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“Of course, I was laughing too hard to really notice the pain, and he’s been using me as his personal bodyguard ever since,” Alex says, concluding the story.
Lucy shakes her head. “I don’t think I have a single friend who would take a punch for me—willingly or unwillingly.”
“Get you some better friends, girl.” Alex finishes his drink and claps me on the shoulder. “I gotta go man, I’m exhausted and Taylor’s at home waiting for me.”
I nod. “See you later, tell Taylor I said hey.”
“Will do. It was nice meeting you, Lucy.” Alex smiles at her. “I’ve heard quite a bit about you.”
Lucy raises her eyebrows at me, but just smiles at Alex. “It was nice meeting you too, Alex.”
Alex throws a twenty on the bar and then heads out the door, his phone already pressed to ear, no doubt calling his wife. I’ve always been a little jealous of Alex and Taylor’s relationship, how easy they are with each other. Mostly, I’m jealous that Alex looked at Taylor one day in college and just instantly knew he would marry her. He was nineteen, Taylor was eighteen. They got married a year later.
“He seems nice,” Lucy says quietly. “And like he really cares about you. It must be nice to have a friend like that.”
I look over at Lucy and bump my knee against hers. “What about the blonde?”
She sighs. “You mean Allie?”
“Whomever the girl you walked in with is. I recognize her as the same girl who picked you up from your dad’s funeral.”
Lucy shrugs and picks at some wood at the bar. I look over her shoulder at the group she left, all of them are laughing and talking like she wasn’t even there to begin with. Well, all of them except the rich kid. He’s gone.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Allie’s a good friend. Anytime I’ve needed her, she’s been there. But she just doesn’t get why I’m not bouncing back to the same girl I was before my dad died. We were supposed to be celebrating tonight, but she found a way to make it all about her. Not that that’s a new occurrence, that’s usually how things go. It’s just that, Lucy Before would have let it slide and went along with it, Lucy After didn’t let it go so easily.”
“Lucy Before?” I ask. “Lucy After?”
She looks up at me with an embarrassed smile and my heart does a funny little flip. God, this girl has apparently taught my heart how to do somersaults, because it never seems to beat normally when she looks at me.
“That’s how I refer to myself now. Lucy Before my dad died and Lucy After. Sometimes they’re not so different, and sometimes I feel like a completely different person.”
“I get it.” I nod. “I’m not the same guy I was before my mom died. Losing a parent changes you in a lot of ways, it makes you grow up a little faster and changes your priorities.”
“Exactly. And for the first time in months, I was genuinely excited about something tonight, and I was excited to get out of my house and celebrate it with Allie. But she turned it into something else entirely and I just . . . I don’t know. I kind of lost it.”
“What were you excited about celebrating?” I asked, bumping my knee with hers again.
She blushes slightly. “It seems silly now.”
“Hey”—I reach out and lay my hand on her arm, causing her to look up at me—“it’s not silly if it makes you excited and happy.”
“I got a job. I start next week,” she says slowly, like she’s waiting for me to downplay it.
“Lucy!” I grin. “That’s awesome! What kind of job is it?”
She bites her lip and starts picking at the bar again. I have the urge to cover her hand with mine, but I put mine in my lap instead.
“It’s going to sound a little hypocritical and lame, so don’t laugh.”
“I would never,”
“I’ll be a receptionist . . . at a doctor’s office.”
My immediate reaction is picturing her hair down and a pair of dark-rimmed glasses, a pen between her teeth as she picks up a phone. I swallow and stop bumping my knee with hers.
“I am definitely not laughing.” I clear my throat.
