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I contemplate saying yes for a moment, but then it hits me. The WOLO list had a drink on it. “Actually, can I get a Four Horsemen shot this time?”
“A what?” Kayla asks with such dramatic emphasis, as though I just asked to do a body shot off of Joe.
“You sure about that one, little miss? Those are pretty rough,” Joe explains. “I also can’t offer a No Regrets disclaimer with that one.”
I laugh. “That’s fair, but I’m sure. Thanks, Joe,” I say with a fake confidence knowing damn well I can’t handle liquor like that.
He offers a quick nod in agreement before making it. Kayla looks at me, “Wait what . . . a Four Horsemen? What the hell is that?”
“It’s this drink Summer and I used to think was so badass, but we always chickened out before taking it. It’s a shot with equal parts of the four J names: Jim Beam, John Jameson, Johnnie Walker, and Jack Daniels.”
Kayla’s jaw drops dramatically. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” I say.
After Joe drops off my Four Horsemen shot and Kayla’s ‘No Regrets,’ she raises her glass and says, “To us, Autumn. And to a great, unexpected girls’ night.”
Before I’m able to lift mine to meet hers, she drops her drink back down to the table. “Oh my God, you’ll never guess who’s heading over to you right now.”
I scoff. “Please tell me he’s not. Aside from us discussing his daughter’s progress in class, I really don’t have anything to say to him.”
“Wait, Riley is in your class this year?” she asks.
I nod before looking down at the giant shot in my hands.
“Oof. Well, that’s gonna be pretty awkward, for sure,” she says.
I wave my hand as if it’s no big deal, when in fact, my heartbeat completely disagrees. The very thought of him coming up to me is turning my stomach into a butterfly garden and sending my heart into a fistfight with my chest.
My head slowly turns as I pretend to flip my hair over my shoulder. I spot him in my peripherals. Wait—do I want him to talk to me? What could he possibly want to talk about? By the time I allow my head to complete the full turn, I catch him walking right past Kayla and me. With his back facing me now, I give my eyes permission to watch him. I watch as he strikes up a chat with the one and only DJ, who’s been hosting open mic and karaoke nights here for at least the past fifteen years. Maybe they’re good friends now. Not that it’s any of my business. I look back at Kayla, trying to force myself back to our conversation before Zayn rudely interrupted. Not to his knowledge, of course.
“Oh, never mind,” Kayla says. “I guess he isn’t coming over after all.”
I sigh with relief. “Thank God,” I say. “Okay, now where were we?”
She smirks before raising her glass to me again. “Cheers, babe.”
“Yes, cheers.” Our glasses clink, we set them down, and I swig back what’s probably the strongest, most painful shot of my adult life. The burning sensation flows down my throat and I cringe as if I just ate a whole lemon.
“Was it as bad as it looks?”
I grit my teeth and nod several times. I search for a chaser and quickly signal to Joe for some water. He laughs as he pours me a glass.
When the glass of water is in front of me, I push the straw to the side and act as though it’s a new shot with how fast I chug it.
“Note to self: do not take a Four Horsemen shot,” Kayla says.
My eyes squint from disgust at the thought of the drink again. “Girl, never again. I’m not even really much of a drinker except for Tito’s or the occasional glass of red.”
Kayla slowly sips her No Regrets, nodding along. She sets it down. “I get that. I’m starting to slow down myself, to be honest. Our thirties are right around the corner and all this drinking I’ve been doing over the course of my twenties is bound to catch up with me.”
“True that,” I say, reflecting on how my twenties have been pretty boring until now.
“So, where are you gonna be staying now that you’re back?” Kayla asks.
“At my parents’ beach house, actually. They’ve been fixing it up the past couple of years and were about to sell it. But now that plan has changed since I’ve decided to move back for a while.”
“Just a while?”
