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Sheesh.
As soon as he was gone, she attempted to stand. Ouch. This was bad. Taking the bus was going to be painful. But she couldn’t sit here and wait for him to get back. She needed to go home and hide under the covers for about a week.
That would fix everything.
“What are you doing? Are you all right?” Chardonnay rushed into the room and grabbed her arm, helping her up.
“Not really. But I will be. Thanks for getting my stuff. I’m really sorry I messed everything up.”
“Girl, you were dancing like a dream. I couldn’t keep my eyes off you until . . .”
“Until I messed it all up. Story of my life.”
Chardonnay bit her lip. “Where did Grady go?”
“Lucy came and got him.”
Chardonnay’s lip curled. “Say no more.”
“I’m supposed to wait here.”
“Yeah?”
“But I don’t think I want to wait here.” Because with each moment that passed, with each flashback of her falling off the pole, she became more agitated.
“So what do you want to do?”
She chewed at her lip. What did she want to do? Lord, making decisions sucked sometimes. But she had to suck it up and make them. She was an adult. She was in charge of a child. Well, not so much a child since he was taller than she was and was fond of bossing her around.
Still, at thirty-five years old, it shouldn’t be this hard to make decisions.
“You want to leave?” Chardonnay asked kindly.
It was for the best, right? Grady was probably hoping that he’d return and find her gone. So, really, she was doing what he wanted.
That made her feel marginally better.
She nodded. “Yeah. I want to go.”
“I want to tell you that it doesn’t matter that you fell but I can see that it does,” Chardonnay murmured quietly.
“You’re very observant. And kind.”
Chardonnay shrugged. “At the end of the day, I’ve got to look myself in the mirror. I’m not always nice. I don’t always make the right choices, but I’m trying to be a better person.”
“Well, I think you’re awesome. But you’d be even better if you could show me where the back entrance to this place is.”
Chardonnay grinned. “You got it.”
Ten minutes later, Effie set out toward the bus station. It was only two blocks from Pinkies, so at least she didn’t have too far to walk. Just as well with the pain slicing through her.
She’d had to lie to Chardonnay and tell her that she’d parked down the street to get her to leave. The only reason Chardonnay hadn’t walked her to her fake car was because she had to get ready for tonight.
But she’d given Effie her phone number. So while everything else might have turned to shit tonight, at least she’d made a new friend.
That was never a bad thing, right?
What was a bad thing was the pain in her back, making her shuffle along, and the fact that she didn’t know what time the next bus came. And it was cold.
