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“No.”
“Oh, come on.” She pushed, and Rudy and Ash laughed from across the bar.
Ash laughed even louder. “Don’t be a crybaby, Logan. You lost the bet.”
I muttered, “You were right.”
She winked, and I glared back at her. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Chapter 6
Simone
Iopened my eyes, blinking a few times before I recognized the faded beige wall. Grand Rapids. Emmy’s apartment. Our apartment? That didn’t feel right to say yet. My things were in the room—granted, still in boxes. This wasn’t my room. It didn’t feel like home.
Not that much of anywhere was feeling like home in Detroit either. Not anymore. It had become the same thing every day. Waking up too late to get anywhere in time to order breakfast and spending my afternoons alone until I went to work, where I served expensive drinks to sorry patrons. It wasn’t exactly the dream life.
How was this any different?
It wasn’t all that different, but it was different enough not to have the daily reminders. My best friend had met some guy on a flight to Europe and never came back, and my parents both retired and couldn’t wait to travel the world. At least I’d had Chance, until he got a new job that let him travel. One that would supposedly change his life.
I was by myself when he was gone, though, and it was a constant reminder that everyone was moving on. Everyone had fallen in love or built exciting careers, and I was shutting down the bar each night. I was still doing that, but at least I was doing it somewhere else. Somewhere new.
With a groan, I tugged the thin blanket up and over my shoulder. I could feel the cold air through the cheap material and shivered. I would buy a better one, apparently sooner than I had planned to.
My eyes were heavy, and I kept my head on the pillow. If the construction crew next door that had woken me up weren’t there, I’d have fallen back asleep. The hammers and hollering were enough to drag me out of bed.
I stared out the window at the half-erected apartment building going in next door. At the time, it was just a shell with some wood framing where the walls would go and a bunch of middle-aged men in cut-off T-shirts. I shrugged when one looked up and saw me staring. I’d do him.
Otherwise, the view in Grand Rapids wasn’t any different from the view in my apartment in Detroit. Brick walls, spray-painted dumpsters, and cars parked along the street that thinned out during the day and sat bumper to bumper at night. At least Grand Rapids had the lake if I wanted to drive twenty minutes, which I probably wasn’t going to do often. I liked the option, though.
The people seemed nicer too. Most of them did. All but one. Why does Logan dislike me so much? I imagined I either reminded him of a sour ex-girlfriend or he was intimidated by me.
Laughing, I tugged my sweatshirt over my head and left the small room. Emmy was sitting in the living room with her nose buried in one of the dirty romance books she loved to read. It was a different book than the one she had been reading yesterday about the girl that fell in love with her best friend’s brother. I wondered who the main character was fucking this time and made a note to borrow it.
“Good morning, sunshine,” she said, closing her book and tossing it on the couch cushion next to her.
“Morning.” I dug through the cabinet for my mug, the one that had the butterflies on it. It was my favorite and the only one I’d brought with me to Grand Rapids.
I filled the mug with coffee, sticking my nose in the path of the steam that floated from it. It smelled like I was going to be able to get through the day. Emmy stared at me from the couch with her own mug settled between her hands.
“Are you doing anything today?” I asked her. She was Chance’s friend, and she was nice enough to let me move into her open room with basically no notice. The least I could do was get to know her. “I need to go get a couple of things. I thought maybe you’d want to go with me?”
You would think I’d offered her a trip to Cabo with the way her face lit up. Sitting up on the couch, she tossed her blanket off her. “Shopping? I am so in.”
“I only need a new comforter. It gets as cold as fuck in there at night.” I pointed to my room, and she laughed.
“Yeah, the windows suck here. We can find a space heater too, and maybe some warmer pajamas.” Emmy pointed to the shorts that bared my legs and the tank top that could barely be considered a full shirt. “Oh, and I saw this set of throw pillows on sale last week. I want to go back and get them.”
My roommate clapped and jumped up from the couch, and my stomach turned. I scanned the living room, noting the set of light-gray couch pillows that already lined the small sofa. There were brightly colored pictures lining the wall, and colorful blankets were littered across the furniture. I knew we would be coming back with pillows just as colorful.
Without another word, Emmy scurried off to her room to get ready, and I took a desperate gulp of the bitter, hot liquid. I was going to need a lot more of this to get through the day.
“Lord help me,” I said, swallowing the final gulp.
Chapter 7
Logan
