happened if I weresober.
“So, have you tried it out? Had a booty call with thisTinder?”
Chapter Six
Willow
I have to pee.
The bathroom is across the hall, only steps away, but I can’t go. I’m fake sleeping, and I have been for what feels like days. My muscles hurt. My head aches. As soon as Dallas leaves, I’m off Lauren’s couch, out of this town, and on my way back toCalifornia.
Even though my back is to him, I can sense him watching, his eyes slicing into my skin, hoping to cut answers out of me. He’ll end up empty-handed because I have nothing for him. My goal is to exhaust him with silence until he givesup.
What happened last night runs through my mind. I’ve never seen Dallas so angry andintense.
In an attempt to go back to sleep, I close my eyes, but my plan is ruined when it hits me. I nearly trip over him when I jump off the couch and race down the hall, straight to thebathroom.
