AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh no, this is nothing.” She moves farther into the room, taking a seat in one of the chairs across the desk from me. “I wanted to see if you were busy this evening.”
“I... Um... Why?” I don’t try to hide that her question confuses me.
“Well, you’re new here, and truth be told, I don’t have a lot of friends outside of Remi...” The mention of his name causes my heart to kick against my ribcage as if reminding me the bitch is still in there beating, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like it anymore. “I was hoping maybe we could go out after work, have a drink. Well, I mean, I can’t drink, but you can,” she rambles. “It’s totally fine if you don’t want to. I know it’s super last-minute.”
While my first instinct is to immediately say no, I know I can’t keep hiding away from life. Eventually, I’m going to have to just bite the bullet and get back out there to start living it again. Besides, we work together, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have people you can lean on, especially in a job like this. It also doesn’t hurt that sheisbest friends with a certain someone that I can’t deny I’m rather curious about.
“Actually, I’d like that,” I cut in before she can keep going.
“Really?” She seems surprised.
“Like you said, I’m new here, and honestly, if I don’t find some friends soon, I’m worried my aunt is going to start dragging me to bingo night just to get me out of the house.” Not a completely false statement either.
At this, she smiles.
“Okay, great. So after work, say six?”
“Six works.”
“I’ll meet you in the lobby? There’s this great little pub down the street. It’s family-owned, and they have the absolute best drink menu.”
“Sounds great.”
“Awesome.” She hesitates before pushing to a stand. “So I guess I’ll see you then.”
“Yep.” I nod, strangely nervous and yet also kind of excited.
I can’t remember the last time I went out for drinks.
“Awesome,” she repeats a second time before exiting my office.
“So how do you likeD.C. so far? You said you moved here...” Aspen leaves the question open, waiting for me to fill in the gap.
“Almost three months ago.” I lift the straw to my lips, taking a small sip of the fruity cocktail that I can’t remember the name of.
When the bartender asked me what I wanted, I told him to pick for me. I’m not a big drinker, outside of the occasional glass of wine, but I know I like fruity things, so I figured that would be a safe bet, and I was right. It really is delicious, though based on how much alcohol I can taste, I will most definitely only be having the one.
“And you said you live with your aunt?”
“Yes, Yiya.”
“Yiya?” She arches a brow, taking a drink of her water.
I felt weird ordering a cocktail when she can’t drink but did it anyway because I was hoping it would help me relax. So far, it seems to be somewhat working. I certainly don’t feel nearly as anxious as I did walking into this place a few minutes ago.
“Myra.” I smile. “I couldn’t properly pronounce her name when I was little. I would try to say Myra and I guess it always came out as Yiya and it just kinda stuck.”
“I know how that goes. My son can’t say ketchup to save his life. To him, it’s chebutt. So now, everyone in my house calls ketchup chebutt.” Her entire face lights up as she speaks of her son.
“He’s two, right?”
“Yes. And Gracie is three months old.”
“You’ve got your hands full,” I needlessly point out.
“That’s an understatement.” She snorts. “But I love every second of it. I never thought I wanted to be a mom, but now... Now I can’t imagine my life without them.”
“And your husband, is he a good dad?”
