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I said nothing. I just nodded and left.
Back in the car, I drove home, but couldn’t make myself pull into the driveway. The idea of going inside, into my new condo, alone was more than I could bear. I circled the block a few times before heading to Rook’s. Fuck, I could practically hear Desmond’s voice in my head.“Please don’t go Full-Zoe over this. Just because you’re upset doesn’t mean you get to go to a bar and get wasted. Deal with your problems like an adult.”
I practically sped into the parking lot and walked inside, heading straight for the bar, locking eyes with the short-haired bartender.
But, of course,who was sitting there on a barstool, front and center?
Hot neighbor guy.
Hot neighbor guy who made it clear that he didn’t want to be friends.
Fine.
“Double vodka cranberry,” I ordered.
I could feel Carter’s eyes on me, but I ignored him until he turned all the way around to face me.
“You look like…”
“I look like a woman drinking off a fucking horrible day. Either join me or shut up,” I clapped back. I turned my attention to my drink and took it down in two long swallows. I was giving him the mother of allfuck offvibes, but Carter was determined to make his presence known.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Why do you care? You don’t want to know about my life.”
To his credit, he looked genuinely sorry. He cocked his head to one side and lowered his gaze. Sorry was an alarmingly good look on him. I’d bet good money he’s gotten make up sex from that look.
“I’m sorry I said it like that,” he told me. “I…”
“You just told the truth. I was yammering on about my kid and my ex and myaggressively mid-thirtiesproblems. My life bores you and you want to go on with your young, hot guy life and your young, hot guy problems.”
I was pushing him away. I was going to push him away before he had the chance to do it to me. I just hope he got the hint before he realized that I called himhottwice in under a minute.
But he wasn’t going anywhere. “Try me. I promise my young, hot guy mind can handle it.”
I reached for the second drink. The first one was hitting me hard, considering I hadn’t had much time to eat today. Man, my alcohol tolerance was pretty low these days. Gone was Party Zoe who could mainline mixed drinks like they were going out of style. In her place was a woman who wore vomit-crusted scrubs to a bar because she was too lazy to change and got wasted off one and a half vodka crans. Sasha was rightThen-Zoe would laugh atNow-Zoe so hard. And probably kick her out of the party.
I felt the tears come and abandoned my second cocktail before I became Crying Drunk Girl. I took at deep breath and met Carter’s eyes. I didn’t want to give him a chance to catch me crying.
“You really want to know?” I snapped.
He didn’t. I knew he didn’t. I was giving him the opportunity to leave. He could just go ahead, dismiss me as his crazy dramatic neighbor lady and go on with his night. But, to my surprise, he looked me in the eye and said, “Lay it on me.”
Six
Carter
“And the worst part is… he’s right,” Zoe said. She held her second cocktail in her hand but didn’t drink it. She fiddled with the straw, talking more to the little piece of plastic than to me. “A couple more years and I won’t be able to help Rex with his homework. I almost feel like… like he’ll outgrow me. He won’t need me anymore. He’ll only need Desmond.”
“And you think he’ll lose respect for you or something?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s already called a few of his classmatesplebeiansfor not reading at the same level as him or something.”
“What the fuck is aplebeian?” I asked with a snort.
“I don’t know. A not-smart person, apparently. Me.”
I typed the word into my phone and read the definition. “Apparently, it meanscommoner. Ora commoner in Ancient Rome.”I nodded. “Wow, your kid is smart. Insults that reference Ancient Rome. That’s… that’s advanced.”
